Concerts and Theatrical Performances
The Lewis Walpole Library’s public programming includes support for music and drama.
In 2016, the library introduced a series of free chamber concerts in Farmington featuring works from the library’s collection of eighteenth-century music. Performers included the ensembles New Vintage Baroque and Grand Harmonie .
Upcoming Performances
Horace Walpole’s The Mysterious Mother: A Staged Reading
Presented by the Lewis Walpole Library and the Yale Center for British Art
Wednesday, May 2, 2018, 5:30 pm, Yale Center for British Art
Abridged by David Worrall, Emeritus Professor of English at Nottingham Trent University
Directed by Misty G. Anderson, Lindsay Young Professor of English, University of Tennessee
As part of the year-long celebrations of the tercentenary of Horace Walpole’s birth, the Lewis Walpole Library and the Yale Center for British Art are collaborating to present a staged reading of The Mysterious Mother. Completed just a few years after Walpole’s celebrated gothic novel The Castle of Otranto (1764), this under-appreciated tale of incest and intrigue was initially circulated only among the author’s friends. Walpole never permitted it to be performed during his lifetime except as a private theatrical. This performance is free and open to the public.
Following the reading there will be a talk-back session moderated by Catherine Sheehy, Professor of the Practice of Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism, Yale University.
CAST:
Countess of Narbonne Georgina Lock
Count Edmund, her Son Carlos Guanche
Florian, his friend Gilberto Saenz
Adeliza Chelsea Phillips
Benedict Charlie Gillespie
Martin Justin Crisp
Peter Porter Dale Townshend
Servant Stephen Clarke
In connection with this performance, the library has also organized Horace Walpole’s The Mysterious Mother: A Mini-conference. This event is being held on Thursday, May 3. For more information about this mini-conference, please see our Lectures & Conference page.