Enoch Arden – a Melodrama for Narrator & Piano

St Buryan Church 17th Nov 2022 7:30pm

Programme

Enoch Arden - A Melodrama for Narrator & Piano
Poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Music by Richard Strauss

Sam Freegard – narrator
Anthony Seddon - piano
with illustrations by Sarah Seddon

Sea Songs
Michele Sharkey – soprano
Anthony Seddon – piano

Enoch Arden is a narrative epic poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. It was written by Tennyson whilst staying at the Tregarthen’s Hotel on St Mary’s Scilly and first published in 1864.

Based on a story by Thomas Woolner, the eponymous hero is a fisherman turned merchant sailor who leaves his wife, Annie, and three children to go to sea with his old captain. Recent events have seen him fall upon hard times and struggle to provide for his family. During his voyage abroad, however, he is shipwrecked and remains lost and missing. After ten years he returns to find his wife remarried and his children being provided for by her new husband, his old friend and rival Philip Reay. So great is his love that he never reveals himself to them but dies of a broken heart.

In 1897, Richard Strauss set the poem as a recitation for speaker and piano.

The performance also includes a short selection of Victorian sea-songs and an exhibition of monoprints inspired by the moving tale.

All proceeds to St. Buryan Church & St. Petroc's