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Tag: performance

Aphra Behn at the Canterbury Festival (21 October 2022)

Report by Elaine Hobby

‘We’re bringing Aphra home,’ declared Nicola Loud, as she opened the first Aphra Behn Society event at the Canterbury Festival on 21 October. And so we were. The 12th-century St Paul’s Church in Canterbury is where Aphra’s parents were married in 1638, and I’d spent the afternoon in a somewhat dreamy state, finding myself more moved than I’d realized I’d be at having Behn’s words performed in the church where that Bartholomew Johnson—Elizabeth Denham wedding took place.

L: Melanie Gutteridge performs Behn’s words. R: The Musicke Company members in live performance. Images: Elaine Hobby.

The ability of the actor Melanie Gutteridge to bring Aphra’s many voices alive was of course a huge contributor to the power of what followed. Equally important were the extraordinary talents of The Musicke Company, Philippa Hyde (soprano), Ciara Hendrick (mezzo-soprano), Daisy Vatalaro (baroque ’cello), and Helen Rogers (harpsichord) as they wove their way through not only – of course – excerpts from Henry Purcell’s Abdelazer Suite (written for Behn’s tragedy), but also selections from John Playford, Thomas Arne, George Frideric Handel, Giovanni Bononcini, and lots more Purcell.

Musicke company members in rehearsal. Image: Elaine Hobby

My job for the evening had been to suggest the Behn passages that would best harmonise – or challenge – the music. To my delight, most popular with the audience (according to the applause but also the questionnaire that dozens of them kindly completed) was Oroonoko’s speech calling on his fellow enslaved people to rebel. But, as many commented, it was hard to choose a favourite when the options ran from ‘Love in fantastic triumph sat’ to ‘On her loving two equally’, via ‘Epitaph on the Tombstone of a Child, the Last of Seven that Died before’, ‘To the fair Clarinda, imagined more than woman’, and many more. The most applauded piece of music was Arne’s ‘When Daisies Pied’, with its teasing ‘Cuckoo’ chorus. It was a wonderful, magical evening, most ably introduced and curated by Nicola Loud.

View the programme here

Fortunately, The Musicke Companye and Melanie Gutteridge were so delighted with the event and its reception that they are talking of taking the show on a tour. For updates, watch this space. If you are planning an event that might feature a stunning performance of Behn, Purcell and friends, do get in touch with E-ABIDA.

Reading ‘The Rover’

St Peter’s Church, Canterbury (image copyright Elaine Hobby)

Reading The Rover with 18 other Aphra Behn afficionados in St Peter’s church in Canterbury. With an audience of curious onlookers who stayed and stayed, even as the church got colder and colder. That might not be everyone’s ideal Bank Holiday activity, but for me, nothing could have been more dazzling. And the fact that this coincided with a supposedly national jubilee for Elizabeth II means that I shall always remember my version of a street party.

The Rover is not only (perhaps) Behn’s best play – certainly, her most successful, being performed in London every season for decades after her death – it is also very dear to my heart. Having taught it (at least) a hundred times over the years, and seen (I think) twelve productions, I’ve also edited it for our Cambridge Edition of the Works of Aphra Behn, and it will appear in Volume II in 2023.

Angellica Bianca with pistol (image copyright Charlotte Cornell)

But being required to ‘be’ Willmore – I had no control over the casting! – I learned how wholly callous he is. Despite the occasional flights of poetic fancy, he is entirely without conscience – or, indeed, any sense that a person might need one. Having made friends with ‘Angellica Bianca’ before we started, I was very glad when she accepted with alacrity the use of my grandsons’ mock-gun as she forced Willmore to back across the stage, again and again. I’d always thought it a great pity that Don Antonio should happen by just as Angellica has told Willmore that she has to kill him ‘for the publick safety of our sex’. Such a shame.

If that’s your idea of fun, do come along on Saturday 11 June to Canterbury to participate in – or just watch, if you prefer – the reading of Behn’s last play to be premiered, The Younger Brother. The play’s not as well-known as it should be, though Margarete Rubik’s edition in Volume IV of The Cambridge Edition is starting to change that. Central is Mirtilla – married, juggling with that the passionate attraction to her of two men, and herself infatuated with her page who turns out, of course, to be a woman. What’s not to enjoy?

A reading of The Rover, St Peter’s Church, Canterbury (image copyright Elaine Hobby)

Participants are invited to sign up on the Canterbury Commemoration Society Events page. Or, if you want to come but are too snowed under this month, how about The Widow Ranter on 2 July?