Veritable Michael - a podcast opera
Veritable Michael - a podcast opera
Ep. 1 Michael Takes the Stage
Michael Field is in rehearsal. Will their first play to be staged be a triumph? We return to the very beginning and explore Katherine’s and Edith’s pre-Michael Field lives.
This 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.
If you are enjoying Veritable Michael and want to support our show, please consider making a donation.
A 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, video content or just to tell us that you're loving the podcast - go to shadowopera.com/veritable-michael or via our Instagram. Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe this podcast.
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This podcast captures the making of Veritable Michael, a new opera by Tom Floyd and Sophie Goldrick. In May 1884, London awoke to the news of an exciting new playwright and poet bursting onto the scene to rave reviews. Michael Field not only won the praise of the papers, but also piqued the interest of literary giants Robert Browning and Oscar Wilde... but Michael was hiding a secret.
Lyrics to 'Prologue':The moon rose full: the women stood; As though within a sacred wood; Around an altarthus with awe; The perfect, virgin orb they saw; Supreme above them and its light; Fell on their limbs and garments white. Then with pale, lifted brows they stirred; Their fearful steps at Sappho's
Sophie Goldrick:Veritable Michael tells the true story of word Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper, two poets who lived, loved and wrote under the pen name, Michael Field, and their struggle with Victorian patriarchy.
Prof. Marion Thain:They want to occupy in the moment, which is an incredible concept when you think about it, this is the late 19th century, and they have this incredibly modern notion of gender identity.
Lizzie Holmes:I'm defending Edith here, it's a total betrayal.
Sophie Goldrick:Yeah, I think she did it with the best of intentions.
Dr. Sarah Parker:insulted but like the overblown nature of opera and the sound of it and the performance. I just think all of that just captures that kind of campy extravagance that is Michael Field.
Prof. Marion Thain:They can kind of choose how they occupy gendered spaces rather than feeling they are confined to a feminine space.
Sophie Goldrick:I'm your host, Sophie Goldrick. This podcast is part opera, part documentary, and combines a new score by Tom Floyd with guest interviews, bringing to life the fantastical, witty and queer world of Michael Field. So what was Michael's secret? Well, he wasn't a man. He wasn't a woman. He was in fact two women deeply in love, writing together. Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper spent more than 25 years living, loving and writing as Michael Field. Veritable Michael uses Katherine and Edith's plays, poetry and most specially their epic collection of diaries to tell their story in their own words.
Katherine Bradley:So what is this podcast about?
Sophie Goldrick:This is me sitting down with the composer Tom Floyd to try and answer that question. I'm not entirely sure we managed it.
Tom Floyd:Alright.
Sophie Goldrick:Hi, Tom.
Tom Floyd:Hi.
Sophie Goldrick:So we're talking about the origins of Veritable Michael and how we got here. Can you remember the first time you came across the name Michael Field?
Tom Floyd:I can and it was an alarming number of years ago.
Sophie Goldrick:2017 If I'm not mistaken.
Tom Floyd:Yeah, not our fastest project to bring to fruition.
Sophie Goldrick:Got a lot going on
Tom Floyd:Yeah. slowburn. We went to the, it was a Tate Britain exhibition of something like Queer, Queer art, Queer British Art. And it's fair to say there wasn't a lot of Michael Field. But
Sophie Goldrick:it was a tiny caption if I recall
Tom Floyd:tiny caption, lots of paintings of naked Cornish boys. Henry Scott Tuke, Duncan Grant all that stuff.
Sophie Goldrick:and the Hockneys of course,
Tom Floyd:lots of Hockney. And then there was this one, I can't remember if it was one or two little pieces of jewelry. There was a pendant for sure. Which we've now learn quite a lot about but back then we had not heard at all about Michael Field. But this piece of jewelry belonged to Michael Field and was made by an artist called Charles Ricketts and there was just as little tiny snippet of their biography, detailing that Michael Field was a pseudonym for these two Victorian female poets, Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper.
Sophie Goldrick:And I think we got put on to an article that'd been published around that time in one of the weekend papers, which just sort of extrapolated a bit more of the biography. I remember reading that and being like, this is a rich seam How have I never heard about them before?
