Giovanni Francesco Busenello invented an alternative ending for this character in the libretto of an opera by Francesco Cavalli. Klaus Nomi’s synthesizer-laden rendition of an aria sung by this character is retitled “Death” and was released a year before Nomi’s death from AIDS complications. At the end of an opera, a march first heard at the end of Act I accompanies a final curse laid upon the person responsible for this character’s death, which occurs after this character (*) predicts that a city will be “immortal.” This character sings an aria introduced by a C-minor recitative with melisma on the word “darkness.” That aria is underpinned by a chromatic fourth ground bass ostinato and ends as this character insists, “Remember me, but ah! forget my fate.” For 10 points, what character who appears in Les Troyens (“lay twah-YAWN”) and sings “When I am Laid in Earth” in an opera by Henry Purcell? ■END■
ANSWER: Dido [or Didon or La Didone; accept “Dido’s Lament”] (“Death” is Nomi’s recording of “When I am Laid in Earth.”)
<Will Nediger, Classical Music and Opera>
= Average correct buzz position