The Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists will bring Henry Purcell’s opera to Greenwich audiences from beneath the hull of Cutty Sark this May, writes Romilly Schulte…
Audiences on 21 May will watch performances of Dido & Aeneas beneath the suspended ship, which is the world’s only surviving tea clipper; the venue’s unique acoustics and evocative surroundings are set make for an immersive backdrop to Purcell’s drama of love and loss.
The 17th century baroque opera is based on Book IV of Virgil’s Aeneid, a Roman epic that recounts the tragic love of Dido, Queen of Carthage, for the Trojan Hero Aeneas, which will play out anew in this unique drydock production.
Dido & Aeneas is one of the first English operas written after the form became popularized through the Italian Renaissance and now, under Andrew Staples’ direction, will incorporate Purcell’s Funeral Sentences, a collection of compositions written for the funeral of Queen Mary, founder of Greenwich’s Royal Hospital of Seamen.
Andrew Staples said: “Cutty Sark offers a setting where Purcell’s world will feel astonishingly close. Beneath its suspended hull, the tensions at the heart of Dido & Aeneas – love and duty, arrival and departure, hope and loss – will gain a new immediacy. We hope to draw the audience into that emotional tide, allowing the space itself to become part of the storytelling.”
Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras (MCO) is a charitable organisation named after early opera composer Claudio Monteverdi and supported by HM The King.
MCO leads in productions of period performances with their 2026 season beginning with a performance of J S Bach’s St John Passion in St-Martin-in-the-Fields; it also boasts a discography of over 150 recordings of choral, classical and operatic works.
The cast, conducted by Jonathan Sells, features internationally-acclaimed leading soloists Karima El Demerdasch and Hubert Zapiór, from the Komische Oper Berlin, as Dido and Aeneas, who will be joined by Johanna Wallroth and Bethany Horak-Hallett.
Cutty Sark regularly offers events aboard and beneath the ship, such as outdoor film screenings and theatrical performances, and has previously hosted similar musical concerts beneath its copper hull, including a series from the Philharmonia Orchestra and a concert by Fairport Convention in 2024.
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Tickets for the opera will include early entry so that audiences can explore the ship before performances starts.
There will be two performances on Thursday 21 May at 7pm and 9pm; adult tickets start at £40 and can be purchased here.
