Persuasion

Characters in Jane Austen’s ‘Persuasion’ burst forth in song as Diana Blom creates a musical collage that expresses the characters of Anne Elliot, Frederick Wentworth, Sir Walter, Elizabeth, Mary, Charles, cousin William and Lady Russell. Scored for only two voices – high and low and accompanied by piano, and with words by Diana Weston and quotations from Austen herself – the singers must swivel from one sharply-drawn character to the next as they reveal their personalities, plottings, persuasions and desires. In celebration and in honour of Austen’s birth 250 years ago, Blom offers her version of Persuasion as a song-cycle that reflects her admiration of this exceptional woman.