The Delaware Valley Opera Company (DVOC) will present two performances of Henry Purcell’s masterpiece, “Dido and Aeneas,” Friday, Aug. 22, at 7 p.m., and Sunday, Aug. 24, at 3 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church in Germantown. The congregation’s organist and music director, John Walthausen, will conduct the fully staged and orchestrally accompanied production.

The original literary basis for Purcell’s English-language opera in three acts is Virgil’s “The Aenead,” written between 26 and 19 B.C. Unsatisfied with the mythic but rudimentarily concocted story of ancient Rome’s founding by the twins Romulus and Remus, supposedly raised by a pack of wolves, Virgil produced this epic poem. In it, he connected the founding of the Eternal City — center of the empire — to the fall of Troy, spectacularly documented by Homer in “The Iliad.” As the Greeks destroyed his ancestral home, the Trojan Prince Aeneas fled for his life, first to Egypt where he seduced Dido, the queen of Carthage, and then, abandoning her to her suicide, founded the city of Rome (according to legend) in 753 B.C.

Henry Purcell (1659-95) was arguably England’s first great composer since the passing of Thomas Tallis and William Byrd at the end of the Renaissance. Despite the brevity of his life, he composed countless instrumental works, pieces for the musical stage, scores for the ballet, and the first truly great English opera in “Dido and Aeneas.” It wasn’t until George Frideric Handel came to England with the new royal House of Hanover early in the 18th century, that England could boast of a comparable musical genius. Interestingly, Handel was also a great opera composer, but all of his works were set in Italian until he switched to English-language oratorios such as “Messiah.”

It is generally considered that Purcell composed “Dido and Aeneas” by 1685 and that it was first performed in 1689, the only known performance the opera received during the composer’s lifetime. Its most memorable local performance was in 1982 in the Academy of Music when the Opera Company of Philadelphia presented African American soprano Jessye Norman in her U.S. opera debut singing the role of Dido. The Purcell was offered in a double bill with Igor Stravinsky’s “Oedipus Rex,” in which Norman sang the role of Jocasta. The two worked beautifully together, combining Purcell’s forceful early baroque style with Stravinsky’s austere neoclassical style.

Alongside conductor John Walthausen, the DVOC’s production will be stage directed by Kaitlyn Tierney. The cast includes Sarah Robbins as Dido, Anika Kildegaard as Belinda, Bryan McClary as Aeneas, Matthew Maisano as Sorcerex, and Elizabeth Oliver and Emily Byrne as the first and second witches.

The First Presbyterian Church in Germantown is located at 35 W. Chelten Ave. For directions and more information call 215-843-8811. You can contact NOTEWORTHY at Michael-Caruso@comcast.net.