Henry Purcell
DIDO & AENEAS
& 500 Years of English Choral Gems
Saturday March 14, 2026
7:30PM, St. Mary the Virgin Church (Oak Bay)
The Victoria Philharmonic Choir, conducted by Peter Butterfield, presents some top crown jewels of the English choral tradition, from the country's earliest known opera to the present time.
Dido & Aeneas, set to music in the 1680s by baroque composer Henry Purcell, is a tragic love story from Virgil's epic, The Aeneid. The Queen of Carthage falls for a heroic Trojan Prince, but their union is doomed by duty, ambition, and a mean spell placed on them by interfering witches. Purcell's music is full of incredible maturity for the 19 year old composer, and the closing aria, Dido's lament, is especially well known. A song so bleakly beautiful it is regularly performed at present-day Remembrance Day ceremonies in the UK. The VPC and soloists are accompanied by a chamber orchestra, featuring period instrument specialists, including Douglas Hensley on theorbo.
The second half of the evening skips here and there in several other centuries of the repertoire, and includes The King Shall Rejoice; one of Handel's Coronation Anthems, and his first commission as a naturalized British citizen, for the coronation of King George II.
Shakespeare's text appears in Song for Athene, (brought to global attention at the funeral of Princess Diana) by 20th century composer John Tavener, whose music is inspired by Greek Orthodox chant. Also contemporary are the profound words of German pastor, theologian and pacifist Dietrich Bonhoeffer, executed in a Nazi prison camp two weeks before its liberation by the Allies. Morning Prayers is a poignant section of a longer work by Philip Moore, formerly the Director of Music at York Minster.
There will also be more than one surprise in this choral cornucopia!
Tickets are $36 (regular) and $11 (student), plus fees; FREE for children under 13, from vpchoir.tickit.ca
The VPC is grateful for the support of this season from Le fonds Chantal-Berard and the NRS Foundation (through the Victoria Foundation), and Nature's Path Organics.
…and later this season…
June 6, 2026 - Joseph Haydn’s The Seasons
Comments from VPC’s November 2018 performance of Rutter Requiem and the Lauridsen Lux Aeterna:
“What a wonderful concert! I will become a regular at your choir’s performances.”
“The Requiem was lovely, and haunting, but my favourites were the last two movements of Lux Aeterna when the voices of the singers were let loose and the joy they shared was palpable. A wonderful experience!”
“Thank you for the wonderful treat! You performed difficult music with considerable
panache and great feeling.”
“It was a wonderful concert to perform. When we feel prepared to the point that we can look up from the book and really ‘be’ with Peter in the music, and follow him wherever he decides to go, it’s the best feeling in the world. Requiems are often a bit personal, since many of us are remembering someone we lost. The orchestra was wonderful, from harp to horns and this concert was downright magical in places, with many audience members listening with closed eyes, seemingly quite transfixed!”