Henry Purcell, “When I am laid in earth” (1689)

William Cagle, Creative Writing and Cultural Anthropology, 2020

This portrait is one of Goya’s “Black Paintings,” created in his later years when his health was failing and his eyesight had greatly diminished, depicting his maid and suspected lover mourning over his impending death. I wanted to pick a portrait for early opera, as it so prominently features the soloist. In this portrait, Goya makes use of a very somber, subtle color palette which feels “minor,” and matches the mournful melody and quiet orchestration of Purcell’s aria. In the painting, as in the song, we see an isolated woman in mourning, to draw an easy connection between Dido and Leocadia. Opera moves toward a more defined form of musical storytelling than we’ve seen before, and so it seemed fitting to push us toward portraiture and away from the beautiful abstraction of murmurations and northern lights. But this painting is very simple and unembellished, which matches the unadorned melody of “When I am laid in earth.”