Stephen’s Party

stephen_partyI have worked with viola-player and composer Rachel Stott on a couple of projects in the past, including premiering her piece The Princess Elizabeth in 2012. She has invited me and my friend Martin Nelson to appear with her and the other members of the Revolutionary Drawing Room in a new entertainment she has created, called Stephen’s Party.

Martin plays Michael Kelly, the famous Irish tenor whose published Reminiscences of his time touring Europe as a performer provide a colourful and important historical source for musicologists and historians. I play Nancy Storace, one of the best-known sopranos of the day. Between us we narrate a series of anecdotes recorded by Kelly in his book, which provides a structure for the RDR to play movements from quartets by the composers referred to in the text – Haydn, Mozart, Vanhal and Dittersdorf.

The concert is in aid of the Diamond Jubilee Garden Appeal at St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden, where we will be giving this first performance.