Monteverdi Choir to Perform Opera Under Cutty Sark's Hull With DIDO & AENEAS
Historic Cutty Sark to host a unique opera event by Monteverdi Choir in 2026
The Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists will present a new production of Purcell's Dido & Aeneas, combining music, movement and staging beneath the hull of Cutty Sark on 21 May.
Directed by Andrew Staples and conducted by Jonathan Sells, this atmospheric setting places Purcell's tragic love story within the dramatic drydock setting of the world's last surviving tea clipper.
Moored in Greenwich – where MCO often gives concerts in the historic spaces of the Old Royal Naval College – Cutty Sark is a celebrated icon of Britain's maritime heritage. Its remarkable architecture and resonant acoustics provide a striking backdrop for Purcell's tale of love, destiny and abandonment. The 19th century vessel, suspended above the audience and stage, creates a magnificent space beneath its hull – an evocative setting for a drama shaped by the sea.
Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists, under the baton of Jonathan Sells, will harness the space's distinctive acoustics and visual drama to reimagine Purcell's operatic masterpiece in a production that immerses audiences in the emotional heart of the story.
Director Andrew Staples says: “Cutty Sark offers a setting where Purcell's world will feel astonishingly close. Beneath its suspended hull, the tensions at the heart of Dido & Aeneas - love and duty, arrival and departure, hope and loss – will gain a new immediacy. We hope to draw the audience into that emotional tide, allowing the space itself to become part of the storytelling.”
The production also weaves in Purcell's Funeral Sentences, written for the funeral of Queen Mary – founder of the Royal Hospital for Seamen on the very ground of today's Old Royal Naval College, just a stone's throw from Cutty Sark – placing the drama firmly within the historic heart of Greenwich.
A strong cast of internationally acclaimed young soloists brings the drama – based on Book IV of Virgil's Aeneid – vividly to life. Fast-rising German Egyptian mezzo Karima El Demerdasch takes the role of Dido, a part for which she has been praised as “first rate, from wild abandon through fear and unease to final tragedy… a great achievement” (Seen & Heard International). Polish baritone Hubert Zapiór, a member of the Komische Oper Berlin, sings Aeneas, while Swedish soprano Johanna Wallroth - a former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist a recognised for the luminosity and expressive clarity of her singing - appears as Belinda. Mezzo Bethany Horak-Hallett, described by Bachtrack as “among the best young singers in Britain today” performs the role of The Sorceress.
Tickets for both performances include early entry to explore the ship. The performances will be filmed for for DG's streaming platform Stage+.
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