Purcell's Dido and Aeneas was commissioned by and first performed at Josias Priest's School for Young Ladies in Chelsea. The libretto is by Nahum Tate, who extracted the story of Queen Dido and the sailor, Aeneas, from Virgil's Aeneid. Into Virgil's story Tate introduced some of the more popular elements of Baroque opera, including a sorceress, a hunt, and a storm. The first performance took place in 1689, probably in mid-May.

The story concerns Aeneas, who is shipwrecked at Carthage, where the Carthagenian Queen, Dido, falls in love with him. Aeneas returns her love, but knows he must leave eventually—it is his destiny to found Rome. After their final parting, Dido realizes she cannot live without him and looks forward to her death.

Dido and Aeneas is considered to be the only true opera that Purcell composed; its continuous music and purpose-written libretto set it apart from his other dramatic works, which are more properly considered semi-operas or, in the case of Timon of Athens, a masque. Although brief, Dido and Aeneas nevertheless embraces a wide range of emotional content, and achieves a dramatic lyricism that was then unprecedented in England.

Purcell deftly tailored the score to the performing forces available at Josias Priest's school. There are only four principal roles and the orchestra consists of just strings and continuo; together, the opera's three acts last only about one hour. However, Dido is not a work for amateurs: the vocal writing demands highly skilled singers, and the presence of male voices in the score (not least of which is Aeneas himself, a tenor) indicate that some professional performers were most likely imported for the first production. Dances in the piece, such as the "Dance of Triumph" for Dido's court and another for the witches, were most likely written at the suggestion of Priest, who was a dance instructor.

The French overture that opens the work is reminiscent of Lully, as is the homophonic chorus in minuet rhythm, "Fear no danger." More akin to the music of Purcell's English contemporaries are "Purse thy conquest, Love" and "Come away, fellow sailors" (which boasts a metrically irregular melody). Most interesting are the recitatives, which are in neither the quick, Italian recitativo secco style nor the more rhythmically regular French fashion. Instead, Purcell tailored his writing to the particular accents and cadence of the English language, creating an entirely new declamatory style.

Three of the arias in Dido and Aeneas are of the ground bass variety. The most famous of these, "When I am laid in Earth," is the last in the opera and is often referred to as "Dido's Lament." In the aria, we hear a chromatic bass line that descends through a fourth, then closing an octave below where it starts. This ground bass is repeated nine times, supporting a vocal line filled with expressive dissonance. The opera close with the chorus, "With drooping wings," in which descending minor scales suggest the text of the title.

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"English opera" is, to some minds, an oxymoron; that is, there is really no such thing as a true English opera tradition. In England, from the late Baroque to the early twentieth century, performances of opera of other nations—French, German, and Italian opera—was enthusiastically supported, but English opera as such never became popular. For many musicologists and opera aficionados, there is only one true English opera composer: Henry Purcell. Like other English composers of the mid-Baroque era, such as John Blow and John Gay, Purcell composed a handful of pseudo-operas, or musical plays of one kind or another; however, Purcell distinguished himself with Dido and Aeneas, a true English Baroque opera, and really the only one of its kind. Purcell's opera itself is really a "mini-opera": there are only four main roles, the orchestral forces called for are very small, and the work is set in three short acts. What is most remarkable about this work, which is based on the mythological story of Dido and Aeneas from Virgil's Aeneid, is Dido's death aria, "When I am laid in earth," arguably one of the most beautiful opera arias ever written.

Though nominally an English opera, the influence of other opera traditions—namely French and Italian—are obvious in this aria. "When I am laid in earth," clearly reveals, for example, an Italian influence in its use of a ground bass: in the Italian Baroque opera tradition, death arias were typically sung over a ground bass, a constantly repeating bass figure. The aria itself is preceded by a passage of recitative, beginning with the words "Thy hand, Belinda." The recitative text consists of Dido singing to her servant Belinda, indicating that death is approaching. As the recitative progresses, it dramatizes the slow death in store for Dido by gradually shifting, step by step, through the interval of a seventh. Much more so than the aria, the recitative reflects a decidedly English style: its free, flexible melodies, which closely follow the inflections of the English text, are neither French nor Italian in character. It concludes, ominously, with the words "Death is now a welcome guest." In the aria that follows, Dido expresses to Belinda the hope that after her death, Dido's wrongs will cause Belinda "no trouble in thy breast." The ground bass pattern is comprised of largely of descending fourths, and is an irregular length: five bars. Purcell combines this mournful descending bass pattern with many dissonant suspensions, repeating dissonance on strong beats to emphasize Dido's lament. Purcell's melodies are gentle, but swell to a profound dramatic climax as Dido, in her final moments, sings to Belinda, "Remember me."

