Aldeburgh Music

Jamie McDermott vocals
Conor Mitchell, Benjamin Britten music
Mark Ravenhill, WH Auden words

Could Britten’s delightful foray into popular song have been early coded love letters to the man with whom he was to share the rest of his life? Eight decades on, Conor Mitchell’s new settings of new Mark Ravenhill lyrics capture and embellish the atmosphere of heady excitement, emotional anxiety and inevitable heartache of a blossoming love affair.

Originally written for an actress, Britten’s cabaret songs are given new life by Jamie McDermott,  charismatic vocalist of quirky and theatrical indie band, The Irrepressibles, His sultry falsetto brings new colour and poignancy to a radical re-imagining of Britten’s originals, sung alongside new Mitchell settings of song lyrics that Auden intended for Britten but were never used, and a brand new set of cabaret songs they’ve inspired.