Didon
Tragédie lyrique byNiccolò Piccinni
Niccolò Piccinni, engraving byHippolyte Pauquet
Librettist	Jean-François Marmontel
Language	French
Based on	Dido
Premiere	16 October 1783 (1783-10-16) Fontainebleau

Didon (Dido) is atragédie lyrique in three acts by the composerNiccolò Piccinni with a French-languagelibretto byJean-François Marmontel. Theopera is based on the story ofDido andAeneas fromVirgil'sAeneid as well asMetastasio's librettoDidone abbandonata (which Piccinni himself had set in 1770).Didon was first performed atFontainebleau on 16 October 1783 in the presence of the French sovereigns,Louis XVI andMarie Antoinette. After being remounted at court twice, the opera had its Paris public premiere on 1 December 1783. It proved to be the composer's greatest success and was billed almost every year till 1826, enjoying a total of 250 performances al theParis Opera.^[1]Didon had some influence onBerlioz's opera on the same theme,Les Troyens.

Dido, Queen ofCarthage (Didon), falls in love with theTrojan warrior Aeneas (Énée), who has been shipwrecked on her shore. However, Dido is promised in marriage to the African king Iarbas (Iarbe). War breaks out between Aeneas and Iarbas in which the Trojan is triumphant. But Aeneas is warned by the ghost of his father,Anchises, that he must leave Carthage at once forItaly. The heartbroken Dido commits suicide by throwing herself on a funeral pyre. Her Carthaginian subjects swear eternal revenge on Aeneas' descendants, theRomans.

• Didon Soloists, Orchestra delTeatro Petruzzelli, conducted by Arnold Bosman (Dynamic, 2003)

Notes

Sources

• Lajarte, Théodore,Bibliothèque Musicale du Théatre de l'Opéra. Catalogue Historique, Chronologique, Anecdotique, Paris, Librairie des bibliophiles, 1878, Tome I, ad nomen, pp. 337–338
• Court premiere original libretto:Didon, tragédie-lyrique, en trois actes, représentée à Fontainebleau devant Leurs Majestés, Le 16 Octobre 1783, et pour la première fois, sur le Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique, le Lundi 1er Décembre 1783, Paris, P. de Lormel, 1783

• First public performance original libretto:Didon, tragédie-lyrique, en trois actes: représentée pour la première fois sur le Théâtre de l'Opéra, le premier Décembre 1783, Paris, Chez les Marchands de Pièces de Théâtre, 1783
• Piano-vocal score: Piccinni,Didon, Tragédie Lyrique en 3 actes, Paroles de Marmontel, Représentée par l'Académie Royale de Musique le 16 Octobre 1783, Reconstituée et réduite pour Piano et Chant par Gustave Lefevre Directeur de l'Ecole Niedermeyer, Edition conforme au manuscrit et à l'Edition de 1783, Paris, Michaelis, c. 1876–1893
• Blanchetti, Francesco, "Didon", in Gelli, Piero & Poletti, Filippo (eds.),Dizionario dell'Opera 2008, Milano, Baldini Castoldi Dalai, 2007, pp. 316–317.ISBN 978-88-6073-184-5(in Italian)
• Holden, Amanda (ed.),The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York: Penguin Putnam, 2001.ISBN 0-14-029312-4
• "Didon (1815) – Niccolò Piccinni"Archived 2009-09-25 at theWayback Machine, University Of North Texas Libraries on library.unt.edu

• Didon (Piccinni): Scores at theInternational Music Score Library Project

• Operas
• French-language operas
• Operas by Niccolò Piccinni
• 1783 operas
• Tragédies en musique
• Operas based on the Aeneid
• Music based on poems
• Cultural depictions of Dido
• Libretti by Jean-François Marmontel

• Articles with Italian-language sources (it)
• Articles containing French-language text
• Webarchive template wayback links
• Works with IMSLP links
• Articles with International Music Score Library Project links