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"English opera" is, to some minds, an oxymoron; that is, there is really no such thing as a true English opera tradition. In England, from the late Baroque to the early twentieth century, performances of opera of other nations—French, German, and Italian opera—was enthusiastically supported, but English opera as such never became popular. For many musicologists and opera aficionados, there is only one true English opera composer: Henry Purcell. Like other English composers of the mid-Baroque era, such as John Blow and John Gay, Purcell composed a handful of pseudo-operas, or musical plays of one kind or another; however, Purcell distinguished himself with Dido and Aeneas, a true English Baroque opera, and really the only one of its kind. Purcell's opera itself is really a "mini-opera": there are only four main roles, the orchestral forces called for are very small, and the work is set in three short acts. What is most remarkable about this work, which is based on the mythological story of Dido and Aeneas from Virgil's Aeneid, is Dido's death aria, "When I am laid in earth," arguably one of the most beautiful opera arias ever written.

Though nominally an English opera, the influence of other opera traditions—namely French and Italian—are obvious in this aria. "When I am laid in earth," clearly reveals, for example, an Italian influence in its use of a ground bass: in the Italian Baroque opera tradition, death arias were typically sung over a ground bass, a constantly repeating bass figure. The aria itself is preceded by a passage of recitative, beginning with the words "Thy hand, Belinda." The recitative text consists of Dido singing to her servant Belinda, indicating that death is approaching. As the recitative progresses, it dramatizes the slow death in store for Dido by gradually shifting, step by step, through the interval of a seventh. Much more so than the aria, the recitative reflects a decidedly English style: its free, flexible melodies, which closely follow the inflections of the English text, are neither French nor Italian in character. It concludes, ominously, with the words "Death is now a welcome guest." In the aria that follows, Dido expresses to Belinda the hope that after her death, Dido's wrongs will cause Belinda "no trouble in thy breast." The ground bass pattern is comprised of largely of descending fourths, and is an irregular length: five bars. Purcell combines this mournful descending bass pattern with many dissonant suspensions, repeating dissonance on strong beats to emphasize Dido's lament. Purcell's melodies are gentle, but swell to a profound dramatic climax as Dido, in her final moments, sings to Belinda, "Remember me."

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"English opera" is, to some minds, an oxymoron; that is, there is really no such thing as a true English opera tradition. In England, from the late Baroque to the early twentieth century, performances of opera of other nations—French, German, and Italian opera—was enthusiastically supported, but English opera as such never became popular. For many musicologists and opera aficionados, there is only one true English opera composer: Henry Purcell. Like other English composers of the mid-Baroque era, such as John Blow and John Gay, Purcell composed a handful of pseudo-operas, or musical plays of one kind or another; however, Purcell distinguished himself with Dido and Aeneas, a true English Baroque opera, and really the only one of its kind. Purcell's opera itself is really a "mini-opera": there are only four main roles, the orchestral forces called for are very small, and the work is set in three short acts. What is most remarkable about this work, which is based on the mythological story of Dido and Aeneas from Virgil's Aeneid, is Dido's death aria, "When I am laid in earth," arguably one of the most beautiful opera arias ever written.

Though nominally an English opera, the influence of other opera traditions—namely French and Italian—are obvious in this aria. "When I am laid in earth," clearly reveals, for example, an Italian influence in its use of a ground bass: in the Italian Baroque opera tradition, death arias were typically sung over a ground bass, a constantly repeating bass figure. The aria itself is preceded by a passage of recitative, beginning with the words "Thy hand, Belinda." The recitative text consists of Dido singing to her servant Belinda, indicating that death is approaching. As the recitative progresses, it dramatizes the slow death in store for Dido by gradually shifting, step by step, through the interval of a seventh. Much more so than the aria, the recitative reflects a decidedly English style: its free, flexible melodies, which closely follow the inflections of the English text, are neither French nor Italian in character. It concludes, ominously, with the words "Death is now a welcome guest." In the aria that follows, Dido expresses to Belinda the hope that after her death, Dido's wrongs will cause Belinda "no trouble in thy breast." The ground bass pattern is comprised of largely of descending fourths, and is an irregular length: five bars. Purcell combines this mournful descending bass pattern with many dissonant suspensions, repeating dissonance on strong beats to emphasize Dido's lament. Purcell's melodies are gentle, but swell to a profound dramatic climax as Dido, in her final moments, sings to Belinda, "Remember me."

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This most famous excerpt from the opera, Dido and Aeneas, can be counted among the finest moments in all of opera. Deserted by her lover, Aeneas, Dido sings her final lament, knowing that she must die without him. She sings first to her handmaiden, Belinda, in a tender and affecting recitative; the aria which follows is built on a five-bar ground bass. Purcell's manipulation of this compositional device, as well as his scrupulous avoidance of sentimental indulgence accounts for the scene's fame. Richard Wagner must surely have known of this scene when he composed his own "Love-Death" in Tristan und Isolde.

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