Part 2: Rise to Fame - Female Empowerment
Kitty Clive was the most famous singer- actress of the mid- eighteenth century and sought after by the managers of Drury Lane theatre. Composers such as Pepusch, Arne and Handel composed arias specifically for her and she even collaborated with them on rewriting music to make it fit her style and persona, leading and creating new forms of English musical theatre.
Clive championed women’s rights at the playhouse throughout her career, defined her own image and, after her voice started to change in older age, she reimagined herself as the first female comedian.
Part 2 explores her rise to fame, with star roles in cantatas and operatic arias, where she establishes herself as THE star of Drury Lane, picking the most fitting roles for her character as well as new or reworked compositions dedicated specifically to her.
Getting older, Clive’s voice begins to change and rather than continuing in her old and so far very successful ways, she recognises this and changes her role, reinventing herself as a comedienne, singing mock-italian arias, making fun of operatic “Prima Donnas” and becoming a true comedian. In “The Card invites” by Thomas Arne, she hunts, Diana-like the gaming tables of like-minded ladies, ignoring her husband’s criticisms.