YMMV / Dido and Aeneas

• Alternative Character Interpretation: This theory posits that the reason for Dido's troubles is not that she loves Aeneas, but that she has given herself as a lover to this "perfect man" and slept with him before the beginning of the opera only to regret it with the realization that she does not love him, meaning that her fate will be grim no matter whether he stays or goes. For what it's worth, this would explain why she puts him off for so long ("Fate forbids what you pursue") and rejects his offer to defy the Gods and stay with her on the grounds that he had thoughts of leaving her.
• Ron the Death Eater: Although Aeneas is often derided as being a faithless and flighty man, there is nothing he says that suggests he is anything other than steadfastly in love with Dido and genuinely heartbroken at being commanded to leave her, to the extent that he's willing to defy the Gods (which would have been seen as risking death or worse at their hands) to be with her.
• Tear Jerker: Dido's final (and most famous) aria, "When I Am Laid in Earth", which she sings just before committing suicide at the very end of the opera. With its vocal lamentation above a chromatically descending bass-line, Dido's swan song is one of the most melancholy numbers in operatic history.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: Nahum Tate's libretto, which introduces a wicked Sorceress and witches as the villains of the story. Based on the evidence of Tate's other output, it is believed that he at least partly intended this as an allegory for King James II (Aeneas) being seduced by Roman Catholicism (the evil Sorceress) into abandoning the British people (Queen Dido).

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