What's the DnA of Dido 'n Aeneas?

It is a truly exceptional dance project which is going to be presented by the Opera Graz in late May. Choreographer Darrel Toulon has chosen Christian Jost as the composer who performs a balancing act of baroque and jazz music:

DnA – six images of love constitutes one section of a large-scale trilogy investigating love, eroticism and associated mental states: the poeticerotic works of E. E. Cummings run as a prevailing theme through the entire trilogy. In DnA, whose title is on the one hand a reference to Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and on the other hand a play on words indicating the exploration of the DNA of love, six atmospheric states relating to love and eroticism are clothed in Baroque-styled musical gestures on the basis of the poems by Cummings.

I could in fact term DnA as a lied cycle in which two singers reveal their individual views of their interrelationship in poetic scenes. This intimate fundamental structure of the work makes it highly suitable for a musical theatrical or choreographic performance. The six states/sections/ lieder are concluded by the famous aria Dido’s Lament When I am laid in Earth which I have conceived as a bridge between ancient music and lascivious cool jazz in a modern arrangement with vibraphone, e-bass and fluegelhorn.

- Christian Jost

Christian Jost
DnA – six images of love
with words by E. E. Cummings and Nahum Tate (2011-2012)
(engl.)
Commissioned by the Oper Graz
40’

• 24 May 2012 · Graz (A)
Opera House
Conductor Johannes Fritzsch
Choreography Darrel Toulon
Stage Design Alfred Peter
Costumes Yumiko Takeshima
Dance Company of the Oper Graz
+ 2 June, 6 June, 8 June, 30 June, 1 July Graz (A)

• Details on the Performance