Tom Floyd:Yeah, no, for sure. And it was it screamed intrigue for sure. So that got us interested. And
Sophie Goldrick:then it moved to the backburner
Tom Floyd:It did. We were working on another project at the time. And then we really started to read into these two women. I think the thing that really hooked us was the fact they had this shared diary from the, this kind of shared identity from their sort of adult lives on
Sophie Goldrick:and first person accounts of their daily life, which it's not, that's a pretty rare resource to come across, as well as their poetic output. Right?
Tom Floyd:Definitely. And then it had to feel operatic. And the more we sort of looked into their story, the more we realized that was just totally the right art form.
Sophie Goldrick:Definitely.
Tom Floyd:They are over the top in the very best way. They live beyond limits. And I think that that was very attractive to us. There was so much source material, the poetry, the plays, their shared diaries, the letters, I think that's what then set us on this quest to, to make a piece setting ourselves the challenge of just using their words, so and I think that's what led us to, to make a podcast,
Sophie Goldrick:Not just that there was something the the big P right, pandemic.
Tom Floyd:What's the big P?
Sophie Goldrick:Pandemic.
Tom Floyd:Sorry, no idea where you were going with that.
Sophie Goldrick:Filth! Gutter, gutter, straight in the gutter.
Tom Floyd:Yeah, the pandemic,
Sophie Goldrick:The pandemic happened. And obviously, you're like, we had, I think, rekindled Michael Field before the pandemic started. And then, I guess the medium by which we might render it, aside from the fact that we were... we were isolated in our homes. It's that we are both podcast fanatics, and everyone's gonna have a podcast these days.
Tom Floyd:Yeah. And when I've spoken to people about the project, they kind of go on an amazing lockdown project, right? No started it well before.
Sophie Goldrick:Yes, thank you.
Tom Floyd:But no, has been a great one for, you know, we could work on it during the pandemic, which has been great. And yeah, I think the podcast side sort of try to capture how we've gone about making it whilst we make it. I mean, that's a new thing for me. And I think because of the number of great conversations we had with amazing academics and people who just know the story of these women, so so well, it felt really important as for the authenticity, you know, we're not trying to tell the story as an autobio... as an autobiography. I am Katherine Bradley
Sophie Goldrick:No, I am Katherine Bradley thank you very much! No it's definitely not a biography. And it was how can we kind of create a rhapsodic universe which they would be happy to live in?
Tom Floyd:Yeah, I think it's that long form content as well, that don't get me wrong when it comes to doing the piece, obviously, the art just needs to speak for itself. It needs to be a good need to be a good opera. But I think their story is so interesting. And we're limited as to exactly how much of that story we can get into the piece itself. Yeah, I think it's a, hopefully it's interesting to people to hear the wider context of where this piece is sitting.
Sophie Goldrick:And also, because that scholarship, as I come to understand now, is accelerating right now. Because it's being picked up as a PhD subject more and more and more. And the diaries are being transcribed. The academic world around Michael Field is accelerating at this moment. So we just happen to chime in with that. And that's got everyone very excited.
Tom Floyd:I know, now we need to really get this out, because soon it's going to be Michael Field, like the motion picture. And
Sophie Goldrick:yeah, we need to get in before the ITV six part series.
Tom Floyd:And then I think just what those what these kind of guests have brought to the piece, not just for the entries they gave, but in terms of since working on the podcast, invitations to come perform it, live shows, you know, the piece is kind of really taking on a life of its own. And it's it's really exciting to kind of see where that's going.
Sophie Goldrick:Yeah, so that's been the transition, or the next life of Veritable Michael, rather than just being an opera that lives in your earphones, it's going to be something that lives on stage. And that made us kind of pivot, what we were trying to do with this podcast that you're listening to right now into more of a making of or a more of an unpacking of how we've created the opera.
Tom Floyd:And I think that's the thing to say is some of the material that you hear here is years old, probably and some is being recorded this very moment. So hopefully it'll be a an interesting curation of bits from the opera, interview that you had researching it, clips with the cast. Yeah, a whole mix of stuff.
Sophie Goldrick:It's like, you know, the deep cuts on Michael Field. So...
