The three musical plays celebrate the lives of extraordinary women who defied the strictures of their time, with each story being both of their time but also startlingly contemporary. Vision [which we saw at Brighton Early Music Festival in 2015, see my review] explores the life and music of composer, mystic and polymath Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), combining an imagined personal testimony from Hildegard with her own music. Unsung Heroine gives us the imagined history of troubadour Countess Beatriz de Dia (1140-1212), taking audiences back to 12th century Provence with plaintive songs and foot-stomping medieval dances. Finally, Into the Melting Pot celebrates the music and lives of Christian, Jewish and Arabic women in medieval Spain, set just before the expulsion of the Jews in 1492, with Sephardic songs and lively medieval Cantigas and instrumentals which fuse Christian, Jewish and Arabic instrumentation and styles.
The Telling features actors Teresa Banham and Suzanne Ahmet with soprano and writer Clare Norburn, mezzo-soprano Ariane Prussner, Giles Lewin on oud, Fatima Lahham on recorders and harpist Joy Smith.
Full details from the Music at Oxford website. The Telling is also touring the works across the UK, see the group's website for details.
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