We haven’t performed Over My Shoulder for a couple of years so were really pleased to be invited by King’s Lynn Music Society to bring the show to their recital series in the King’s Lynn Assembly Rooms. Paul Turner and I perform the full-length entertainment on Wednesday 18th March at 7.30pm in Norfolk.
We’re especially pleased to take the show to Covent Garden, as Elisabeth Schumann gave her last performance in the UK at that house, and Jessie Matthews was appearing at the same time in her most famous role just a few steps away on the Strand.
This is the last year that Mary’s Hand will be touring and we are delighted to be taking the show to some wonderful venues in 2020. In the Spring we are hosted by New Paths, a lively and relatively new music festival in Beverley, which has already established itself as a creative force in the North-East. A couple of weeks later we are at the Mayfield Festival in East Sussex, which celebrates its 50th birthday this year.
Then later this year, our last three performances are in locations important to Mary’s Hand and to Mary herself. The Queen withdrew to her estates in Suffolk during the Succession crisis that brought Lady Jane Grey to the throne, and it was from there that she made her progress to London to depose Jane and claim the throne for herself. We are marking this connection to Suffolk with a performance in Aldeburgh.
Our tour ends at the Tower of London as part of the celebrations marking the 500th anniversary of the foundation of St Peter ad Vincula by Henry VIII. This beautiful Tudor chapel houses the remains of three characters featured in Mary’s Hand – Anne Boleyn, Lady Jane Grey and Thomas Cromwell, all of whom were executed on Tower Green.
We are delighted to hear that Stephen McNeff & Andy Rashleigh’s dramatic song cycle Vivienne is to be performed for the first time in the United States of America. A small new company, the St. Louis Opera Collective, will give performances of Vivienne on 18-20 October in the city in which – rather wonderfully – T. S. Eliot was brought up. We wish STL Opera Collective all the best as they bring this fine cycle to an American audience. More info via stloperacollective.org
Yesterday we brought Mary’s Hand to the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester. Our performance was in a late night slot at the recently refurbished St. Mary-de-Crypt in the centre of the City, just 5 mins walk from the cathedral. This wonderful space posed some interesting issues for our production – but any obstacles to an original staging are also opportunities for inventive variations on the way we tell Mary’s story. Director Di Sherlock introduced a podium in the centre of space and a splendid recess in the choir offered interesting variations in which to imagine fresh stage pictures of the drama and Mary’s dress (above).
We were happy to be able to perform to a full house at St. Mary-de-Crypt. The following morning we attended a talk from Dr Linda Porter about the life of Queen Mary I. This informed and sympathetic dissection of the first Queen Regnant’s life provided absorbing context to the mid-16th century Tudor court. We had time to visit the nearby memorial to John Hooper, the Bishop of Gloucester, a Protestant burned at the stake under Mary’s regime.
It was a super experience to bring our work to Gloucester with its history and audience and we’re grateful to the Three Choirs staff for helping us feel so welcome!
Snape on Monday morning, from a practice room in the Maltings
On Sunday a group of us from McCaldin Arts will travel to Aldeburgh to spend a week developing some ideas for a new performance work. At Aldeburgh we will be guests of Snape Residencies, a project based at Snape Maltings, the epicentre of the Aldeburgh Festival set up by composer Benjamin Britten in 1948. We’re really grateful to Snape Residencies for their help in bringing us all to Suffolk and for the support that will help us to make the most of a week of artistic & professional exploration.
You can read more about our initial ideas for A New Poly-Olbion, based on Michael Drayton’s 17th century Poly-Olbionon this page. Clare McCaldin, the producer-performer of McCaldin Arts will be joined by the writer Di Sherlock, the composer Cheryl Frances-Hoad, pianist Libby Burgess and the spoken-word performer John Constable. Though the week will be an extended workshop with a final showing to a local audience we hope we can keep you up to date with our experience via social media: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Last night we were part of a very special event. We had been invited to return to the Society of Antiquaries of London to give a abbreviated performance of Mary’s Hand next to the portrait of Queen Mary I on which Andie Scott and Sophie Meyer (pictured, below) had based their performative costume for the show. The historian Dr John Cooper, a fellow of the Society, gave a talk on the history behind the eponymous Queen and, after the performance, Clare stayed in the costume to chat with the audience and pose for pictures.
It was terrific that the original instrumental ensemble from the summer shows in London (‘Mary’s Band’) were all available to play and that Martin Bussey had time in a particularly busy week to come and hear his music played live for the first time since then. Di Sherlock directed the condensed version of her drama for the space – as she has done each time, as demanded by a site-specific show – which was a surprisingly responsive room for musicians, allowing the words of the story their full bloom.
