E’ lecito ai poeti alterar le favole: The story of Dido according to Giovan Battista Busenello

The aim of this paper is to analyze the rewriting of Dido’s myth by Giovan Battista Busenello, the librettist of the first opera named after the queen of Carthage. The imposing regality of Dido and the highly dramatic tension of the Aeneid are absent in Busenello’s libretto. Interestingly, if in the fourth book of the Virgilian poem Dido kills herself with Aeneas’ sword, in the final act of the opera she marries Iarbas, king of Gaetulians. Poignantly, in her only aria Dido sings her rejection of Iarbas’ advances, instead of her death wish or her sorrow for Aeneas’ departure. The tragic éthos we expect of Dido surfaces in two other characters in the opera, Hecuba and Cassandra, specifically through their laments. The basso lines of their laments call to mind the formal archetype at the heart of the famous Dido’s lament, Dido’s aria in Dido and Eneas, composed by Henry Purcell forty-eight years after the Didone. In that way, Hecuba and Cassandra constitute the actual tragic characters in the Didone, while, conversely, Dido is granted a happy ending, a deviation from the source just as peculiar as its author.The aim of this paper is to analyze the rewriting of Dido’s myth by Giovan Battista Busenello, the librettist of the first opera named after the queen of Carthage. The imposing regality of Dido and the highly dramatic tension of the Aeneid are absent in Busenello’s libretto. Interestingly, if in the fourth book of the Virgilian poem Dido kills herself with Aeneas’ sword, in the final act of the opera she marries Iarbas, king of Gaetulians. Poignantly, in her only aria Dido sings her rejection of Iarbas’ advances, instead of her death wish or her sorrow for Aeneas’ departure. The tragic éthos we expect of Dido surfaces in two other characters in the opera, Hecuba and Cassandra, specifically through their laments. The basso lines of their laments call to mind the formal archetype at the heart of the famous Dido’s lament, Dido’s aria in Dido and Eneas, composed by Henry Purcell forty-eight years after the Didone. In that way, Hecuba and Cassandra constitute the actual tragic characters in the Didone, while, conversely, Dido is granted a happy ending, a deviation from the source just as peculiar as its author.El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar la reescritura del mito de Dido por Giovan Battista Busenello, libretista de la primera ópera que lleva el nombre de la reina de Cartago. La imponente realeza de Dido y la dramática tensión de la Eneida están ausentes en el libreto de Busenello. Curiosamente, si en el cuarto libro del poema virgiliano Dido se suicida con la espada de Eneas, en el acto final de la ópera se casa con Iarbas, el rey de los gaetulianos. De forma conmovedora, Dido canta en su única aria su rechazo a los avances de Iarbas, en lugar de su deseo de muerte o su dolor por la partida de Eneas. El éthos trágico que esperamos de Dido surge en otros dos personajes de la ópera, Hécuba y Cassandra, a través de sus lamentos. Las líneas de bajo de sus lamentos recuerdan el arquetipo formal en el corazón del famoso lamento de Dido, el aria de Dido en Dido y Eneas, compuesto por Henry Purcell cuarenta y ocho años después del Didone. De esa manera, Hécuba y Cassandra constituyen los verdaderos personajes trágicos de Didone, mientras que, a la inversa, a Dido se le concede un final feliz, una desviación de la fuente tan peculiar como su autor