Dido, Queen of Carthage (opera) role of Anfossi's "Didone abbandonata" and had sung at the King's Theatre several times in the intervening years. The role of Aeneas was sung "en travesti" by the English soprano and stage actress, Anna Maria Crouch. Her lover and frequent stage partner, Michael Kelly, sang the tenor role of Iarbas. The pair had appeared in several earlier works by Storace, including "No song, no supper" (1790) and "The Siege of Belgrade" (1791) and would later appear in his comic opera "The Pirates". "Dido, Queen of Carthage" opened on 23 May 1792 at The King's Theatre and was scheduled to run
Virgil from which Rome would emerge. The "Aeneid"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s first six books describe the journey of Aeneas from Troy to Rome. Virgil made use of several models in the composition of his epic; Homer, the preeminent author of classical epic, is everywhere present, but Virgil also makes special use of the Latin poet Ennius and the Hellenistic poet Apollonius of Rhodes among the various other writers to which he alludes. Although the "Aeneid" casts itself firmly into the epic mode, it often seeks to expand the genre by including elements of other genres such as tragedy and aetiological poetry. Ancient commentators noted