MUSLIVE Performance Workshop (2) 'Performance' (Sept-Oct 2024): Temple Music Foundation show 'Songs of Consolation' (video recording of the dress rehearsal, Temple Church, morning of October 30th, 2024)

The video is a dress rehearsal of the show Songs of Consolation: Music and Poetry in the Medieval Mediterranean, the outcome of the second MUSLIVE workshop and preparatory meetings running from August-October, 2024. The rationale of the underpinning research, editions and texts prepared for the performance by the MUSLIVE team and guest scholar Dr. Mohamed Ahmed, are shared in items 1, 3-5 of the MUSLIVE Performance Workshop (2) data sets.

The present video was the product of collaboration between those presenting (see below), members of the three Song Teams supporting the singers from Siglo de Oro, their director, a theatre-maker, content development advisors to the MUSLIVE team, and support from the performance's hosts at the Temple Music Foundation and Temple Church. The complete list of collaborators and presenters/performers is listed below.

The performance was the first full run-through of the hour-long programme, 'Songs of Consolation', made on the morning of 30th October, 2024. Two public performances were presented on the evening of 31st October, 2024 (6;30-7.30; 8.30-9.30), with each performance preceded by an informal meet-and-greet by the Musical Lives team (Professor Emma Dillon, Dr. Alice Hicklin, Dr. Betty Rosen, Dr. Geneviève Young) and guest scholar, Dr. Mohamed Ahmed. Each team member presented a large poster, outlining information about the project and texts of the show, so that audiences had the chance to engage with some of the information ahead of the performance as well as the chance to talk to the individual team. This was set up in the Round Church, the historical space (including effigies of the Marshal family) referenced in the programme itself, additionally allowing the audience to experience the architecture and explore the effigies. In this way, audience members were guided into performance through information and environment, as a way to direct their attention towards the songs and texts performed in a new way.

The video file is not downloadable but are shared openly and available for anyone to stream via the repository. The access is limited in this way to reflect the status of the performance itself. It is shared as work-in-progress and as a record of the wider research underpinning the performance, and as one piece of the research outcomes of this workshop, part of whose mandate was to examine how performance and programming can be a means to further as well as disseminate research. It is shared with permission of all those performers and readers shown in the video. Please note that Donald Greig appears in the video standing in for Emma Dillon (who was unable to an attend the dress rehearsal). Emma read the parts performed by Donald in the final show.

In the video:

Readers:

Dr. Mohamed Ahmed (reciting medieval Arabic with Betty Rosen)

Dr. Donald Greig (for Emma Dillon)

Dr. Alice Hicklin (reading and reciting Latin charters)

Dr. Betty Rosen (reading and reciting medieval Arabic poetry with Mohamed Ahmed)

Dr. Geneviève Young

Singers:

Paul Bentley-Angell

Hannah Ely

Rebekah Jones

Full team of collaborators who contributed to development of the programme

Members of Siglo de Oro:

Patrick Allies (musical director)

Paul Bentley-Angell (tenor)

Hannah Ely (soprano)

Rebekah Jones (mezzo soprano)

MUSLIVE presenters:

Professor Emma Dillon

Dr. Alice Hicklin (with Latin recitation)

Dr. Betty Rosen (with Arabic recitation)

Dr. Geneviève Young

with guest researcher Dr. Mohamed Ahmed (with Arabic recitation)

Director:

Constance Des Marais

Co-creators of song performances:

Dr. Sean Curran (with Hannah Ely)

Dr. Mary Franklin-Brown (with Paul Bentley-Angell)

Professor Jane Gilbert (with Hannah Ely)

Dr. Donald Greig (with Rebekah Jones)

Dr. Alice Hazard (with Rebekah Jones)

Professor Yolanda Plumley (with Paul Bentley-Angell)

Temple Music Foundation advisors:

Roland Deller (Chief Executive)

Ellen Durkin (Events and Administration Officer)

Matthew Powers (Verger and sound/light advisor)

Musical Lives coordinator:

Fiona Barsoum (Project Research Assistant)

Musical Lives team script advisors:

Dr. Katy Hamilton and Dr. Flora Willson

Research and programme design

Professor Emma Dillon