Plant 4 Bowden, Adelaide
October 2, 2018

Henry Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas (written in the 1680s) is relatively short at around an hour’s duration. And it is due to this that the work is often staged by students or in this case, students who form the effective chorus and musical ensemble. The soloists are generally chosen from rising vocalists – both local and interstate – making their names in baroque and operatic performance.

Artists from the Elder Conservatorium of Music in chorus roles. Photograph © Bernard Hull Photography

Presenting the opera in a post-industrial site proved advantageous, though rather than costuming the singers in simple classical robes, director Nicholas Cannon has again chosen to present it either in the present or future with a post-traumatic edge with costuming generally a ragbag of high-visibility vests, hard hats and detritus. Casting Aeneas post-Troy as a refugee would be understandable, however, the furnishing of Dido’s Carthage with sandbags and 44 gallon drums is rather inappropriate for the far more stable north Africa presented in Virgil’s Aeneid (on which the opera is based). Plant 4, the two-storeyed venue (a former electrical factory), was well utilised musically with the...