Katherine Howard, Henry VIII's fourth wife, was just a teenage girl when they married, and Henry adored her, calling her his 'rose without a thorn.' But the young queen soon turned her flirtatious attention to other men, and thus sealed her fate on the executioner's block. I wanted the music to capture the high spirited, reckless teenager dashing along midnight corridors for her secret assignations, the King in pursuit, the clocks all ticking as Katherine's time runs out.
