And a River Went Out from Eden...
The Wind in the Willows,
for six voices
James Occhino, Annie Walwyn-Jones,
Andrea Barnet, Jan Hanvik,
Joan Arnold, Jim Paul
Photos and Video: Beth Thielen
Piano: Nicki Denner
Flute: Anton Denner
Arranged and directed by Jim Paul
Saturday July 30 at 8pm
Sunday July 31 at 3pm
In 1908, Kenneth Grahame retired from his position as secretary of
the Bank of England, moved back up the Thames to Berkshire, and wrote
down the bedtime stories he had been telling his son Alistair.
The tales became a classic of children's literature, The Wind in the Willows.
Grahame spent much time on the Thames, and the book is above all a
loving portrait of that river, and all rivers. In the first edition, the frontispiece
illustration featured cherubs and a fountain above an inscription:
"And a river went out from Eden."
The work features the unlikely friendship of a mole, called Mole, and
a water rat, called Ratty, and their adventures on the river, where the
underground Mole learns about a whole new world.
For this presentation, the first chapter of the work has been arranged for
six readers: James Occhino, Annie Walwyn-Jones, Andrea Barnet,
Jan Hanvik, Joan Arnold, and Jim Paul. Occhino and Walwyn-Jones
read the parts of the Mole and the Rat.
Music accompanies the reading and is woven through it.
Flutist Anton Denner and pianist Nicky Denner play short works
by the French composer Charles Koechlin, a contemporary of Grahame's.
