Kate Elliot, Cold Fire p. 49.Text reads:As we headed up the stairs, Bee began to hum under her breat
Kate Elliot, Cold Fire p. 49.Text reads:As we headed up the stairs, Bee began to hum under her breath the famous aria “When He Is Laid in Earth” from the recently staged opera The Dido and Aeneas, in which the queen of Qart Hadast, after defeating the Roman prince who sought to subdue her rule through marriage, presides over his funeral procession.Here’s the amazing Jessye Norman singing the Purcell. I can’t tell whether Elliot wants her alt-Dido and Aeneas to end on a triumphant note, but I could also see a straight-up flipped tragedy working nicely: Juno/Tanit sending Dido messages about “yes, he’s very pretty but remember you have a DESTINY” (or, as in the opera, a random sorcerer(ess) who wants to make everyone miserable impersonating Tanit), the upshot being that Dido heroically puts duty before passion and gets rid of this potential destabilizer to her throne and her city, not without a lot of angst and our lingering regret for what could have happened had the gods not forced Rome and Carthage to become mortal enemies. -- source link
#kate elliot#steampunk carthaginians#jessye norman