Newsletter no 20: Buckingham Summer Festival - Edith at York Late Music - Novanda Productions
As memories of summer start to fade and autumn slowly enfolds us, I thought I would take a moment to revisit the last Art Sung – Edith Sitwell performance. This took place at the Buckingham Summer Festival in July at the elegant neo-Gothic Radcliffe Centre. Built in 1857 as a nonconformist church, it is now owned by the University of Buckingham. It is also a perfect setting for an Art Sung performance: our images can be projected beautifully onto the back wall, the seating is tiered so everyone can see what is happening on stage clearly, and the acoustics are crystal clear.
Thank you to the Buckingham Festival for inviting us back for the second time! We all enjoyed ourselves enormously and the feedback was extremely positive. We were also hugely privileged to have Susanna Sitwell in the audience. She is the widow of Edith’s nephew, Francis and mother of the food critic, William Sitwell. Needless to say, being a Sitwell, she is very knowledgeable about the arts!
In other news, I was delighted to receive an email a few months ago from Claire Novello, the writer and producer of Novanda Theatre Productions, asking if Art Sung would like to collaborate on a project celebrating the 60th anniversary of Alma Mahler’s death. In October, Novanda Productions performed their play “The Dedication” set in the glittering hotbed of fin-de-siècle Vienna about Alma’ s stormy and passionate life, her thwarted musical career and the impact this had on her.
However, the play does not include any live music and Claire wanted to showcase the extraordinary music which was fundamental to the lives of Alma and Gustav Mahler, especially focusing on Alma’s songs which are still rarely performed. For those of you who have followed Art Sung for several years, you will recall that Art Sung – Alma Mahler was our very first production, and so it will be a great pleasure to revisit this wonderful music on Sunday 17th Nov, 3pm, at Pond Square Chapel in Highgate, London, in collaboration with Novanda Productions. I will be joined by the original Art Sung – Alma Mahler singers, soprano Alexandra Weaver and baritone Robert Rice to perform a recital of Alma’s songs as well as music by Gustav Mahler, Alexander von Zemlinsky, Hans Pfitzner, and Richard Wagner. Linking this will be a narration read by the director of The Dedication, Kenneth Michaels. More details to follow in the next newsletter.