HENRY Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas is a monumental piece of Baroque opera.

With the libretto by Nahum Tate, the piece is remembered as one of the English composer's best theatrical works famed for Dido's lament, When I am laid in earth.

Dido and Aeneas was also his first opera - as well as his only all-sung dramatic work - premiered in 1689, and on Sunday, June 28 (7.30pm) is the centrepiece of Levens Choir's summer concert Love, Lust, Vengeance, Betrayal and Remorse.

The performance at Kendal Town Hall has all the hallmarks of another memorable night of choral class from one of Cumbria's best.

Based on book IV of Virgil’s epic poem, The Aeneid, the opera tells the story of the doomed love of Dido, Queen of Carthage, for the Trojan Prince Aeneas. They meet and fall in love during Aeneas’s warring exploits in the Mediterranean and he is torn by his desire to remain in Carthage and his duty to continue his journeying. Fate and a coven of witches intervene to ensure that they are separated, leaving Dido to lament her loss and take her own life.

Singing the role of the unfortunate queen will be former choir member Emily Robinson, local opera star and one of the region's most sought after sopranos.

Emily recently played Mabel in Kendal and District Gilbert and Sullivan Society's much lauded The Pirates of Penzance and soprano soloist for Kendal Choral Society's triumphant Best of Baroque concert.

Rising young bass Keir McGregor plays Aeneas, and the choir’s performance, accompanied by harpsichord and string quintet, will present the opera in a new, updated and freshly appealing version.

Meanwhile, the men of the choir will sing Benjamin Britten’s The Ballad of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard.

Written in 1943 for the inmates of Oflag V11b prisoner-of-war camp, the touching drama is Britten’s take on the traditional song Little Matty Groves, which tells of the ill-fated love of Lady Barnard for the servant lad Little Musgrave which is brought to a bloody conclusion when their secret affair is betrayed to her husband. He exacts a terrible revenge, leaving both the lovers dead. This version of the story, for piano and male voices, is rich and dramatic.

Levens conductor Ian Jones said that for the choir's summer concerts they always look for something different and perhaps more light-hearted than their other ‘more serious’ concerts.

"We're doing Dido in a semi-staged way with the choir playing all the ‘crowd’ scenes and various members of the choir taking on the roles of Dido’s companion Belinda, Aeneas, the sailor, the witches, the sorcerer and the spirits.

"We are delighted to welcome Emily back to play a role she loves. The story is, of course, of spurned love and rejection leading to suicide, but we are taking a tongue in cheek view of this classical story."

As for the Benjamin Britten piece: "The Ballad of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard is also a story of infidelity, love betrayed and murder based on the well-known folk song Matty Groves," continued Ian.

"Britten sets it splendidly for male chorus and piano so the men (of Levens Choir) are looking forward to singing the piece with great gusto. Britten wrote it for a friend who was a prisoner of war in Germany and sent it out to him page by page on microfilm so that it could be performed by the inmates in the camp."

Tickets are available from the Brewery Arts Centre box office on 01539-725133.