TETBURY MUSIC FESTIVAL
THE FINEST MUSIC IN THE COTSWOLDS
Miranda Richardson, narrator, Sophie Bevan, soprano, Christopher Glynn, piano
Our second concert of the Song Weekend places Shakespeare’s female characters firmly centre stage, giving voice to the mothers and mistresses, saints and sinners, fairies, witches, and heroines who animate his plays. Miranda Richardson reads from Harriet Walter's riveting new anthology 'She Speaks!' which imagines what the women in Shakespeare's plays might secretly have been thinking, while soprano Sophie Bevan and pianist Christopher Glynn explore how these heroines and anti-heroines have inspired composers down the ages.
PROGRAMME Shakespeare's Sisters
Prelude
Schubert Hark hark the lark
Shakespeare Sonnet 128 'How oft when thou, my music, music play’st'
Vaughan Williams Orpheus with his lute
Viola and Olivia
Shakespeare I left no ring with her: what means this lady?
Haydn She never told her love
Harriet Walter Olivia questions her sexuality: Let it be!
Desdemona
Grainger Willow Song
Harriet Walter Desdemona: Unique we were, Othello, you and I
Verdi Ave Maria
Sisters
Madeleine Dring Under the greenwood tree
Amy Beach Take O take those lips away
Alison Bauld Titania’s Song
Lady Macbeth
Harriet Walter Lady Macbeth: It was all talk (Part I)
Horovitz Lady Macbeth: A Scene
Harriet Walter Lady Macbeth: It was all talk (Part II)
INTERVAL
Witches
Harriet Walter Three Witches Rap
Fairies
Liza Lehmann Titania’s Cradle
Verdi Fairy Queen
Spirits
Harriet Walter Ariel: Much as an actor hides behind a role
Purcell-Ades Come unto these yellow sands
Shakespeare Full fathom five
Arne Where the bee sucks
Ophelia
Harriet Walter Ophelia Fooled Ya
Elizabeth Maconchy Ophelia’s Song
Shakespeare There is a willow grows aslant a brook
Berlioz La Mort d’Ophelie
Juliet and her Nurse
Harriet Walter How Juliet’s nurse bemoaned her loss
Bernstein Somewhere
Epilogue
Shakespeare It is not the fashion to see the lady (As you like it)
Dring It was a lover and his lass