Tom Floyd:So, if you're not convinced by now
Sophie Goldrick:Turn back. There's opera coming, be warned! Just taking a second to introduce the creatives who are contributing to the pod. You've heard from Tom and me already, as well as hosting. I'm also a mezzo soprano and I'll be singing the role of Katherine Bradley. I'm joined by the fabulous soprano Lizzie Holmes is Edith Cooper, James Long playing beautifully on the piano and the many voices of actor, Patrick Neyman. It's October 1893 and 10 years since they were first championed in the press, Michael Field is in rehearsals. A Question of Memory, a grand, Hungarian folk epic, aims to devastate and inspire the theatre audiences of London and establish Michael as something better than a poet, a playwright. So why are we starting halfway through this story I hear you ask? It's a good question. We're going to cover how we get to this point and where we go from here. But when we were deciding how to tell the story for this opera, this moment really stood out as a pinnacle in their career. But we needed more information. So I had to talk to someone much smarter than myself.
Dr. Ana Parejo Vadillo:I'm Ana Parejo Vadillo and I'm a reader in English at Birkbeck College, University of London. And I've been working on Michael Field now since I started to do my PhD, which was on on women poets in London, and I started to read Michael Field, and I've never been able to put them down.
Sophie Goldrick:So I was talking to Ana about Question of Memory. Now we knew this play was important, because it's the first one they ever staged. But I hadn't realized what a departure it was in terms of their writing. Here's Ana talking more about the play.
Dr. Ana Parejo Vadillo:To me the play is about the relationship between between nationhood and the ideals of, of what it means to fight for independence, and the human costs attached to that, and, and how, and how characters that are placed in extraordinary positions in their life deal with that. To me, the play rings a lot of Ibsen and, and I don't think you can understand this play or see how it was written without thinking of Ibsen and they had been actually to performances of Ibsen in London. And in they wanted to write a modern play for a modern audience. After all this kind of historical use of Renaissance drama, of Greek drama, of Latin dramas, they wanted to do something that felt modern.
Sophie Goldrick:So to unpack a bit of what Ana's talking about there, Question of Memory is interesting, especially because much of their earlier writing was all to do with the past. You've already heard the Prologue and that was based on the writing of Sappho. And their first published play Callirhoe was set in Ancient Greece. The Question of Memory is a contemporary setting, and it's a modern style of play. So it's a real departure.
Actor:Yes, you think this is a very grand moment that you will be a hero, a martyr I can see it in your eyes. You're a poet or some such bladder brain anyone trembling with joy, to be in peril, and to be of importance? The dream of your life will be fulfilled if I am the fool you take me for. You wish me to threaten the muskets Do you?
Sophie Goldrick:Edith and Katherine are installed in the box by the stage watching the magic unfold. For a playwright, nothing compares with seeing their precious words taking human form, leaping off the page and onto the stage. That moment where mere potential becomes reality when thought becomes manifest. This is what they live for. For Katherine and Edith. After years of waiting in the wings, that moment is finally here. At last a play of theirs is making its way to the stage
Katherine Bradley:There is no place on earth that I am externally so happy as in a theatre. And there is no excitement possible to me than the excitement of the unlidding of the stage's eye.
Actor:You a soldier, and you say that. Shame on you. I defy you to bring my secret from me whatever pain you are base enough to put me to...
Edith Cooper:This afternoon I dare not to go to the theater. I have such a chill. It is difficult to stay away, I so love rehearsal. It is wonderful to see one's words, growing pictures, movements, persons. I must go back to Wednesday's dress rehearsal. All went smoothly except that the battery the director insisted on using refused to work at the right moment, and Ferencz's speech antedated the muskets. Also the curtain came down to slowly in Act Three. Mrs. Morrison, very charming, said she would have given her eyes to write such a play and declared Act Four simply inevitable. The director, De Lange, was a trial with his temper and his tongue and brow. After the show was over, he actually said across the stalls, it went very well indeed, considering one of the actors did all he was told NOT to do and nothing he was told TO do. I saw what he was aiming at for he does not think Bond will be a success and publicly and ungenerously wishes to clear himself of the responsibility. The insult stuck, but Bond was very quiet in his anger. I said, I understand what you suffer. I am a poet, and we cordially shook hands, he will yet do well. Five o'clock, the gas lamps are lighted, the sun is setting.
