DIDO AND AENEAS
The Trojan hero Aeneas is driven onto the shores of Carthage, where Dido is queen. Berlioz inspired this painting with his 'Royal Hunt and Storm'. In a brief pastoral episode within a huge opera, 'The Trojans', there is an orchestral section - a mere nine minutes - in which we hear sylvan tranquillity, romance, sad, echoing horn themes, galloping horses and a storm. The couple shelter in a cave and find love which must end badly, as Aeneas is fated to go on to Italy, where his heirs were to build Rome.
