with Helen Abbott (soprano) | Britten, Debussy
- Helen Abbott (soprano)
- Libby Burgess (piano)
- Britten: Quatre Chansons Françaises
- Debussy: Ariettes Oubliées
A Boy Was Born is a year-long festival of music in Sheffield celebrating 100 years of the composer Benjamin Britten, encompassing talks, concerts, films, musical theatre productions and expansive education work. Helen Abbott is Lecturer in French at the University of Sheffield, specialising in nineteenth-century French poetry and music. She is also a classically- trained soprano who regularly gives solo and consort recitals. She has published two books on music and song in the poetry of Baudelaire and Mallarmé; by incorporating performance into her academic research, Helen Abbott aims to uncover what happens when poems are set to music. In this programme, songs will be interspersed with poetry readings by students from the Department of French.
