The Mirror and the Light
'The title mirrors what’s gone before, casts light on it, sometimes fresh light, sometimes things are not as we thought, we come at them from a fresh angle, gaps are filled in, things we did not know.’ Hilary Mantel.
Choristers sing softly, a Tudor Mass, The Westron Wynde, tells of loss and longing, of separation.
'The title mirrors what’s gone before, casts light on it, sometimes fresh light, sometimes things are not as we thought, we come at them from a fresh angle, gaps are filled in, things we did not know.’ Hilary Mantel.
Choristers sing softly, a Tudor Mass, The Westron Wynde, tells of loss and longing, of separation.
Westron wynde when wylt thow blow
the smalle rayne downe shall rayne
Cryst that my love were in my arms
and I in my bed agayne
‘Where is my father?’ The child would ask. And her mother Anselma replied, ‘over the sea.’ Father and daughter are in the choir stalls, reunited, but soon to part. Jenneke will be borne over the sea on a western wind, up the Scheldt and home to Antwerp. Letters might reach him, over the sea. The music of the Mass echoes their story of separation. Of Thomas Cromwell from his lover Anselma, and their child.
Anne Boleyn walks to the scaffold as Jane Seymour weds Henry VIII. ‘Anne is pretty horrible at lots of moments. And Claire Foy doesn’t hold back. But at her end she has to break the heart, and she does’, says director Peter Kosminsky. Scenes of Anne's execution and Jane's wedding are intercut as the pure and lovely voice of soprano Grace Davidson binds them together in a spell of sorrow.
Thomas Cromwell is haunted by Anne's execution - a prefiguring of his fall. We know his end, we’ve always known it. A botched execution, so how will director Peter Kosminsky tell the story, and what of the music.
Thomas Cromwell is long dead but through Mantel’s wonderful books, realised on stage and screen, he comes alive to us, his fame more widespread than in his lifetime. His fame and his legacy.
the smalle rayne downe shall rayne
Cryst that my love were in my arms
and I in my bed agayne
‘Where is my father?’ The child would ask. And her mother Anselma replied, ‘over the sea.’ Father and daughter are in the choir stalls, reunited, but soon to part. Jenneke will be borne over the sea on a western wind, up the Scheldt and home to Antwerp. Letters might reach him, over the sea. The music of the Mass echoes their story of separation. Of Thomas Cromwell from his lover Anselma, and their child.
Anne Boleyn walks to the scaffold as Jane Seymour weds Henry VIII. ‘Anne is pretty horrible at lots of moments. And Claire Foy doesn’t hold back. But at her end she has to break the heart, and she does’, says director Peter Kosminsky. Scenes of Anne's execution and Jane's wedding are intercut as the pure and lovely voice of soprano Grace Davidson binds them together in a spell of sorrow.
Thomas Cromwell is haunted by Anne's execution - a prefiguring of his fall. We know his end, we’ve always known it. A botched execution, so how will director Peter Kosminsky tell the story, and what of the music.
Thomas Cromwell is long dead but through Mantel’s wonderful books, realised on stage and screen, he comes alive to us, his fame more widespread than in his lifetime. His fame and his legacy.
From the National Archive at Kew, a talk on Cromwell’s Remembrances, the State Papers, official roles he occupied, laws enacted, religious reforms, his legacy.
On BBC radio 3 The Music of Wolf Hall. Composer Debbie Wiseman tells of close collaboration with director Peter Kosminsky, of the importance of music in telling the story.
Three Tudor composers wrote Westron Wynde Masses: John Taverner (c. 1490–1545), Christopher Tye (c. 1505– 1573) and John Sheppard (c. 1515–1558). The Mass we hear is by John Sheppard.
A BBC documentary, Renaissance: blood and beauty, explores the rivalry between Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raffaele. Martin Luther's horror at seeing corruption emanating from the Papacy triggers the Reformation, word spreading faster with the coming of the printing press and the availability of paper. The background to Henry VIII and his break with Rome.
Director Peter Kosminsky is interviewed by John WIlson on This Cultural Life, link below
BBC
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0024zk3
On 12th February 2014 we watched a staging of Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies at the Swan theatre, Stratford. An event the more memorable for driving home toward midnight through sheet lightning and thunder snow.
Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies, dangerous days. Posted 10 March 2020. The link below takes you to there.
cumbrianaturally.co.uk
https://www.cumbrianaturally.co.uk/blo…
On BBC radio 3 The Music of Wolf Hall. Composer Debbie Wiseman tells of close collaboration with director Peter Kosminsky, of the importance of music in telling the story.
Three Tudor composers wrote Westron Wynde Masses: John Taverner (c. 1490–1545), Christopher Tye (c. 1505– 1573) and John Sheppard (c. 1515–1558). The Mass we hear is by John Sheppard.
A BBC documentary, Renaissance: blood and beauty, explores the rivalry between Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raffaele. Martin Luther's horror at seeing corruption emanating from the Papacy triggers the Reformation, word spreading faster with the coming of the printing press and the availability of paper. The background to Henry VIII and his break with Rome.
Director Peter Kosminsky is interviewed by John WIlson on This Cultural Life, link below
BBC
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0024zk3
On 12th February 2014 we watched a staging of Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies at the Swan theatre, Stratford. An event the more memorable for driving home toward midnight through sheet lightning and thunder snow.
Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies, dangerous days. Posted 10 March 2020. The link below takes you to there.
cumbrianaturally.co.uk
https://www.cumbrianaturally.co.uk/blo…
RSS Feed