Former Music Director Donald Runnicles, who masterfully conducted the Ring cycle in 2011, returns to lead this intensely lyrical, colorfully orchestrated, viscerally exciting score. David McVicar’s visually striking new production, “a major event” (The Guardian, London), moves the action to the mid-19th century. The world-class cast stars, as the ill-fated lovers Dido and Aeneas, the “vocally sumptuous and alluring” Susan Graham and Bryan Hymel, who gives “an impassioned and confident performance of a heroic role” (The New York Times). The “musically intelligent and vocally splendid” Anna Caterina Antonacci (The New York Times) alternates with Michaela Martens to take on the dramatic role of the prophetess Cassandra.