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On Saturday night, the Barbican was occupied by and his Paris-based ensemble . They performed Purcell's hour-long opera , not once but twice in early and late shows. I attended the second. There was no sound of tiredness in the voices, but there was a lot of emphatic over-acting as if they were trying extra hard.

The absurdities in the story of and - she kills herself for grief that there is to be no second night of passion with Aeneas - make a convincing dramatic presentation difficult. The drama lies in the music which was too often obscured by unnecessary action. The witches and sorceress were so full of manic antics that they forgot to sing in tune and the clumping chorus footwork spoilt the sensuous, soft baroque guitar dance at the moment of the kiss. Statuesque Swedish mezzo as Dido, doing her best to make sense of her role, had a different mannerism for almost every bar, but came across as more deranged than love-sick. One was hardly surprised or even disappointed when she took her overdose. Her voice was all mannerism and no resonance and her beefy low register too obviously distinct from her cool, passionless head voice. The opening of her dying aria When I am Laid was magical, as in the stillness the viola da gamba spun out the solemn ground, but unfortunately her tuning sank as she did onto her maidservant's bosom.

The latter, sung by Dutch soprano was the saving grace of the production. Her voice rang with simple bell-like beauty as she encouraged her mistress into her lover's arms and she phrased her lines with natural grace as she glided over the stage or shook her ample shoulders like a night club dancer to demonstrate the allure Dido lacked. Italian bass-baritone was a smooth Aeneas, vocally dark and voluminous, but too much the stiff matinee idol rather than the raunchy, rough-hewn warrior that might have made Dido's rash act seem plausible.

The chorus sang with robust charm but overdid the echo in 'In a deep vaulted cell'. This was partly because they couldn't see the orchestra behind them or the director Christie who might have quietened them. Actually he beamed out indulgently at all his protegees. The strings' gorgeous sound floated weightlessly out into the darkened hall and the soloists, the bright, sinewy recorder and the warm, dark archlute, seduced the ear where most of the vocalists had only upset it.

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• You can watch a Radio 3 Discovering Music video analysis of Purecll's Dido & Aeneas andÌýa performance of Dido's Lament, by clickingÌýthis link.Ìý

Rick Jones is Radio 3's Purcell blogger for Composers of the Year 2009