Dido and Aeneas · Opera
Songs in Dido and Aeneas
This page features the songs from Dido and Aeneas. Song cards link to details such as style, context, vocal notes, and audition cut suggestions when available. Explore the list below to access song guides.
Overture
Act 1
Scene: The Palace
No. 1 Song and Chorus ‘Shake the cloud from off your brow’ - Belinda
No. 2 Song ‘Ah! Belinda I am pressed with torment’ - Dido
No. 3 Recit ‘Grief increases by concealing’ - Belinda, Dido
No. 4 Chorus ‘When monarchs unite’
No. 5 Recit ‘Whence could so much virtue spring’ - Dido
No. 6 Duet and Chorus ‘Fear no danger to ensue’ - Belinda, 2nd Woman
No 7. Recit ‘See, see your royal guest appears’ - Belinda, Aeneas, Dido
No. 8 Chorus ‘Cupid only throws the dart’
No. 9 Recit ‘If not for mine, for Empire’s sake’ - Aeneas
No. 10 Air ‘Pursue thy conquest, Love’ - Belinda
No. 11 Chorus ‘To the hills and the vales’
No. 12 The Triumphing Dance
Scene: The Cave
No. 13 Prelude for the witches ‘Wayward sisters’ - Sorceress, 1st Witch
No. 14 Witches Chorus ‘Harm’s our delight’
No. 15 Recit ‘The Queen of Carthage’ - Sorceress No. 16 Chorus ‘Ho Ho Ho’
No. 17 Recit ‘Ruin’d ere the set of sun’ - 1st Witch, 2nd Witch, Sorceress
No. 18 Chorus ‘Ho Ho Ho’
No. 19 Duet ‘But, ere we this perform’ - 1st Witch, 2nd Witch
No. 20 Chorus ‘In our deep vaulted cell’
No. 21 Echo dance of the furies
Act 2
No. 22 Ritornelle
Scene: The Grove
No. 23 Song and Chorus ‘Thanks to these lonesome vales’ - Belinda
No. 24 Song ‘Oft she visits this loved mountain’ - Attendant
No. 25 Recit ‘Behold, upon my bended spear’ - Aeneas, Dido
No. 26 Song and Chorus ‘Haste, haste to town’ - Belinda
No. 27 Recit ‘Stay Prince!’ - Spirit, Aeneas
Act 3
No. 28 Prelude and Chorus ‘Come away, fellow sailors’ - 1st Sailor
No. 29 The Sailor’s Dance
No. 30 Recit ‘See, see, the flags and streamers curling’ - Sorceress, 1st Witch, 2nd Witch
Song ‘Our next motion must be to storm’ - Sorceress
No. 31 Chorus ‘Destruction’s our delight’
No. 32 The Witches’ Dance
No. 33 Recit ‘Your counsel, all is urg’d in vain’ - Dido, Belinda, Aeneas
No. 34 Recit ‘But death, alas! I cannot shun’ - Dido
No. 35 Chorus ‘Great minds against themselves conspire’
No, 36 Recit ‘Thy hand. Belinda’ - Dido
No. 37 Song ‘When I am laid in Earth’ (Dido’s Lament) - Dido
No. 38 Chorus ‘With drooping wings’
A song with an asterisk (*) before the title indicates a dance number.