Michael Field is the toast of the town. They are rubbing shoulders with Oscar Wilde — he’s a fan! Edith falls for another. What will this mean for Michael Field? **EPISODE LYRICS

EDITH'S WALTZ**We go into our bedroom which leads from the salon —
it looks impossible at first sight — so small a bed.
We have a sense we are beginning a life
in which the impossible becomes possible.

As I pass through the door Bernhard says
“How charming you are looking”
and I feel an angry self-depreciation at the remark…
After a walk with Bernhard
we light our own lamp in the dark salon.
A young Americaine comes in
— a little shapely dusk thing,
with fire-flies in her pupils
A despair lies over me —
I cannot play with life as she can.
Bernhard plays too,
and I feel heavy.

In course of conversation he says that a
“place becomes provincial by believing it is not so.
No place is so provincial as London”.

The Americaine goes — will Bernhard go
is a question that almost stops my heart.
Yes — he gives his hand to all, and goes.

There is no beauty like freedom.
No grace that must not be foregone for freedom.Mary shows me the studio under our vine tree where a painter lives with his mistress. We seem to live in the air of a French novel.

At Duval’s we chose a table
They come in.
We watch them
They come up to us,
Bernhard says:

“Miss Cooper and I should marry and be miserable ever after.”

I am powerless to shake off such remarks with irony or wit.
I suffer and I hate.
But it is true — we give one another no pleasure;
the fascination we have for each other
makes us wretched.

DEEP APRILIt was deep April, and the morn
Shakespeare was born;
The world was on us, pressing sore;
My love and I took hands and swore,
Against the world, to be
Poets and lovers evermore,
To laugh and dream on Lethe's shore,
To sing to Charon in his boat,
Heartening the timid souls afloat;
Of judgement never to take heed,
But to those fast-locked souls to speed,
Who never from Apollo fled,
Who spent no hour among the dead;
Continually
With them to dwell,
Indifferent to heaven and hell.

Veritable Michael — a podcast operaThis podcast captures the making of Veritable Michael, a new opera based on the true story of Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper — two Victorian poets who lived, loved and wrote under the pseudonym, Michael Field. This podcast combines Katherine's and Edith's journals, poetry and letters with an original score by Tom Floyd, and interviews with guest speakers. Join the Shadow Opera team as we dive into Michael's fascinating and queer world.
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A full transcript of this episode can be found here.
Veritable Michael is a Shadow Opera production.
Music composed by Tom Floyd.
Words by Michael Field.
Created and produced by Sophie Goldrick and Tom Floyd.
Artwork by James Long.

Performances by Lizzie Holmes, Sophie Goldrick, James Long and Patrick Neyman.

Thanks to our guest speakers, Professor Marion Thain, Dr Ana Parejo Vadillo and Dr Sarah Parker.

Veritable Michael is generously supported by the Ralph Vaughan Williams Trust, The Stephen Oliver Award and The Countess of Munster Musical Trust and our incredible band of crowd-funders.

For more information go to our Instagram.