An Evening with Queen Victoria

A portrait of Queen Victoria drawn from her own words - her diaries, letters and other writings, ranging from the old lady in her last days at Osborne, remembering her past, to the young princess, as an impetuous girl, hating lessons and loving the Opera and dancing. The programme glimpses Victoria through the varied experiences of her immense reign, showing her as a small child, the young Queen at her Coronation, as wife and mother, matron, widow and Empress, and touches on her relationships with a succession of male figures, including King Leopold, Lord Melbourne, Prince Albert, John Brown and her Indian servants, and Disraeli.

Above all it presents Victoria through her own eyes, revealing a contradictory and sometimes surprising person: at once vivid and emotional, yet nervous and unself-confident; puritanical yet pleasure-loving; proud but with wide human sympathies. Most endearing is her own honesty, and her trenchant and human response to events and people.

The music is selected from pieces heard and enjoyed by Victoria herself, and which provides an emotional point of reference to the shifting moods of the programme.

This production toured extensively throughout the United Kingdom. This season took place immediately prior to its inclusion in the Festival of Perth.