Mark Morris' Dido and Aeneas

(Photo: Stephanie Berger)

Last week, Mark Morris Dance Group performed Purcell's baroque opera Dido and Aeneas at the Irvine Barclay Theatre in Orange County. The piece was originally created in 1989, and Morris stages the opera as a dance-pantomime, with all of the musicians in the orchestra pit and dancers visualizing the drama and the music on stage (in Irvine, the musicians were made up of the Pacific Symphony along with solo vocalists and the UCI Chamber Singers).

These performances of Dido were pretty highly anticipated, first because Morris' staging of the opera isn't seen very often, especially with a full complement of orchestra and singers. We're also in a dance season here in Southern California that has seen several Mark Morris engagements: Mozart Dances back in October, now Dido, and upcoming in May is a one-night mixed bill up in Santa Barbara.

It was a short evening, the mood a bit subdued as the ushers hurriedly shoved us into the less than full theater at Tuesday night's opening. The piece took a little bit of time to get into: it just sort of started, and by the time I got into Morris' style, it was almost over - all in under an hour.

I generally enjoy Morris' choreography, and all of the reasons why I enjoy his work were there in Dido and Aeneas. It was typically witty and campy for a Morris piece: A male dancer, Bradon Macdonald, played the two female principal roles of Aeneas and the evil sorcer, dancing the role straight up but every once inawhile effeminately swishing his hips at a musical accent or vigorously shaking his chest as though he had breasts to show off. And the chorus jumped and splayed in the music's overly joyous parts, which caused giggles for its hmor.

In another Morris trademark, the choreography was musically sensitive, with Morris drawing as much drama and power out of his response to the music as he does laying out the pantomime for the story. You could see the music in the dancing, unfolding organically alongside the musical development in the score.

A big highlight of the evening was hearing the Purcell score, with Mark Morris himself conducting. It was played and sung vigorously, with real life and a sense of motion that complemented the kinetic energy on the stage.

So ultimately I did enjoy the evening, it was just oddly short, and I left with a little bit of a "that's it?" feeling. Sure, it probably was a huge undertaking to put the whole thing on with all of its elements - the dancing, the orchestra, the singers and all. Maybe it was because I came, I saw pretty much what I expected, and left just an hour later. With Mozart Dances back in October, I got to get into Morris' style with three sections that developed over the course of a longer evening. This was quick in, quick out. Good, but maybe not a full evening.