The vocal score of Henry Purcell's famous opera "Dido and Aeneas" is based on the Bärenreiter Urtext edition of the full score. As its main source served the Tatton Park manuscript (National Trust), which was produced in the second half of the 18th century by Philip Hayes, who is known for his meticulous copies of Purcell's music. In addition, the sources from the Bodleian Library Oxford (Great Britain) and the Wakayama Prefectural Library (Japan) have been re-evaluated for this edition.

The piano arrangement was done by Timothy Roberts, who was harpsichordist in the Gabrieli Consort & Players under the direction of Paul McCreesh for many years and has published numerous editions, including for Faber Music and Oxford University Press.

The text section includes an informative preface by the editor Robert Shay on the work’s history with an account of the sources and an act-by-act summary of the plot.

The appendix to the vocal score contains Dido's song "Ah! Belinda" in the version of "Orpheus Britannicus" from 1698.