"Dido" may have been modeled on the little French operas of Marc-Antoine Charpentier. It may have been modeled on John Blow's "Venus and Adonis", too. "Venus" was composed and staged about the same time as "Dido". The action is carried forward in "Dido" by arioso passages. Choruses and dances are used to frame the various scenes. The intensity of emotion in the scenes for the lovers is contrasted with the grotesqueness of the witches' scenes. Comedy and tragedy are carefully balanced in "Dido". This balance reveals Purcell's sense of drama.