{"id":15491,"date":"2013-01-10T14:33:56","date_gmt":"2013-01-10T20:33:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=15491"},"modified":"2020-08-05T12:07:30","modified_gmt":"2020-08-05T18:07:30","slug":"dido-and-aeneas-next-on-et","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/dido-and-aeneas-next-on-et\/","title":{"rendered":"DIDO AND AENEAS, next on ET"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This Friday and Saturday Westminster will showcase its first fully-staged opera. Written by Henry Purcell in 17th<\/sup> Century England, the opera is 400 years old, but you wouldn\u2019t know it watching this particular production.<\/p>\n

Those familiar with the story know Dido as the queen of Carthage in ancient Tunisia, but director Michael Chipman<\/a> decided to portray Dido as a wealthy socialite living in New York City who suffers from depression and a torturous relationship with reality. \u201cShe must deal with her inner demons and the outside pressures from her friends and family to keep a relationship with Aeneas, who is both wealthy and famous. Can Dido deal with her issues without resorting to prescription drugs? Does her high-pressure social life become too much for her to take?\u201d \u2013 sounds a bit like a teaser for the next installment of Entertainment Tonight. But the fact of the matter is, Dido\u2019s story is the stuff of opera composers\u2019 (and Hollywood\u2019s) dreams: politics, love, betrayal and the death of a beautiful woman.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cHer first line in the opera is, \u2018I am pressed with torment\u2019,\u201d said Chipman. \u201cAs I read the words and listened to Purcell\u2019s gorgeous, melancholy music, what emerged was not an ancient story, but one that could be happening right now. The exciting thing about staging this opera in a contemporary setting is that it forces the audience to confront Dido\u2019s pain as a contemporary reality, not as an ancient malady. Dido could be you or me or someone we know and love, which makes her story all the more powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chipman says Westminster is the perfect place for chamber opera because the small school has intimate venues where the audiences can see every facial expression and hear every musical nuance. \u00a0\u201cBetween the excellent student cast, and the best chamber musicians we could find, this opera will be a memorable event, and hopefully the beginning of a long tradition at Westminster,\u201d said Chipman.<\/p>\n

Musical direction for the opera includes Brian Stucki<\/a> as conductor, Kimi Kawashima on harpsichord and a professional string quartet headed up by Gerald Elias<\/a>, former associate concert master of the Utah Symphony.<\/p>\n

WHO:
\n<\/strong>Westminster Opera Studio<\/p>\n

WHAT<\/strong>:
\nOpera – Dido and Aeneas<\/em><\/p>\n

WHERE<\/strong>:
\nJay W. Lees Courage Theatre, Jewett Center for the Performing Arts
\nWestminster College
\n1840 South 1300 East
\nSalt Lake City, Utah<\/p>\n

WHEN:
\n<\/strong>January 11 & 12, 7:30pm<\/p>\n

WHY:<\/strong>
\nYou have a resolution to add a variety of culture in your life, AND you always wanted to see an opera without using those silly spectacles\u00a0.<\/p>\n

Tickets for Dido and Aeneas<\/em> are $5 for general admission, and can be purchased through the Westminster Box Office at 801.832.2457, or https:\/\/www.ezticketlive.com\/checkout\/event_view.asp?id=21<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Friday and Saturday Westminster will showcase its first fully-staged opera. Written by Henry Purcell in 17th Century England, the opera is 400 years old, but you wouldn\u2019t know it watching this particular production. Those familiar with the story know Dido as the queen of Carthage in ancient […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":781,"featured_media":15517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/dido-and-aeneas-3.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-02 07:30:50","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/781"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15491"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54380,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15491\/revisions\/54380"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}