No Shepherdess/No Pastoral

About

Soprano, Ellie McCormick will perform arias from the ‘lost’ opera Le Roi at le fermier (The King and the Farmer) once sung by Marie-Antoinette.

This special event is a behind the scenes look at the making of the moving image artwork No Shepherdess/No Pastoral which screens at the Wallace Collection later this year.

No Pastoral/No Shepherdess depicts the soprano (Ellie McCormick) singing the character Jenny's arias from the ‘lost’ opera 'Le Roi at le fermier' ('The King and the Farmer'), which was once sung by Marie Antoinette, to objects once owned by or were associated with her. These performances have been filmed and together form a larger moving image artwork.

Another element of the work highlights the impact of a connection to Antoinette had on female historical figures such as painter Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun and Marie Grosholtz (Madame Tussaud) during the French Revolution. A fundamental intention for the work is linking the objects back together via these performances, allowing an audience to create new conversations between Marie Antoinette, the objects, their makers and the collections that hold them.

Other examples of objects included in the film work are Antoinette’s piano from the Cobbe Collection National Trust, Antoinette’s music stand & chair at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the guillotine that may of ended her life at Madame Tussauds London.

Alongside the performance of excerpts from the opera will be talks from curator Dr Yuriko Jackall the Wallace Collection's Curator of French Paintings and artist Estella Castle will talk about her artistic practice and thinking behind her current artwork. Free.​