When I Am Laid In Earth

A collective desire for order has risen recently, fueled by numerology, symbolism, and magical thinking. Unmarked by a particular religion or god, events are no longer random; the algorithm is communicating something back, and there is opportunity for disorganized, divine assignment to causality. It’s a Neo-paganism, understandably ushered in by surviving a plague and witnessing collapse after collapse after collapse.

On 11/11 at 11:11 pm, opera singer Dianna Lucia Dragonetti will sing “When I am Laid In Earth” or “Dido’s Lament,” the final aria in Henry Purcell’s only true opera, Dido and Aeneas.

As the 11:11 portal opens, Dragonetti pours into it the ultimate apocalyptic romance. Aeneas and Dido are torn apart by impossible forces, including international warfare, a witch, and her trusted elf. Abandoned, betrayed, and at the end of her aria, Dido orders a pyre built so her seaward lover can be certain she’s killed herself. It’s a vengeful act but also a cowardly one. She’d rather set herself on fire than watch him sail away.

11:11, as a portal, is notoriously wish-oriented in some circles, regarded as a gateway to new manifestations. Tonight, we manifest the ending of the self, the desire to melt into someone else, to witness a finale, to be born from fire.

“Because on earth the people and things we love expire.”

Dianna Lucia Dragonetti