Leonora’s Courage

As associate artist at Glyndebourne 2019-2022 I am making a coloured etching on each opera that has taken my fancy. Leonora’s Courage which is finally finished, I hope acts as a triumphal image depicting our heroine through her marital love of Florestan defeat the evil tyranny of the state, in this case by trampling Don Pizarro, governor of the prison, under foot. While I hope the composition is not too reminiscent of the ghastly experience of up skirting, Leonora, aka Fidelio, Beethoven’s one and only epic and strangely abstract opera, full of hope for a more democratic new world order and incredibly pertinent for our time is at last in the driving seat. The backdrop is reduced to a dawning sky still full of stars and her simple dress a metaphor for the power of a humble uprising against a nefarious looking suited member of an autocracy - TH