Katharina Spreckelsen explains why we've put together a composer and a poet who live over a hundred years apart.
As our principal oboe, she has curated the programme for The Rime of the Ancient Mariner on 5 October.
There are many elements of Coleridge’s ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ which intrigued me. Its demonstration of the power of poetry and language reminded me of song settings by Henry Purcell and Coleridge’s choice of the ancient ballad form supported my going back in time to reach for music which is more than a hundred years older than the poem.
It’s a poem about a man with a story to tell – and retell – a story about guilt and penance, which takes us on a journey from a wedding into a world full of challenging supernatural encounters.
