THE CAPE TOWN OPERA was commissioned to produce Purcell's Dido and Aeneas for the SPIER SUMMER FESTIVAL 2002. African ethnic music would be added for dancers in order to create an "African-Baroque music drama".

The South African composer Hans Huyssen who in addition to his career as a composer, has studied the baroque cello under Nikolaus Harnoncourt, was contracted as musical director. Dizu Plaatjies' African drum and marimba group AMAMPONDO was entrusted with providing the new ethnic music that would be devised for the production. The director was the South African born Paul Stern who has had extensive experience in directing baroque opera in Germany and is well known for his provocative opera productions in South Africa. The choreographer Adéle Blank who is renowned for her crossover style of contemporary and African ethnic dance forms joined the team and designs were by Peter Cazalet.

It was common practice in baroque times to include various interludes of music and dances in plays and operas. Very often a baroque opera would begin with a prologue in which the gods would debate the fate of the characters in the ensuing opera or would philosophize on values regarding love, betrayal, hierarchy politics or war, only to name a few of the themes that would make for good opera plots. Following these baroque principles a new prologue was created for DIDO AND AENEAS with 6 dancers who portrayed the six elements in African mythology (earth, water, wind, fire, stone and metal).

The production translates Purcell's opera into Africa. The story commences in a time where Africa had not yet been exploited by the colonial white European and harmony exists between humans and mother earth. A society, where the feminine virtues reign and masculine attributes such as hunting were alien, where a love commitment was held upright and where deceit and hypocrisy were considered human crimes. Aeneas arrives on African soil and upsets the balance in nature and within Dido's society. She makes the fatal error of falling in love with him and only when it is too late does she recognize her fatal mistake. The elements are thrown out of harmony but are not able to actively act against the intruder. They spawn witches - half human half zombie beings who move freely within the world of voodoo and spiritualism - who by means of sorcery are able to convince Aeneas to leave Africa. However there is a price the elements have to pay - Dido feels she has not only been betrayed by Aeneas but also by her African gods and takes her life. The elements thereby have to sacrifice the African queen. In the epilogue we see how change has deformed the elements - it is the beginning of the end for the African continent. We contemplate Dido's words in her farewell aria. "Remember me, but ah, forget my fate". Now after two millennia we would like to rectify her request "Remember me and do not forget the fate of Africa".

Most of Purcell's music was left intact. Occasionally dances were removed to make place for the African dances. The small baroque orchestra consisting of a string quintet and continuo group were placed on the left of the stage and the the African drum/marimba combo on the right. The African music included was not mere exotic coloring but has structural functions. In the beginning and end it recreated Africa's timelessness into which the foreign culture bursts. Within the opera it sometimes actually replaced some of the original music (such as Dance of the Furies) giving a much more depictive sound for the African atmosphere needed for the witches. The Instruments used in the African music comprised not only of the better known marimbas, bongos and drums (all hand made by the players) but incorporated seldom heard umrhubhe (mouthbow), uhadi (mouth harp) and isitolotolo (Jew’s harp) weaving a vibrant tapestry of sounds and rhythms. Dance styles too, incorporated elements of African ethnic dance movements combined with contemporary dance. The visual impressions of the costumes transported one into a fantasy baroque era combining baroque forms but with quotations from northern and eastern African styles.

"Happy Blend of African and Baroque Art"

Paul Stern's realization of Purcell's best-known opera is as rewardingly inventive and literate a production as one could desire. It is coupled with strikingly attractive designs by Peter Cazelet and an informed account of the lovely score by Hans Huyssen, in a happy marriage of operatic disciples. I urge all opera - and indeed theater - aficionados to see this production. It demonstrates graphically what can be done to "Africanise" art forms without being either patronising or historically illiterate
The Cape Times

"Dido unexpectedly triumphed"

Paul Stern's Dido and Aeneas is vibrant and alive, filled with rich contrasts and strangely compatible differences. In every aspect from the rich costuming to the presence of both African and baroque music, (on the one side of the stage is the band Amapondo, and on the other a baroque ensemble and chorus) Dido and Aeneas marries European and African aesthetics breathtakingly. The production is immaculately balanced and seemingly contradictory styles and sensibilities co-exist peacefully. It is as if this work were conceived as a visual and aural demonstration of the real possibilities of mutual enrichment between cultures supposedly in opposition, and both appear the stronger for their association.. The dancers embody African elements and through their movements manage to convey without words a sense of primordial history against which the mortal and "European" moments are fleetingly insignificant. African drumming weaves through the baroque instruments, disrupting and providing a counterpoint to old fashioned notions of high art."
The Sunday Independant