Dido Reimagined: Dawn Upshaw, soprano, and the Brentano String Quartet

Their spellbinding program begins with songs by Purcell and his Baroque contemporaries, including the famous, heart-rending “Dido’s Lament,” interspersed with string quartet iterations of early English works for consort of viols. The program then leaps forward nearly 350 years to the New York premiere of an extraordinary new work by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Melinda Wagner. Dido Reimagined is Wagner’s new consideration of Dido, looking anew at her psyche, her vulnerability, her strength, and her choices. The concert continues the Brentano Quartet’s rich and adventuresome artistic collaboration with the sublime Dawn Upshaw and the unusual, exquisite pairing of soprano and string quartet.

Purcell, Oh let me weep
Purcell, Fantasia No. 5
Locke, Suite No. 2 for four viols: Fantazie
Dowland, Come again, sweet love doth now invite
Locke, Suite No. 2: Courante
Dowland, Can she excuse my wrongs
Locke, Suite No. 2: Ayre
…
Melinda Wagner, Dido Reimagined (NY premiere; 92Y co-commission)