About

Portsmouth Cathedral hosts a celebration of the 250th birthday of Jane Austen, with music from her own collection along with snippets of information about the musical thread running through her life and works. With original Regency instruments and replica costume, performers will step back in time to Portsmouth of the early 1800s.

Pianist and historical interpreter, Lisa Timbs, funded by Arts Council England, has looked in detail at music owned by Jane Austen and her female relations. After privileged access to the original books, she now shares her findings with audiences around the country by recreating the music using her 1826 Broadwood square piano and authentic replica clothing.

Accompanied by soprano Verity Joy and harpist Annemarie Rhys-Jones, Lisa will transport the audience to a Portsmouth dominated by the Navy, intent on defeating Napoleon. It's a place familiar to Austen's brothers Charles and Francis, both of whom had illustrious naval careers. Music was a useful propaganda tool to keep up morale after so many years of war, but this show will also visit Jane Austen at home and find her using music to amuse, as an emotional outlet and as a plot device in her novels. Hear how, in her usual subtle way, she leaves clues about her characters with music - showing the rogues and gently poking fun at the lovelorn.

Book tickets at portcath.link/earlymusic.