Counterpoint

London Concert Choir and the renowned Counterpoint ensemble round off their season with Baroque music by Purcell and Handel. Dido and Aeneas, Purcell’s only true opera, was first performed around 1689. The plot is very loosely based on an episode from Virgil’s Aeneid, in which Dido, Queen of Carthage, falls in love with the Trojan hero Aeneas. In despair when he abandons her, she sings the famous Lament “When I am laid in earth” and dies of a broken heart. The choir makes a major contribution to this concert performance as courtiers, witches and sailors. Handel’s Dixit Dominus (The Lord Said) is a dramatic setting of the Latin text of Psalm 110. It dates from 1707, when the young composer was living in Italy, and is his earliest surviving composition. Regarded as one of Handel’s finest works, Dixit Dominus provides an exhilarating experience for singers, players and audience alike.