THE award-winning early music ensemble Apollo’s Cabinet will be coming to Cornwall with a semi-staged concert telling the story of the life, arias and music of the 18th century soprano Kitty Clive featuring English theatre music from the time together with arias Clive would have performed herself.

Starting their 11-date UK concert tour to promote their new album – The Comic Muse: The Theatrical World of Kitty Clive – Apollo’s Cabinet will perform in Malpas Village Hall, near Truro on Thursday, April 17 and Calstock Village Hall on Saturday, April 19. The tour will travel around the UK before arriving back in Cornwall at the Penlee Park Open Air Theatre, Penzance on Wednesday, July 9.

Clive (1711 – 1785) was a real celebrity of her time and advocated for women’s rights both in and outside the playhouse, defined her own image and even reimagined herself as the first female comedian.

In 1743, she was engaged by Handel to lead his oratorio compositions, and from the early 1740s, Clive was the top-paid player at London’s Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, playing 184 theatre roles over 22 years, until she was defamed by male colleagues, losing her popularity and being subsequently forgotten by historians.

This album and concert tour explores her world, shines a light on the vocal genres in which she excelled, and celebrates the vibrancy of mid-eighteenth-century theatre performances through the instrumental publications that they inspired.

Apollo’s Cabinet comprises Jonatan Bougt (theorbo, Baroque guitar), Harry Buckoke (viola da gamba), Thomas Pickering (harpsichord, recorder, flute), and Teresa Wrann (recorder). This concert will also feature soprano Angela Hicks.

Winners of the Royal Overseas League Mixed Ensemble prize, Utrecht Oude Muziek Competition and the Göttingen International Händel Competition, Apollo’s Cabinet offers a signature mix of acting, dancing, poetry and drama to bring historical performance to modern audiences.

The group has furthermore won the Brian Nisbet Prize for their fusion of Music and Poetry; audience and first prize at #GeneraciónSMADE in Spain; the F. J. Aumann Prize for innovation and new discoveries in Baroque music at the International Biber Competition in Austria; first prize at the Maurizio Pratola Competition, Italy; the Friends prize at the York Early Music International Young Artists Competition; second prize at the CIMA competition in Loire Valley, France; and last but not least won the Potsdam Lunchtime Concert Competition in Germany.