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2025

March

Thu
13 Mar 2025

Sat
15 Mar 2025

Tue
18 Mar 2025

Thu
20 Mar 2025

Sat
22 Mar 2025

Tue
25 Mar 2025

Sat
29 Mar 2025
Venue

Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House
Bennelong Point, Sydney

Language

Performed in English with English surtitles.

Running time

Approximately 70 minutes with no interval

Please note

This production contains depictions of nudity and haze effects.

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A passionate love story.
A hero bound by fate.
A lover left behind.

Dido & Aeneas is a love story for the ages. Bringing together exhilarating acrobatics and extraordinary music, this production is an opera for today.

Aeneas is a hero caught between his destiny and desire. Dido is the woman he must leave behind. For these star-crossed lovers, fate and romance are on a collision course, and when the smoke clears, Dido’s heart is found among the wreckage.

Purcell’s early opera gave the world one of the most poignant scores ever written and laid the foundation for every opera that came after.

Now, experience the power of Dido & Aeneas in a new staging from Circa Artistic Director Yaron Lifschitz, which sets “a new benchmark for opera production in Australia ” (Limelight). Expect jaw-dropping physical feats from Circa’s talented ensemble alongside stunning voices in this follow-up to last year’s sell-out success Orpheus & Eurydice. Libby McDonnell’s glamorous costumes are chic creations of luxe materials and strong silhouettes, and Lifschitz has created a stark, slick set.

It’s always a delight to welcome a rising star home, and we have two in this production: tenor Nicholas Jones is currently a principal artist with Opéra national de Paris and mezzo soprano Anna Dowsley returns to sing Dido after great success overseas. Hear her perform as the doomed Queen of Carthage and sing her famous lament ‘When I am Laid in Earth’.

“A new benchmark for opera production in Australia. ★★★★★”

Limelight

Dido & Aeneas, first produced by Opera Queensland in association with Circa, at QPAC (2024)

Photographer: David Kelly

Dido & Aeneas, first produced by Opera Queensland in association with Circa, at QPAC (2024)

Photographer: David Kelly

Dido & Aeneas, first produced by Opera Queensland in association with Circa, at QPAC (2024)

Photographer: David Kelly

Dido & Aeneas, first produced by Opera Queensland in association with Circa, at QPAC (2024)

Photographer: David Kelly

Dido & Aeneas, first produced by Opera Queensland in association with Circa, at QPAC (2024)

Photographer: David Kelly

Dido & Aeneas, first produced by Opera Queensland in association with Circa, at QPAC (2024)

Photographer: David Kelly


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Cast & Creative

Conductor
Erin Helyard (13, 15, 22, 25, 29 Mar)
Chad Kelly (18 & 20 Mar)
Director & Stage Designer
Costume Designer
Lighting Designer
Dido/Sorceress
Aeneas
Belinda
Second Lady
First Witch/Spirit 'Mercury'/Sailor

Opera Australia Orchestra
Opera Australia Chorus
Circa Ensemble

Erin Helyard appears courtesy of Pinchgut Opera.

Dido & Aeneas, first produced by Opera Queensland in association with Circa, at QPAC (2024)

Cheat Sheet: Dido & Aeneas

A cheat's guide to Purcell’s Trojan War tragedy.

What happens in the story? Who was the composer? What should I expect from the music? Here’s everything you need to know…

Read the Cheat sheet