This event was something of a first for the Society who are trying new things to open up their institution and encourage interest in their collection. To that end, the museum collections manager, Kate Bagnall had curated a small but directly pertinent exhibition in the hall, including royal seals depicting Queen Mary & King Philip II of Spain, a book of Fees & Offices recording Mary’s accession, a copy of a Holbein etching of ‘Lady Mary’ (before she was crowned) and a pair of proclamations for Lady Jane Grey and then Mary, who succeeded her, famously after only nine days. This exhibition remains open over the next week for those who would like to take a look – perhaps if you’re on your way to see the performance at St. Paul’s Wilton Place? (visit sal.org.uk for their opening times). There was also the chance to buy a Marian tea towel! Our thanks to Danielle Wilson Higgins and her predecessor Lucy Ellis for bringing this project to fruition.
The Spring tour of Mary’s Hand now begins in earnest with a complete performance at St. Paul’s, Wilton Place on Tuesday before the show goes North for the rest of the week. As ever, all the details, including booking links, are available via mccaldinarts.com/MaryHand
In one month from today, we will begin a short tour, performing Mary’s Hand in London and the North of England.
This begins with a unique event, in which we’ll perform extracts from the show in front of the portrait which inspired the wonderful costume, the centrepiece of the show’s design. Andie Scott and Sophie Meyer researched and constructed Mary’s post-coronation dress from a 1554 portrait by Hans Eworth which hangs in The Society of Antiquaries of London, in Piccadilly. Clare will sing parts of Mary’s Hand and the historian John Cooper will give a talk on the history around the period.
A few days later we will give a full performance of Mary’s Hand at St. Paul’s Church, Knightsbridge – the venue in which our striking publicity photographs were taken by celebrated arts photographer Robert Workman. From there we travel to Hexham in Northumberland, where Clare’s father helps to run the annual Abbey Arts Festival, for a performance in the Queen’s Hall, and then across the Pennines for another at Lancaster Priory.
Mary’s Hand Programmes
Finally, the tour comes to an official conclusion with a performance at Music In Pinner, a popular music festival in north London.
At each event there is an opportunity to buy a copy of the detailed souvenir programme which has many more photographs, essays and information about the history of the period and the making of the show.
For dates, times and tickets for all these events, please click on this link. We hope to see you there!
Image: Clare in the Royal Opera’s production of Carmen. Photo: Neil Gillespie
This week Clare sent out her quarterly Newsletter. In it you’ll find news and information about her forthcoming performances, new projects beginning in the new year and how to get hold of tickets for the Spring tour of Mary’s Hand, one of the stand-out successes of 2018’s Summer opera festivals in London.
If you’d like to get Clare & McCaldin Arts’ Newsletter then you can sign up here.
This year, McCaldin Arts will premiere a new work of music theatre. With words by Di Sherlock and music by Martin Bussey, Mary’s Hand gives voice to Queen Mary I, daughter of Henry VIII and sister to Elizabeth I, in a unique and innovative staging for mezzo-soprano and three instruments.
In performance Clare McCaldin, singing Mary, will wear a dazzling recreation of Mary’s state dress (as seen in the famous portrait by Hans Eworth in Burlington House, right). This meticulously researched and hand-sewn costume will be the centrepiece of the staging.
In order to meet the considerable cost of completing this essential costume, which will also be the de facto stage set, we have decided to run a crowdfunding campaign. We last used a crowdfunder in 2013 to meet the production costs of Vivienne, which went on to have a successful run to critical acclaim. This public-pledge model of funding the production costs proved a popular way for people to become invested in the process and feel more involved with the finished show.
You can view the project history and early designs of Mary’s Hand, and support us with a donation towards the costs of completing this remarkable dress by visiting mccaldinarts.com/crowdfunder.
I’m delighted to have been invited to speak at the Future of Knowledge conference at the British Museum on Monday 12 February 2018. The conference is organised by the Knowledge Quarter to mark its third year of promoting productive partnerships, fruitful networks and creative interaction between its member organisations.
I will talking about McCaldin Arts’ project Mary’s Hand, which is in development for performances in 2018. In dealing with historical issues around the life of Queen Mary I, the show considers how her reputation was posthumously manipulated by her half-sister Elizabeth I, and the partial treatment of important facts and truths. As it turns out, fake news and PR spin are not a recent invention.