Sophie Goldrick:I hope you got a sense of what you were going for there. It's Hungarian. It's epic. It's a Hungarian epic. Tom used Hungarian folk tunes and a cimbalon, I think I'm saying that right. to really give a sense of place. And I think it puts across Katherine and Edith's excitement for this moment. But we promised you the beginning of the story and we will deliver. We're gonna rewind to discover how Katherine and Edith became Michael Field. And as you probably noticed, sometimes I need to organize my thoughts rather than just making it up. So here's something I prepared earlier. 22 year old Katherine Bradley escaped cheerless Birmingham for 1860s Paris to study at the College de France and absorb the beauty and tragedy of the city. This time cemented her passion for the sensual and sentimental. But eventually homesickness brought her back to her sister's side to teach her two young nieces. Edith the elder, was always Katherine's favorite. A serious and independent student, Edith was already a poet in her early teens. Katherine, 15 years her senior was also publishing poetry under the name Aran Lee, to relative success among her peers. While robust, wealthy and independent Katherine traveled Europe, Edith, sickly and under the watch of her protective parents was kept at home. But as the two wrote letter after letter to one another, coining endless nicknames, this intimacy and devotion grew into something more. Stopping there, you did hear right that they are related to each other. This is a sensitive issue and it raises questions for anyone meeting Michael Field for the first time. We'll be looking at this more throughout the podcast. But I talked to Dr. Sarah Parker about Katherine and Edith's relationship. And looking back at it from a modern perspective,
Dr. Sarah Parker:something that I that I reflect on a fair bit is that so I did a short piece on Michael Field for The Conversation, which is a kind of academic, academics generate content for this online news site. And it was for LGBTQ history month, really just a really short piece, introducing who they were, and raising some of the issues with kind of thinking about them as a queer icon, as a queer historical icon. And this thing got so many retweets, a lot of them really silly. People saying, Oh, "it's two lesbians in a trench coat", which I did find funny. They would like, what, how is this a thing that they were these you know aunt and niece, niece who are also partners with it, you know, being a man. And I felt kind of like I'd exposed them to I, obviously, to a degree of kind of ridicule and light hearted ridicule. But also, there was a lot of ...people were really troubled by the incestuous aspects. And people were really troubled, asking, you know, saying, Well, "why doesn't this deal with the fact that this is abuse?" It really made me, I suppose, think more deeply about when you when you engage with the public, and when you try and get the work of a writer that has been largely forgotten out there, you know, outside of just the kind of narrow world of academia. It actually I suppose it does expose them to contemporary understandings, or sometimes misunderstandings, and it can be quite difficult to control what people get from that. So, I mean, I would like to think that we can discuss those issues and think about them and reflect on them. And also celebrate and enjoy Michael Field. And I think with any historical figure, this pretty much will be the case.
Sophie Goldrick:I sat down with Lizzie to have a chat about this issue as well.
Lizzie Holmes:Something that's quite different with this set of women also is that we have access and you have with Tom looked at the diaries, and been able to see that. So has that kind of changed the way that you see this, this relationship, the incest that we were just talking about? Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think if you were looking at this on the surface, as many people might, you'd look at the headline being woman seduces niece 15 years younger than her. Bad news. But like, if you read the diaries, it always seems clear to me that Edith is arguably the stronger character out of the two. Certainly, they're always throughout their whole relationship choosing to be together, because they have, Edith has relationships with other people. And we see evidence of that. Katherine was just, you know, facilitates whatever Edith wants, she loves her so much. And, you know, we have put in the opera, the love letter story, which is how their relationship kind of grew. Not in a physical sense, it, it definitely grew, in a sensual way in a romantic way, from maybe a more platonic relationship to a romantic one. But we're not shying away from the fact that they were definitely in an intimate relationship for a portion of their life. And and, you know, how long does that go on for? It's hard to say, but to me reading firsthand accounts from both parties. I don't gain the impression that this was a relationship of control, or even abuse that said, we don't know this was definitely written to be published this diary. So they, they expected eyes to be on it. But you know, we just it feels really equal from the love letters when we sing it. have to ask the question and let it be alive. While we're talking about it, Yeah. The way that they're communicating with each other is from both ends so playful, so suggestive, raunchy saucy stuff
Sophie Goldrick:Let's talk more about those early love letters. They mostly come from before Katherine and Edith had created Michael Field. The thing that stood out to Tom and I with the many, many nicknames they used for one another, I had a really illuminating discussion with Marion Thain about this, but I'll let her introduce herself.
