Today we read Didone abbandonata, by Pietro Metastasio. In perhaps the most famous episode of the Aeneid, the titular hero and his companions, stranded, are rescued by Dido. She falls in love with Aeneas, who reciprocates but subsequently abandons her in order to fulfill his destiny and eventually found Rome. There are plenty of musical renditions of the episode. This brief extract is from Metastasio’s first ever opera, and shows us a grieving Aeneas, in love with the queen but at the same time feeling he is letting down his companions by remaining in Carthage. Damned if he stays, and damn if he leaves. Or, as Jimmy Durante put it, quoted in the immortal Meet Joe Black, Did you ever have the feeling that you wanted to go,
But still had the feeling that you wanted to stay. The original: Se resto sul lido,
se sciolgo le vele,
infido, crudele
mi sento chiamar.
E intanto, confuso
nel dubbio funesto,
non parto, non resto,
ma provo il martíre,
che avrei nel partire,
che avrei nel restar.\ The music in this episode is De Torrente, from Vivaldi’s Dixit Dominus (RV 807), played by Cor i Orquestra de música antiga de l’Esmuc, Inés Alonso (soprano solista), Albert Baena (alto solista), Lluís Vila (director) (in the creative commons thanks to the Catalonia College of Music).
