KU Opera’s audacious coupling of Henry Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas” (circa 1689) and Gian Carlo Menotti’s “The Old Maid and the Thief” (1939) was an inspired match that on Thursday night kept a full house at the Robert Baustian Theatre on the edge of their seats.

The brainchild of KU Opera Artistic Director Tim Ocel, the improbable pairing came to full and vivid interactive life thanks to a ploy reminiscent of Woody Allen’s “Purple Rose of Cairo” (1985), in which the worlds of a melancholic movie fan and the on-screen characters who enchant her collapse into one.

In Ocel’s brilliant staging, both operas unfold in the middle-class home of Miss Todd, the “old maid” of Menotti’s opera. The time is 1939. The place is a small U.S. town. Proclaiming the weather “perfectly awful,” Miss Todd seeks companionship via her radio. Tuning to a broadcast of “Dido and Aeneas,” Miss Todd, recalling her own lost love, surrenders to Purcell’s lyrical limning of the story of an abandoned woman.

Soon, domestic and mythic space merge as the tragic Dido, her confidante Belinda and the Trojan prince Aeneas enter into Miss Todd’s home. Moved by the parallels in her own sad romantic life to those of Dido, Miss Todd becomes a sympathetic witness to Purcell’s tale of treachery and thwarted love.

The principal singers – Christine-Marie Hill (Dido), Dustin Peterson (Aeneas) and Angie Solomon (Belinda) – brought musical and dramatic gravitas to their challenging roles. The supporting members of the cast were likewise outstanding, as was the period instrumental accompaniment provided of the eight-strong Instrumental Collegium Musicum under the sure and steady hand of Paul Laird.

Act II was given over to the darkly comic “The Old Maid and the Thief.” Here, we again meet Miss Todd, as well as her maid Laetitia, the busy-body Miss Pinkerton and the mysterious drifter Bob, who attracts the amorous attentions of both maid and mistress.

While echoing Purcell’s theme of love gone awry, Menotti infuses his story of Miss Todd’s self-delusion with engaging noirish and comic twists. As we recognize her self-deception as a basic part of our own human nature, we can’t help but take pity on her.

The performances of Meaghan Deiter (Miss Todd), Lindsay Ohse (Laetitia), Lindsey Bush (Miss Pinkerton) and Andrew Fuchs (Bob) were musically and dramatically first-rate. Also singular was the inspired piano accompaniment of Mark Ferrell, whose harpsichord backings of Purcell’s recitatives in “Dido” also shimmered.

Thanks to Ocel’s expert direction, the evening went by in a breeze. Kelly Vogel’s costume designs, Nicholas C. Mosher’s lighting and Joan Stone’s choreography were further assets.

KU Opera’s lean production approach is a decided plus that plays well to the intimate confines of the Baustian Theatre as well as to the genius of Purcell and Menotti.

Kudos to all!

– Chuck Berg is a professor of theatre and film at Kansas University. He can be reached at cberg@ku.edu