For a glimpse of her brilliant work on Shakespeare and Music, we warmly invite you to listen to her interview with Michelle Assay for our podcast:

shakespeareandmusic.wordpress.com/2021/12/08/e...

Thought I would offer a preview of an article slated for the next issue of Popular Music (which will feature Shakespeare as cover boy):
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

That sounds fantastic, thank you! If you'd like, we can include a note about the article in our spring newsletter that goes out to all group members. You can send us the details (citation, prospective publication date) via email using the contact form on our website or in a direct message on here.

With that we enter the the discussion and the end of this thread! Thank you for reading along and don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter if you don't want to miss our conference report and other news from the world of Shakspeare and Music!
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Britten shows the clown's ineptitude though music: the orchestra "trips in", adding another layer of humour to the inherently funny "play within a play". Britten created an "opera within the opera" with "the same affectionately mocking approach" as Shakespeare. 👏

Ioana starts off by discussing Britten's fascinating choice of casting Oberon as a countertenor in 1960. "He sometimes sounds more like an instrument than a voice", making him sound superhuman, an effect further underscored by his association with the celesta

we have already reached our last paper: Ioana Istrate (University of Bucharest) is talking about "Dichotomies and Humour Expressed by Britten’s Music in A Midsummer Night’s Dream" 🧚🧚🧚🧚🧚

"In Doktor Faust the relationship to Shakespearean precursors is striking, as Busoni returns Faust to his Renaissance origins and yet also propels him into the 'airy, budding blossom of becoming' [...] finding 'a world elsewhere'" 👏

Fred argues that the criminally underperformed Busoni opera is meant to be decoded; Faust, according to Busoni was the "history of man and his desire". "The music [in the opera] commentates, illustrates and at times provides a diegetic moment."

we continue apace with our own panel chair Fred Scott (City St George’s, University of London): Shakespearean Romance and Ferruccio Busoni’s Opera Doktor Faust

Leonie argued that Gervinus's use of Shakespeare to promote the music of Handel to his German contemporaries implicates both Handel and Shakespeare in the professionalisation of debate about music, leading ultimately to the establishment of music(ology) at universities.

Our next paper will be by @leoniekrempien.bsky.social and since she - that is to say I - is the one currently posting, you will have to wait for a second for a summary ;)

Turning to the secondary main theme from Hamlet, she shows that this is a strong case for the polarity of the Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet overtures, which have reversed keys and reversed meanings, of ideal and unachievable and realised love through marriage respectively.👏

Denise presents a compelling analysis of the 2nd theme from Tchaikovsky's often overlooked 3rd Shakespeare overture, reading both as a representation of Ophelia's longing and biographically as a lament on Tchaikovsky's own unachievable love for his wife.

Our first paper is by Denise Clarke from the University of Birmingham who will speak on "The Secondary Theme Complex in Tchaikovsky's Hamlet"

After a few remote welcome words from our group's chair Michelle Assay (who sadly can't be with us and whom we miss very much indeed!) read by our panel chair Fred Scott, we are starting with our first paper!