A concert performance of Stephen Dodgson’s chamber opera Margaret Catchpole: Two Worlds Apart – a tale of misguided loyalty, passion and fate. The concert marks the 200th anniversary of the real Margaret Catchpole’s death.
Dodgson’s 1979 chamber opera tells the story of Suffolk heroine, criminal and chronicler Margaret Catchpole. The opera immerses us in the internal battle between her own good character and values, and her heartfelt loyalty to Will Laud, a smuggler – the man she loves.
Libretto by Ronald Fletcher based on the novel by Richard Cobbold.
Background and full synopsis >
A pre-performance talk by Anthony Cobbold will be given at 6pm.
A display of Margaret Catchpole paintings by Richard Cobbold will also be available for the audience to browse.
(The Cobbold family employed Margaret Catchpole and played a major part in her story. Rev. Richard Cobbold subsequently wrote a biographical novel The History of Margaret Catchpole and painted watercolours of many of the scenes.)
Venue: The performance is at the Britten Studio at Snape Maltings in Suffolk.
Cast: Kate Howden, Matthew Brook, Richard Edgar-Wilson, William Wallace, Nicholas Morris, Alistair Ollerenshaw, Peter Willcock, Diana Moore, Robyn Allegra Parton
Orchestra: Ensemble Perpetuo
Conductor: Julian Perkins
Tickets available at https://snapemaltings.co.uk/whats-on/margaret-catchpole/.
Support Margaret Catchpole
As well as the performance, we are also recording Margaret Catchpole in order to reach beyond the concert hall to a wider audience and to inspire future performances.
If you’d like to support the project, please donate on the Margaret Catchpole JustGiving page. Donations of any amount gratefully received.
Cellist Leo Popplewell performs Stephen Dodgson’s Partita at a Bach-themed recital forming part of the Cambridge Summer Music Festival.
‘My idea was to explore the influence of Bach on twentieth-century solo cello repertoire. Stephen Dodgson’s Partita from 1985 draws upon Bach’s language through the lens of Benjamin Britten, whose three suites from the latter half of the twentieth century form a staple of the modern cello repertoire. Renowned for his prowess in musical invention, Bach’s motivic efficiency is explored in Elliott Carter’s Figment from 1994, a six-minute work encompassing a vast range of musical colours whilst based thematically on a single musical idea.’
The recital takes place in the atmospheric setting of the memorial building at Cambridge’s American Cemetery on Madingley Hill.
Leo Popplewell cello
Casals El Cant del Ocells (Song of the Birds)
Stephen Dodgson Partita
Elliott Carter Figment
JS Bach Suite No.6 in D major
Further details at http://cambridgesummermusic.co.uk/leo-popplewell/
If Italy was the ‘cradle of the renaissance’, it was also the ‘playground of the Baroque’. Julian Perkins and Sounds Baroque’s The Italian Connection celebrates the infusion of Italian music throughout Europe with a programme that juxtaposes works by esteemed Baroque Masters with Baroque-inspired tonal works by Stephen Dodgson.
Dodgson works include Invention No. 5 from Set 1: ‘The Worm’; Invention No. 5 from Set 2: ‘Plush and Roses’ and The New Terpsichore, Book 1.
Julian Perkins harpsichord
Sophie Barber violin
Karin Björk violin
Henrik Persson cello
Sounds Baroque Italian Connection programme
Find out more about Concerts at Cratfield.
Pianist Emma Abbate and the Tippett Quartet perform a concert of piano quintets, at the Penkhull Festival of Music, including Stephen Dodgson’s Piano Quintet No. 1 which they recently recorded on the Toccata Classics label and a voted a MusicWeb recording of the year.
Programme
- Mendelssohn: String quartet no. 1 in E flat major op. 12
- Dodgson: Piano quintet no. 1 in C
- Chris Brammeld: string quartet
- Schumann: Piano quintet op. 44 in E flat major
On what would have been Stephen Dodgson’s 97th birthday, pianist Emma Abbate and the Tippett Quartet perform a concert of quartets and quintets in Pisa including Dodgson’s Piano Quintet No. 1.
Programme
- Haydn: String quartet op. 33 no. 1
- Dodgson: Piano quintet no. 1 in C
- Schumann: Piano quintet op. 44 in E flat major
I Concerti della Normale
Teatro Verdi
Via Palestro 40
56127 Pisa
Italy
