Helen Caddick: The Open Fund for Music Creators

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Sophie: Opera inspired by Swiss Dadaist Artist-Dancer Sophie Taeuber Arp

In Caddick’s 2017 work Amphora, inspired by Jean Arp, Sophie Taeuber Arp danced as a silent figure with no spoken voice of her own. Realising she had seen Taeuber through Arp’s eyes as ‘dreamlike’, Caddick resolved to illuminate Sophie as a woman and artist in her own right. Astonished to discover that letters written by her had come to light, where previously no written material had been known to exist, the decision to use Sophie’s words to form the basis for a multi-disciplinary opera was made. Spiralling in the shadow of her more famous husband Jean Arp, trained by Rudolf Laban and one of the few female Dada artists, Sophie’s life was cut short in 1943, not by the war engulfing Europe but by asphyxiation, caused by a faulty stove in a friend’s Garden room where she was sleeping. Who was Sophie Taeuber Arp? This new Opera seeks to answer this question through Sophie’s relationship with Arp, her work and events of the time to bring into focus this incredibly important artist – a woman ahead of her time. Helen Caddick is a composer whose passion and interest across all areas of the arts inspire her work. Chosen as a top pick favourite in The Musician, Spring 2018, her work Amphora premiered at Turner Contemporary with a subsequent London premiere at the prestigious Tête à Tête: Europe’s largest Opera festival. Her work has featured on SkyArts, Channel 4, Resonance FM, BBC3’s Late Junction, performed in the UK and abroad.