Poet’s Love – postcards from Robert Schumann is a dramatically illustrated musical lecture and a song recital performance by award winning performer Richard Parry re-creating the lives and struggles of the three artists at the heart of “Dichterliebe” (poet’s love).
It’s a highly accessible and enjoyable way for new audiences to enjoy this great European romantic music.
The sixteen songs of Dichterliebe tell the passionate story of a young man who has fallen head-over-heels in love with a beautiful girl. Schumann, at the height of his powers, crafts the tale beautifully with voice and piano in tumultuous and intimate dialogue.
Award winning performer Richard Parry tells the story of the the Poet Heinrich Heine, The Pianist Clara Wieck and The Composer Robert Schumann. This compelling lecture and performance opens the heart of these remarkable work – songs that have become some of the most famous German lieder ever written.
STAGE REQUIREMENTS: a piano and a venue with good vocal acoustics.
RUNNING TIME: 90 minutes
The show is available: for music festivals, literary festivals, theatres, concert halls and community music venues. Email waverleymusic@live.co.uk or phone 07974 397771 to enquire about booking.
Baritone Richard Parry is an astonishingly versatile theatre performer and cultural campaigner. He studied singing privately with Mark Wildman, head of voice at the Royal Academy of Music and has gone on to perform in opera and song recital in UK and Europe with The English Bach Festival, Clonter Opera and Opera North and appear as a baritone recitalist at international music festivals. As an actor and writer in British theatre and television he’s won Time Out, London and Edinburgh Fringe awards. He’s made work as an artist in National Museum of Wales and National Eisteddfod of Wales and was commissioned by Newport City Council in 2017 to make new public art works in the city centre celebrating Newport Chartist contributions to world democracy. Richard has been a guest speaker at international academic conferences on culture and arts, including giving an address at Oxford University on the philosophy of religion, and has convened conference/seminars on culture, philosophy and participation at Cambridge University and Welsh Universities. In 2017 he led the three week walk from Yorkshire through Wales for the international environmental flagship movement The Eden Project, singing to communities in the landscape as he travelled and celebrating Wales and the importance of community participation for wellbeing and combatting the environmental challenges facing human culture. Richard is the founder and creative director of the Coleridge in Wales Festival, a celebration of the international importance of the Welsh cultural life in questions of culture, economy and sustainability. He has led the Welsh Government funded ‘Landscapes of Faith’ project and during lockdown established a New Library and cultural centre initiative at Llantwit Major. He lives in South Wales.
MORE ABOUT OUR CLASSICAL MUSIC THEATRE SHOWS
Coleridge Cymru offer a series of classical music theatre shows by Richard Parry exploring a culture of relationship, economy and community.
An Act of Piracy A new opera for Wales: betrayal, power and the high seas. Wales and Trinidad are connected by the Atlantic slave trade. This calypso/classical opera An Act of Piracy explores our shared histories in an opera party – what does the past mean today. How can friendship help us. Two extraordianry singers, Mary-Anne Roberts from Trinidad, Richard Parry from Wales, come together and invite you on an adventure…
This opera party opens in a rum shop in Trinidad’s capital Port of Spain. Britain invaded the island in 1797. Calypsos are Trinidadian street songs telling of everyday life. A confused boy from west Wales enters, fleeing from pirates, his head stuffed with sea songs. But in this life and death turmoil, who actually are the pirates?Details of the show here: An Act of Piracy – the classical/calypso opera
Maud is a classical music theatre show that develops this series of dramatic recitals with a gripping performance of Tennyson’s great poem in cultural and economic crisis of the mid 19th century with music by Arthur Somervell. Details of the show here: Maud – classical music theatre
Poet’s Love – postcards from Robert Schumann brings to life for audiences the internationally famous song cycle “Dichterliebe” (poet’s love). The two part show begins with an illustrated musical lecture introducing Heinrich Heine’s astonishing poetry set by Schumann as a love token for his fiancée Clara. Following an interval the 16 songs are presented in dramatic performance. Through the turmoil of love Heine looks into the roots of a society desperately and dangerously seeking a new identity and renewal.
To discuss Poet’s Love, An Act of Piracy, Maud and the work of Coleridge Cymru please get in touch here.
