Dido, Queen of Carthage

Dido, Queen of Carthage is a short play by Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593), with possible contributions by Thomas Nashe (1567-1601).

The original text
The play was seemingly first performed by the Children of the Chapel sometime between 1587 and 1593. It was first published as The Tragedy of Dido, Queen of Carthage in 1594.

Translations and adaptations
The 18th-century English composer Stephen Storace wrote an opera titled Dido, Queen of Carthage (1794), but the only surviving text was lost in a fire in 1801.

A burlesque version of the story of Dido, called Dido, the Celebrated Widow (or The Widow Dido) and termed a  "New and Original Extravaganza" was written by Francis Cowley Burnand (1836–1917)  and first performed at the Royalty Theatre, London, in 1860, and published in Lacy's acting edition by T.H. Lacy in 1865. To what extent Burnand's version had been inspired by Marlowe's play is uncertain, since Burnand was a renowned classicist and author of classics-based burlesques. For details of the performances of this particular work, see Dido, the Celebrated Widow

Performance history in South Africa
1860-1: A short musical work called Dido, Queen of Carthage (described as "Grand Musical, Classical and Picturesque Extravaganza in One Act" and attributed to "Burnand"), was performed in Cape Town in the 1860-1861 season. However, this is most probably not based on Marlowe's work, but a version of the burlesque Dido, the Celebrated Widow (Burnand, 1860)

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