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Mid Wales Opera undertake their OpenStages productions with a positively missionary zeal, nurturing both their local communities and up-and-coming singing talent. So full marks – if not the full five stars – to them for this staging of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, realised remarkably over a single intensive week of work. Given the way the composer tailored his 1689 opera for the ladies of Josias Priest’s boarding school in Chelsea, it was an entirely appropriate choice.

A motley crew of amateurs formed a chorus variously portraying Carthaginian courtiers, followers of a witches’ coven and sailors. Well-schooled in the characteristic physical gestures and movements, with singing similarly ranging from lusty roistering to sadly sober, they gave it their all. The greater vocal polish came from the young cast, some already launched on singing careers, all handled with the utmost care by conductor Jonathan Lyness, notably in his accompaniment to their recitatives.

Director Richard Studer was also the designer of the starkly simple but highly effective set: against a backdrop at the west end of the cathedral, an uncomplicated metal structure formed a central high pavilion on a raised dais, elegantly framing the action. The chorus, dressed in black, sported the quirky addition of a pale golden patch on their left cheekbones, while the titular pair of Queen Dido and Aeneas, in standout white, had more elaborate golden facial adornments befitting their regal and heroic status. Dido’s handmaidens wore burgundy; they scattered petals like drops of blood, that colour then resonating in the long length of velvet that became a river of blood, finally wrapped around the dying Dido.

Dido’s tragic demise is implicit from her first aria, and Kathy Macaulay’s graceful bearing and focused soprano also carried an air of vulnerability from the outset. Dido’s reluctance in accepting the encouragement to marry Aeneas from her chief handmaiden, Belinda (the expressive Alaw Grug Evans), is borne out; potential happiness is thwarted by the evil Sorceress and her witches, intent on deceiving Aeneas to ensure the ultimate destruction of Carthage. The inexorable progress towards Dido’s final aria, When I am lain in earth, which makes Purcell’s ending so unfailingly moving, brings the tragedy full circle.

Heartbreaking as it is, it’s nevertheless a mercy to reflect that librettist Nahum Tate – who had given Shakespeare’s King Lear a happy ending – did not meddle here, perhaps at Purcell’s bidding. With the sad tread of the ground bass underpinning the words, each of Dido’s repeated utterances of “Remember me!” seemed ever more urgent. The MWO string ensemble echoed the mood of lament. The hushed silence at the end said it all.