83. Main Evening Concert

This concert is the third in our series of famous women in their own words. The American composer Jake Heggie and his librettist, Gene Scheer, have zoned into the well-known, tragic tale of the sculptor Camille Claudel and her relationship with Rodin. They set the story on the day she is saying farewell to her life before being dragged to the Asylum, each movement being named after one of her famous works, such as La Valse and L’Age Mûr. The Armida Quartet and Lotte Betts-Dean have learnt this work especially for the Festival. The first half of the concert sees two short works by Ukrainian composers followed by Dvorak’s intoxicating Dumky Trio, whose radiant vocal melodies tread the exquisite borderline of Czech sentimentality hidden in a triumphant new structure that dispenses entirely with classical sonata form.