Prof. Marion Thain:Thanks. Sophie. So I'm Marian thean. And I'm professor of literature and culture at King's College London. Yeah, the names are really interesting I've never come across people who are so fond of giving nicknames and for whom there's multiple names. It's not just one nickname for the people they're close to, there was always multiple nicknames for the people they really like. And certainly many, many nicknames that they use for each other. It stretches into about I think, 15 that you know, they use for each other.
Sophie Goldrick:Okay, just jumping in here for a second. The nicknames that Edith and Katherine had for each other in the letters at least, kind of follow a pattern. So Edith is commonly referred to as a cat or a pussy, and Katherine has all manner of birds. So sometimes AWF for All Wise Fowl, Sometimes just a little drawing of a bird, and occasionally as Simorg, which let me just read it is a benevolent mythical bird in Persian mythology. Thanks Wikipedia. On a side note, prize for best Michael Field book titled definitely goes to Sharon Bickle for the ingenious The Fowl and the Pussycat, top marks Sharon. Anyway, we wanted to give you a flavour of their creativity and inventiveness just shown through the nicknames they give one another. Here's a few taken from the letters. Dearest love, my darling wife, my own husband, sweet wife, my child, my wife, darling of my heart, my own darling love, dearest and best, my most beloved My darling joy my precious one. My darling my darling my Merle. My pretty Fowl and Fowlet Oh, Persian Puss, Owl and owlet, my pretty, my own old fowl, Thine own forever, Sim, Thine own pussy, your own Isla, thine own poet and Pussy, Even thy own fond fowl, Your loving and pure Pussy, your own Michael, your Henry, Katie, Heinrich, my child Love from the Persian's very heart, ever thy own fond fowl, on Henny, my all one, thy master Hennie. Oh, my large loving boy, Michael, the PP. Mike. Back to you, Marian.
Prof. Marion Thain:And I think this is really about the play with identity, they have this very fluid sense of identity, they can move in and out of different roles in relation to one another in their relationship with one another. And I think the multiplicity of names is signaling that libility, that sort of fluidity of the way they interact with each other and with other close friends, which is a rather freeing concept, actually, you know, they they do actually explicitly say you can be many different things to each other, you don't have to be fixed in your role. And I think that absolutely reads across to their understanding of gender. And this idea, to a certain extent, have a gender fluidity where they can move in and out of masculine roles, they can kind of choose how they occupy gendered spaces rather than feeling they are confined to a feminine space or, and they also don't feel confined to a masculine space taking on the name Michael Field is not really pretending to be a man in any real sense. It's about being asserting their right to lay claim to whatever territory they want to occupy in the moment, which is an incredible concept when you think about it. This is the late 19th century, and they have this incredibly modern notion of gender identity, I think.
Sophie Goldrick:So remember the list of names I read out earlier? Well, Tom, and I was so struck by the intimacy and variety in these nicknames we just had to use them. So you're about to hear Love Letters, and every word of this scene is taken from the beginning or the end of one of Edith and Katherine's love letters to one another.
Katherine Bradley:September 1881, I woke I longed for you with the longing of the mother for the baby that milks it. Then of course I dreamed of you in less than a month heaven smiling which should be on the moors together. Oh how I love thee, how I dote on thee. Thy Queen Titania.
