You can never be sure what you’re going to get from Grimeborn, Arcola Theatre’s annual festival of opera-at-the-edge. One thing I didn’t expect from Ensemble Orquesta’s production of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas was that, in a rare act of local democracy, the audience would become casting directors.
For this production, two singers had each learnt the roles of Dido and her nemesis, a Sorceress; we were asked to vote for who should take which part. I suspect that most, like me, had no idea of either singer’s talent but it was an amusing jape that got people talking.
