Claire van Kampen, who has died of cancer aged 71, was a concert pianist, a musical director and composer of some distinction. Latterly she was a playwright and director, often in association with her husband, Mark Rylance.
Their most distinguished collaboration was on the West End and Broadway hit Farinelli and the King (2015), a candlelit piece (written by Van Kampen) based on the true story of King Philip V of Spain (played by Rylance) who took refuge from his bipolar depression in the ethereal singing of the famous Italian castrato Farinelli (sung by the countertenor Iestyn Davies).
