Reverie: The Life and Loves of Claude Debussy. Lucy Parham and Sir Simon Russell Beale.

Lucy Parham returns with Rêverie, the fourth in her extraordinary Composer Portrait series, and on this occasion is joined by one of the most popular and critically acclaimed talents in British theatre, Sir Simon Russell Beale.

One of the most prolific and innovative composers of the early 20th century, Claude Debussy absorbed and transformed cultural influences from countries as far apart as Scotland (The Girl with the Flaxen Hair), Japan (Poissons d’Or) and the USA (Cake Walk). A crucial element of Debussy’s complex intellectual and emotional world was an entangled love life that brought illicit trysts in Jersey, a brush with a revolver and even a suicide attempt.

The narrative of Rêverie, which takes the form of a personal journal, follows him from his initial success with the Prix de Rome in 1885 to his untimely death in 1918. It is punctuated with solo piano works ranging from the ever-popular lyricism of Clair de Lune, Rêverie and The Girl with the Flaxen Hair to such virtuosic showpieces as Jardins sous la Pluie, the Etudes and L’Isle Joyeuse.