Purcell’s ‘noble torso,’ as reimagined by Boston Early Music Festival

November 30, 2010|Jeremy Eichler, Globe Staff

The Boston Early Music Festival introduced its fall chamber opera series just two years ago but it has already become one of the organization’s marquee offerings. Previously BEMF had only its biennial festival as an outlet for its visually distinctive and musically vibrant approach to Baroque opera. Now it enjoys an expanded presence and a local following that appears to be growing. For this weekend’s third installment of the series, devoted to Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas,’’ a second Jordan Hall performance was added and both were sold out or nearly so.

It may have helped that “Dido’’ is one of the best known and most loved works of its era. For all of the opera’s popularity, however, we know less about its historical origins than you might expect. Even some of its music — its entire Prologue, and several dance interludes — have been lost, leading BEMF’s Stephen Stubbs to describe the piece as “a noble torso, like the Venus de Milo, in need of some additions to create an impression of completeness.’’

The additions supplied in this case included a Purcell court ode titled “Welcome, Viceregent of the mighty King,’’ originally written for Charles II, which worked nicely with director Gilbert Blin’s conceit of framing his staging as a performance in a royal court or stately private home. As an epilogue this production also interpolates a second Purcell ode, “Why, why are all the Muses mute?’’ And selections from the composer’s “Amphitryon,’’ among other works, are used to fill out the missing music for dance.

It amounts to a nimble feat of Purcellian quilt-work, with the added selections themselves a pleasure to hear but also providing a thoughtful means of bringing the opera’s musical dimensions closer in line with its dramatic weight. It surely helped that executing this vision on Sunday afternoon was a slim yet superb BEMF chamber ensemble, led by Stubbs and Paul O’Dette and including violinist Robert Mealy. Played with spare eloquence by what amounted to a tightly functioning septet, Purcell’s music sounded fresh, rhythmically taut, and invigorating.