Dido and Aeneas

Sebastian Nübling’s farewell production after ten years of Michael Schindhelm’s artistic directorship is an amalgam of periods and styles, the renaissance and the present day, baroque and pop music. On the one hand it is grand opera, an opulent festival of sounds by Henry Purcell, with the Schola Cantorum Basilensis, the Hochschule für Musik Basel and soprano Ulrike Bartusch, who sings Dido’s arias. On the other it is a gripping love story with a substantial text by Shakespeare’s contemporary Christopher Marlowe and the wonderful Sandra Hüller as Dido, who is forced to give in to the imperatives of the gods and permit her beloved immigrant Aeneas to move on at the end. And finally, just when it seems that the pathos is threatening to become self-evident, the production reminds us that the way to people’s hearts is through their stomachs and presents us with a four course meal cooked on stage. Crossover, which has become unnecessarily complex in recent years, is given new meaning by Nübling.