In the love story between Dido and Aeneas, worlds collide: Aeneas as the forefather of Christian Rome and Dido, ruler in Tunisia, coming from Levantine culture. This encounter aims to be musically traced in this performance. The baroque music from Henry Purcell's opera "Dido and Aeneas," interpreted by the ensemble Teatro del mondo with Anna Herbst in the title role, is contrasted by Rita William, Saif Al-Khayyat, and Nora Thiele with classical Arabic music for vocals, oud, and percussion. They want to focus on the elements of music that connect the world even today. In Arabic classical music, as in the Baroque, poetry, drama, spiritual and secular themes, spirituality, and unrequited love play a significant role. Here as there, everything is always thought from the perspective of affect, and individual scales are assigned to particular human emotional states. And in both practices, improvisation and embellishment are important musical means.

Cast:

Anna Herbst – Soprano Rita William – Vocals Saif Al-Khayyat – Oud Nora Thiele – Percussion Teatro del mondo

Program:

Henry Purcell (1659–1695): Excerpts from "Dido and Aeneas." Opera in 3 acts Libretto by Nahum Tate based on the "Aeneid" of Virgil "Ya Mahla Al-fusha," "Billadi askara" and "Tajfi wa tasel li’aday"