Dido, Queen of Carthage (opera) Dido, Queen of Carthage (opera) Dido, Queen of Carthage was an opera in three acts by Stephen Storace. Its English libretto by Prince Hoare was adapted from Metastasio's 1724 libretto, "Didone abbandonata" ("Dido Abandoned"), which had been set by many composers. Storace's opera premiered on 23 May 1792 at The King's Theatre in London combined with a performance of his masque, "Neptune's Prophecy". The story is based on that of Dido and Aeneas in the fourth book of Virgil's "Aeneid". The opera was not a success and was never revived after its original run of performances. The score has been
Dido young women who were prostituting themselves on the shore in order to provide wives for the men in the party. Eventually Dido and her followers arrived on the coast of North Africa where Dido asked the Berber king Iarbas for a small bit of land for a temporary refuge until she could continue her journeying, only as much land as could be encompassed by an oxhide. They agreed. Dido cut the oxhide into fine strips so that she had enough to encircle an entire nearby hill, which was therefore afterwards named "Byrsa" "hide". (This event is commemorated in modern mathematics: