“Dido and Aeneas”
Mark Morris Dance Company
Rose Theater
Mostly Mozart Festival
New York
August 22, 212
by Kathleen O’Connell
copyright © 2012 by Kathleen O’Connell
In 1989, Mark Morris—then a Brussels-based enfant terrible with the resources of the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie to hand—choreographed a danced version of Henry Purcell’s opera “Dido and Aeneas” and infamously cast himself as both its tragic heroine—Dido, the legendary queen of Carthage—and her arch-nemesis, the Sorceress. He retired from the role in 2000 and for a time put “Dido” in mothballs. Six years later, he revived the work and it has remained in his company’s active repertory ever since, with at least one performance run presented somewhere every year. For most of that time Amber Star Merkens and the recently retired Bradon McDonald have performed the dual lead on alternate nights. It’s been a dozen years since Morris relinquished the role—he’s been out for longer than he was in—and still a surprising amount of the buzz in advance of the work’s sold-out return to New York kept circling back to the fact that someone other than Morris would be dancing.