I had all kinds of plans for Saturday morning: I would quickly post Friday’s images, then I would work a little on my SoFoBoMo book, would go out into the bright, sunny day and shoot some nice images and …
I rose at 6:30am, and at 11:30 I had my blog post written. That’s for time management :-/
I had stayed in Vienna, we had opera tickets for early evening, and in the afternoon we met with friends in Ufertaverne, a restaurant at the shores of river Danube. A wonderful place to eat fish, the Image of the Day was shot from its upper terrace where we sat.
And then the performance. Of all recordings of Henry Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas” that I have, I like William Christie’s best. With his ensemble, Les Arts Florissantes, he is consistently among the best performers of baroque music, and somehow his interpretations constantly match my idea of perfect tempo. Couple that with an always admirably performing, rich choir, a fantastic staging, and then you have yesterday’s “Dido and Aeneas”. Christie’s current approach to the sorceresses is rather humorous, not demonic as on the record, but both approaches work well.
The Song of the Day, “Come Away, Fellow Sailors”, is from the beginning of the third act. YouTube does not have the Christie version, but Hogwood is certainly more than a substitute 🙂