Dido and Aeneas
England’s first great opera: a Carthaginian queen, a departing hero, a coven of witches and the most famous lament ever written.
The Works
Purcell’s Famous Works
Around 800 pieces in twenty years: one opera, four semi-operas, music for forty plays, seventy anthems, two dozen court odes and a drawer full of songs. Start here.
Opera
Semi-opera
King Arthur
Purcell and Dryden’s 1691 semi-opera: wizards, Saxons, the shivering Frost Scene and the patriotic hymn ‘Fairest Isle’.
The Cold Song: “What Power Art Thou”
The shivering aria from King Arthur, sung by a frozen spirit who wants to be left alone. Later a cult hit for Klaus Nomi.
The Fairy Queen
Purcell’s extravagant 1692 version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream: masques, monkeys and a score lost for two centuries.
Ceremonial music
Theatre music
Song
Misattributed
Sacred music
Questions people ask
What are Henry Purcell’s most famous works?
His most famous works are the opera Dido and Aeneas (1689) and its lament ‘When I am laid in earth’; the semi-operas King Arthur (1691) and The Fairy Queen (1692); the Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary (1695); the Rondeau from Abdelazer (1695); the song Music for a While; the anthems Hear my prayer, O Lord and Rejoice in the Lord alway; and the odes Hail, bright Cecilia and Come, ye sons of art.
How many operas did Purcell write?
Purcell wrote only one true opera, sung throughout: Dido and Aeneas. He also wrote four semi-operas, plays with large musical scenes: Dioclesian (1690), King Arthur (1691), The Fairy Queen (1692) and The Indian Queen (1695), as well as incidental music for more than forty plays.
What are Z numbers?
Z numbers identify Purcell’s works in the catalogue compiled by Franklin B. Zimmerman and published in 1963. For example, Dido and Aeneas is Z 626 and King Arthur is Z 628.