Dido and Aeneas
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.