Valerio Contaldo

In March 2024, to mark the 300th anniversary of Johann Sebastian Bach's St John Passion, premiered in Leipzig in 1724, Berlin-born Sasha Waltz presented a movingly intense choreographed version on the stage of the Opéra de Dijon.

Francesco Cavalli's incandescent opera, where tragedy rubs shoulders with comedy, and burlesque alternates with deep emotion. Max Emanuel Cenčić directs a lively production, drawing on the codes of commedia dell'arte. This game of love and chance combines passion, betrayal, and power struggles. The countertenor takes on the title role, while Leonardo García Alarcón conducts the Cappella Mediterranea.

Live performance by Les Arts Florissants at the Théâtre de Caen, recorded on 18 Octorber 2011. "One of the earliest operas deserving of the name, Didone is our first surviving musical version of the famous episode in Virgil's Aeneid where the Trojan Hero loves and then cruelly leaves the noble Dido." — from the DVD back cover