Edith Cooper:My darling wife,
Katherine Bradley:Dearest Love,
Edith Cooper:Sweet wife,
Katherine Bradley:My child, My own husband
Edith Cooper:My own darling wife,
Katherine Bradley:Darling of my heart. Dearest and best,
Edith Cooper:My wife, My most beloved,
Katherine Bradley:My darling joy
Edith Cooper:Owl and owlet, My all wise fowl
Katherine Bradley:My Pretty,
Edith Cooper:My darling Simorg, My precious one My Merle, I quiverI want my Merle! Fowl and
Katherine Bradley:My dear Persian, My darling, my darling fowlet,
Edith Cooper:My darling Sim,
Katherine Bradley:Oh, Persian puss My precious puss Hush Persian puss
Edith Cooper:Oh Sim,
Katherine Bradley:Oh puss
Edith Cooper:My stock-dove, March 1880. I do not think I shall ever love Florence. The streets are much like Paris only not so picturesque. The Arno is a dark brown not nearly so nice as the Seine. The outside of the churches are an acquired taste, like olives 24th of August 1880 How your letter has enriched me, given me sight of heaps of sun dried melons and gourds and sun bronzed women. Your letter made me very happy
Sophie Goldrick:September 1883 The Hague. My own love. I begin where I left off at the Mayor's reception Monday night. As soon as we got into the crowd room and bowed to hosted host and hostess, little glasses of foaming champagne were handed round, then little patties, wicked looking things. Fear not, I touched none of their evil things I remained very
Edith Cooper:1885 Stoke Green. My own loving dear, the parents miserable. won't lend you the Pussy. Perhaps it is well that we should join when airs are milder and when we could brood together over our nest
Katherine Bradley:have a heart of stone if after this she keeps from me. What is it to me to be in the woods without my pretty swinging on the bough? "Coo coo" says the Old Fowl.
Edith Cooper:Very sweet is your call to me. I love it dearly and it does not coo in vain for me. Mew Mew
Katherine Bradley:Coo Coo
Edith Cooper:Addio, my own old fowl Farewell my pretty Thine own pussy
Katherine Bradley:Thine own forever, Sim.
Edith Cooper:Thy own poet and pussie
Katherine Bradley:Thy own Isla, ever thy own fond fowl
Edith Cooper:Your loving and pure, pussie May we soon be fully reunited
Katherine Bradley:Heaven reunite us! Your own Michael. Katie. Kiss me yet again: and good night, my child Good night! Ever thy own fond fowl Hennie! My All-one Oh my large loving boy - good night! Michael Cooooo cooooooo...
Edith Cooper:Your Henry Heinrich Love from the Persians very heart He loves his all wise fowl Thy Master Hennie! The P.P. - who loves you and mews for you - mews for you and loves you. Mewwwwwww mewwww...
Sophie Goldrick:It's difficult to put yourself in another time, isn't it? And also we're reflecting on behaviors of the past and going that's not cool. Now, you know what I mean? But definitely, relationships between women particularly were kind of concealed anyway. And as far as the sphere of acquaintance for Victorian women, you might know your husband and you'd know your family members, and you'd have acquaintances outside of that, but you didn't really encounter many other people. You know what I mean? How do you find it now? This far into it?
Lizzie Holmes:I now I don't think about it, which is so fascinating. I think their relationship is... It's so beautiful, the way the way that they interact with each other, but also the way that they they write together. And I don't know if that's been infused with Tom's music. I probably got like a different slant on it now, because we have the relationship and the story that you have created.
Sophie Goldrick:The artword aside from the biography, yeah, I think that's also something that I've picked up from talking to lots of academics who work on their plays or work on their poetry and have made that their life's work, that like, let's not get stuck on the biography. Let's get into the work. So as you can see, this is not a simple story. And there are sensitive issues that we need to navigate here. There are questions about how and when this relationship began, given their age difference and being family members, but we also need to understand them in their historical context. And we'll talk more about this in future episodes. These are important questions, many of them we won't get the answers to. However, having read their diary and spoken to the experts, however, it began the relationship moved into truly devoted love and artistic fellowship. So is their relationship conventional by modern standards? No. Are there questions to be asked about abuse of power, possibly? Are they talented? Definitely. Is everything they write great? No. But it's their unconventionality in their relationship, their writing and their life philosophy that makes them so fascinating. So stick with us because in our next episode, we witness the birth of Michael Field, and dive deeper into his queer world. 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, 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 Steven Oliver Award, and the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, as well as our incredible band of crowdfunders. For more information, video content or just to tell us you're loving the pod, go to shadow opera.com/veritable-michael or via Instagram. Don't forget to rate review and subscribe to the podcast.