Early Music Vancouver (EMV) gets its Summer Festival underway with the World Premier of The Queen Of Carthage, Thursday July 27th at SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts.
Lover, leader, woman, queen – Dido’s legacy has long been reduced to a tragic role surrounding her heartbreak after the departure of Trojan hero Aeneas, as depicted in Virgil’s Aeneid.
The Queen of Carthage examines this multifaceted figure pulled straight from legend and reimagines her story through music and dance, seamlessly blending baroque and contemporary elements to bring Dido to the modern audience.
Co-produced by EMV and re:Naissance Opera with SFU Woodward’s Cultural Programs, a creative team of predominantly female-identifying and BIPOC artists have come together to present this operatic world premiere – a performance not to be missed.
“Creating an opera from scratch is a very exciting endeavour. For me, it’s all about the quality of the people in the room and this team is full of inspiring and qualified individuals.” Says Suzie LeBlanc, Artistic/Executive Director. “The musical aspect is the one I was most involved with, and I am looking forward to hearing mezzo-soprano Cecilia Duarte in the role of Dido. I heard her perform in Francesca Caccini’s “La Liberazione di Ruggiero” at the Boston Early Music Festival in June, in which she displayed her great rhetorical skills, and her poignant and commanding stage presence. Music director Catalina Vicens brings her expertise and fresh ideas to the music from the past as well as to the newly commissioned works. Debi Wong’s compelling dramaturgy is wrapped in sensuality thanks to the sound of bowed and plucked strings, and the evocative dances of Marisa Gold and Juolin Lee are also bound to surprise and move us. I can’t wait to be in the audience with you!”
The EMV Summer Festival runs July 27 to August 5, 2023
Beginning with The Queen of Carthage the Summer Festival concerts include:
July 28: Constantinople – Il Ponte di Leonardo
July 29: Alexander Weimann – The Well-Tempered Organ!
July 30: Songs Without Words: Women in music in the Middle Ages and Renaissance
August 1: Servir Antico – Our City of Ladies
August 2: Jessica Korotkin – The Bach Parodies
August 2: The Ladies Vespers
August 3: Atempor/elle: In search of inner coherence
August 3: Milton in Love: The Birth of Opera in the Eternal City
August 4: Party like it’s 1694! Celebrating Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre
August 5: A Woman’s Voice in Bach’s World: Christiane Mariane von Ziegler
Summer Festival Subscriptions and Single Tickets are available online at earlymusic.bc.ca