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Help Us Raise Money for the Tinderbox CD Album!
London, Greater London, United Kingdom
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Aim
The aim of our prize draw is to raise money for a soundtrack album of Daltry & Thomas's musical stagework 'Tinderbox'.
The Prizes
1.A collection of boxsets of classical CDs from the library of the prominent critic of the Gramophone magazine, Nalen Anthoni: comprising 1) 'Composers in Person EMI Classics (2008) 22 CD's; 'Sir Adrian Boult,'From Bach to Wagner', (2012) 11 CD album boxset; Clifford Curzon's 'Decca Recordings, Limited Edition, Vol 1 1949-64 (4CDs), Vol 2, 1941-1972 (4 CD's), Vol 3 1937-71 (6 CD's) Vol 4 1944-70 (7 CD's) ; Pierre Monteux Decca & Philips Recordings 1956-64 (7 CD's) 'Mahler Symphonies - the Klaus Tennstedt recordings, London Philharmonic Orchestra (9CDs) ; '11 Piano Sonatas by Haydn', by Alfred Brendl (Philips label); 'George Frederic Handel -Concerti Grossi Opus 6. (3 CDs) The Avison Ensemble, Director Pavlo Beznosiuk. (LINN ) ;. These are special recordings in near mint condition kindly donated by reviewer Nalen Anthoni for our Tinderbox draw.
2. Second prize : Stephen Guy Daltry will visit your home with his piano keyboard - or play your own piano - and perform selections of his music from 'Tinderbox'. Alternatively, he can give you an online performance.
3. Third prize : Boxset of Vaughan Williams' 8 Symphonies, Conducted by Sir Adrian Boult. Belart 1996. (5 CDs) Almost 6 hours of music, near mint condition.
4. Fourth Prize: Boxset of Mozart's 'Don Giovanni'. Conductor Sir Charles Mackerras. Scottish Chamber Orchestra & Chorus. Felicity Lott, Nuccia Focile. Bo Skovhus. Alessandro Corbelli. Christine Brewer. (Telarc. 3 CD's)
The Cause :
This draw will help raise money for our album soundtrack of 'Tinderbox' featuring operatic talents that include baritone Oskar McCarthy and tenor Laurence Panter, accompanied on piano by composer Stephen Guy Daltry. The breakdown of costs would be £900 for studio and engineer and £1600 for the singers, and that would enable us to record a selection of the songs for the promotional album, as we seek a publisher.
TINDERBOX
Composer Stephen Guy Daltry
What happened when Hans Christian Andersen visited Charles Dickens at his home in Kent, England, in 1857?
2025 marked 150 years since H.C. Andersen’s death, a good moment to celebrate a significant, though not well known, episode in his life.
Staged with a cabaret feeling, ranging from light entertainment to a serious celebration of the power of Art to nourish, sustain and change the world - a conviction both authors felt passionately and which we feel is more necessary than ever in today’s environment - the 2025 performance at the Camden People's Theatre brought the visit to life with music, songs, dialogue and narration.
Oskar McCarthy Laurence Panter
as Dickens as Andersen
There was a great response to our platform performance of ‘Tinderbox’, exploring the relationships between Hans Christian Andersen, Charles Dickens, Mrs Catherine Dickens and their daughter, Katey Dickens, which White Knight produced in London in January 2025. Here are some of the audience comments:
“Comic and moving, Hans Anderson’s visit to the Dickens family provides the comic framing to explore art and poetry, love and betrayal.” “ I enjoyed the classical, theatrical style of music." “I was moved by the story – the wonderful music.” “Expressive storytelling through a combination of spoken word and song.” “Vocally, the performance was outstanding.” “The richness of the language and the music make the minimal staging very effective.”
Wherever possible, Andersen and Dickens’ own words bring to life their encounter, supplied by their letters, Andersen’s autobiographies, poems, tales and novels and Dickens’ letters and novels. The music supports the language, reflecting the rhythms of Andersen’s highly popular ‘Vaudevilles’ for H.W. Lange’s radical Casino Theatre, Copenhagen, which opened the way for new forms of entertainment; and of Dickens’ first stagework, also radical, a light opera, “Village Coquettes”, which takes place in a contemporary English village rather than the traditional Italianate setting.
When they met in 1857, these two authors were among the most celebrated and courted of men in Europe and America, moving in similar literary and theatrical circles, admired and adored by a public spanning intellectuals, bohemians, crowned heads and readers of all kinds. Both were deeply influenced by the experience in early youth of gruelling manufacturing labour to support their families - Andersen at Ørnstrup’s tobacco works in Odense, Dickens at Warren’s boot-blacking factory in London. Both exposed the hypocrisy of societies which countenanced the destructive gap between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ with trenchant wit, charm and humour.
Their personal circumstances and characters were very different: Andersen was a solo wanderer, while Dickens had a wife and a family of ten children. But both were driven to write ceaselessly, earning their livings in Europe and America from journalism, travelogues, poems, plays, sketches, novels, short stories and music drama. Yet today, they are remembered for only a fraction of their creative output.
Both authors started their dramatic careers with musical stageworks - Andersen with ‘Love in Nicolai Tower’ (1830) and Dickens with ‘The Village Coquettes’ (1836). ‘Summer 1857’ celebrates their lifelong love of music and dramatic storytelling.
In the summer of 1857, Charles Dickens was settling into the large family house he had recently bought at Gad’s Hill in Kent, England, when Hans Christian Andersen, who had met Dickens ten years earlier, came to stay for two weeks and remained for five. Both men admired each other’s work: during these few weeks each had a profound effect upon the other.
Dickens writes: “My dearest Andersen, I assure you that I love and esteem you more than I could tell you on as much paper as would pave the whole road from here to Copenhagen.”
In a letter to August Baggesen, Andersen writes of “the most important events in my life, the most important of which is my encounter with Charles Dickens.”
Stephen Guy Daltry, composer, pianist and actor, and Founder Director of White Knight Pictures. As well as for the theatre, he has composed extensively for film and television, including BBC2's 'The Hunt' (Cultural Prix Italia Winner), the Sundance hit documentary 'The Moo Man' and 'The Lost World of Mr Hardy', of which director Ken Russell wrote in the Times (30/10/2009) :"a gorgeous musical score of violin and cello..breathtaking in its simplicity, beauty and effectiveness”. His musical theatre includes 'Alice', adapted from Lewis Carroll's works, at the British Library and New End Theatre London (Sunday Times critics and young people's choice - #2 London Christmas Show ... #1 was 'Cirque du Soleil'); 'Seats in All Parts' (with co-writer/director Lesley Albiston) at the King's Head, Islington & Salisbury Arts Centre, and 'Did You Dr Crippen?' with playwright Brian McAvera.
Co-librettist and lyricist on 'Tinderbox' is dramatist and director Maureen Thomas: librettist: 'Lombroso' in ‘About Face’ - composer Rachel Leach (commissioned Royal Opera House Covent Garden Blueprint Programme – ROH Linbury Studio); ‘Zuppa Inglese’ - composer Daryl Runswick (commissioned Pimlico Opera - Oxford & Nottingham Playhouses); ‘Bright Sparks’ composer Daryl Runswick (commissioned Arts Council West, UK). Writer/director 'WE' integrated media ‘total theatre’ performance, adapted from the novel by Yevgeny Zamyatin, with Studio for Electronic Theatre, London; writer/director ‘Queens Game’ interactive 3D-animated musical - composer Kariina Gretere (commissioned PKU Norway) and co-writer/director with Stephen Guy Daltry on the musical 'Alice’ at the New End Theatre, London.
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 15th October 2026 at 12:00pm