Award-winning Apollo’s Cabinet Announce UK Tour of The Comic Muse
Award-winning Apollo’s Cabinet are currently on tour in the UK with The Comic Muse – the story of famed 18 th century soprano Kitty Clive - and they will be coming to Scilly this summer.
The award-winning early music ensemble will be performing in various venues across the UK during April – July including concerts in the Scilly Isles, Cornwall, the South Coast, Northampton and London as they tour their new album – The Comic Muse: The Theatrical World of Kitty Clive.
The semi-staged concerts tell 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.
Kitty 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.
The tour begins on 17 April 2025 in Malpas, Truro, before visiting:
Clastock near Plymouth (Saturday 19 April 2025)
Stables Theatre, Hastings (Friday 2 May 2025)
The Garibaldi, Northampton (Sunday11 May 2025)
Purbeck Art Week, Dorset (Saturday 24 May 2025)
Hackney Music London (Thursday 12 June 2025)
Strawberry Hill House, London (Thursday 19 June 2025);
Isles of Scilly (Monday 7 and Tuesday 8 July 2025)
Penlee Park Open Air Theatre, Penzance (Wednesday 9 July2025)
Lichfield Festival (Tuesday 15 July 2025)
Apollo’s Cabinet comprises Jonatan Bougt (theorbo, Baroque guitar), Harry Buckoke (viola da gamba), Thomas Pickering (harpsichord, recorder, flute), and Teresa Wrann (recorder). This tour will also feature sopranos Angela Hicks (performing on 19 April, 24 May, 7 July, 8 July and 9 July and Lauren Lodge-Campbell (performing on 2 May, 11 May, 12 June, 19 June and 15 July).
The event at Hackney Music London on Thursday 12 June 2025 will be a special concert to launch the album – released on the Prima Classic label on Friday 4 April with the album also released digitally on Friday 29 August 2025 – and features special guests London-based Bulgarian violinist Sophia Prodanova and Belfast-born baritone Malachy Frame.
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.
