OPERA Dido & Aeneas Opera Australia, Opera Queensland, Circa Opera House, March 13. Reviewed by PETER McCALLUM ★★★★ This combination of musical and circus artistry creates a twin pull on one’s attention, the two strands sometimes working harmoniously, sometimes in tension and occasionally in internecine subversion. First, there is the musical seductiveness and clarity of Purcell’s great score, as fresh today as it has been for more than 300 years, conducted with refined musical discernment by Pinchgut Opera’s Erin Helyard.
Anna Dowsley grows in stature with each appearance. Credit: David Kelly Rising star Anna Dowsley takes both the role of Dido and that of the Sorceress who, in a thoughtful touch, is constructed as the negative double of Dido’s personality (“risen star” might be more accurate for Dowsley, but she continues to grow in stature each time she appears). Alongside this stylish musical realisation, director Yaron Lifschitz places the astonishing skill and strength of the Circa Ensemble.
Although Lifschitz adds grace and expressive gesture to their movement, the essence of Circa’s appeal still lies in their gasp-inducing acrobatic audacity, and the voyeuristic anxiety of watching performers walk and climb on the spines of others, and tumble from towers of acrobats piled three-high, each standing on the heads and shoulders of those below. Gasps sat well enough with some moments, notably the sailors’ song and chorus, full of rollicking intoxica.
