Royal Festival Hall, London

23 April 2016 7:30 pm

Shakespeare400: Anniversary Gala concert

A special gala event celebrating the greatest playwright that ever lived

PART 1

GIUSEPPE VERDI (1813-1901): Otello
* Act 1: Una vela; Esultate
Benjamin Cahn (Montano)
Oliver Johnston (Cassio)
Simon Keenlyside (Iago)
Toby Spence (Roderigo)
Ronald Samm (Otello)
The Glyndebourne Chorus

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:  Othello
* Act 1 Scene 3: Wilt thou be fast to my hopes
Toby Spence (Roderigo)
Simon Keenlyside (Iago)

GIUSEPPE VERDI (1813-1901): Otello
* Act 2: Credo in un Dio crudel
Simon Keenlyside (Iago)
* Act 4 Scene 3: Good faith, how foolish are our minds!
Kate Royal (Desdemona)
Catherine Wyn-Rogers (Emilia)
* Act 4: Piangea cantando (Willow Song)
Kate Royal (Desdemona)
Catherine Wyn-Rogers (Emilia)

HECTOR BERLIOZ: Romeo et Juliette:
Partie 1: Recitatif et Scherzetto: Mab
Toby Spence (tenor)
The Glyndebourne Chorus

SERGEI PROKOFIEV: Romeo and Juliet
Dance of the Knights

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:  Hamlet
Act 3 Scene 1: To be, or not to be
Dominic West (Hamlet)

PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-93):Hamlet
Overture

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: Hamlet
Act 3 Scene1: Soft you now! The fair Ophelia!
Dominic West (Hamlet)
Anna Chancellor (Ophelia)

PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY: Hamlet
Act 4 Scene 5: Votre amoureux, a quels gages
Kate Royal (Ophelia)

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: The Merchant of Venice
Act 5 Scene 1: Sweet soul, let’s in
Toby Spence (Lorenzo)

RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872 – 1958)Serenade to Music
(original version for 16 soloists)
Kate Royal (soprano)
Text from The Merchant of Venice
Allison Bell (soprano)
Suzanne Fischer (soprano)
Rhiannon Llewellyn (soprano)
Iestyn Davies (mezzo soprano)
Catherine Wyn-Rogers (mezzo soprano)
Angharad Lyddon (mezzo soprano)
Grace Durham (mezzo soprano)
Ronald Samm (tenor)
Toby Spence (tenor)
Niel Joubert (tenor)
Oliver Johnston (tenor)
Simon Keenlyside (baritone)
Ed Ballard (bass)
Lukas Jakobski (bass)
Benjamin Cahn (bass)

PART 2

BENJAMIN BRITTEN (1913 – 76): A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Act 1 Scene 1:
Over Hill and Dale
Allison Bell  (Tytania)
Oberon is passing fell and wrath
Iestyn Davies (Oberon)
Ben Hill (Cobweb)
Lucas Pinto (Peaseblossom)
Charles Davies (Mustardseed)
Jeremie de Rijk (Moth)
Trinity Boys Choir

FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809 – 47): A Midsummer Night’s Dream
* No. 3: Song with Choir
Anna Chancellor (Titania)
Kate Royal (soprano)
Rachael Lloyd (mezzo soprano)
Trinity Boys Choir
The Glyndebourne Chorus

* Act 4 Scene 1: Come, sit thee down
Anna Chancellor (Titania)
Lucas Pinto (Peaseblossom)
Ben Hill (Cobweb)
Jeremie de Rijk (Moth)
Charles Davies (Mustardseed)
Ronald Samm (Bottom)

*No. 8: Melodrama
William Hardy (Puck)
Dominic West (Oberon)
Anna Chancellor (Titania)

* No. 9: Wedding March

THOMAS ADES: The Tempest
Act 1 Scenes 4 & 5
Toby Spence (Caliban)
Simon Keenlyside (Prospero)
Allison Bell (Ariel)

WILLIAM WALTON (1902 – 83) (arr. Palmer): Henry V – A Shakespeare Scenario
Excerpts from:
Prologue                 Simon Callow (Chorus)
Night-Watch          Dominic West (Henry V)
Agincourt               The Glyndebourne Chorus
Epilogue                 Trinity Boys Choir

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: The Merry Wives of Windsor
Act 5 Scene 5: The Windsor bell hath struck twelve
Andrew Shore (Falstaff)
Gabriela Istoc (Mistress Ford)
Rachael Lloyd (Mistress Page)

 GIUSEPPE VERDI: Falstaff
Act 3 Scene 2: Un Coro e Terminiam la scena
Gabriela Istoc (Mistress Ford)
Allison Bell (Nanetta)
Catherine Wyn-Rogers (Mistress Quickly)
Rachael Lloyd (Meg Page)
Toby Spence (Fenton)
Ronald Samm (Dr Caius)
Alasdair Elliott (Bardolf)
Simon Keenlyside (Ford)
Andrew Shore (Falstaff)
Lukas Jakobski (Pistol)
The Glyndebourne Chorus

Encore:
FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809 – 47): A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Finale “Through the house give glimmering light”
All soloists

Vladimir Jurowski conductor
Simon Callow director
London Philharmonic Orchestra

‘I have had him in my hands from my earliest youth’, said Giuseppe Verdi of William Shakespeare, ‘I have read and reread him continually.’ Verdi wasn’t alone. Shakespeare’s body of plays has exercised more influence over composers and musicians than anything else in literature bar the Bible. This concert opens with music from Verdi’s setting of Othello – probably the most bold and significant music he would write – and closes with music from his final, ebullient masterpiece Falstaff. In between come orchestral and operatic settings from Britten, Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Prokofiev and Adès, each filled with character and overflowing with drama. Vladimir Jurowski conducts the music, which is interspersed with readings from the plays directed by Simon Callow, as we mark the 400th year since the death of the greatest playwright that ever lived.

Photo Gallery

Sound Bites

David Nice, theartsdesk.com, 24.4.16

” … Enter Iago, speaking Shakespeare’s text; from my position high up in a box, I thought it was Dominic West already, inflecting clearly, but when Jurowski segued into Verdi’s “Credo”, it turned out to be Simon Keenlyside – perhaps too noble a baritone voice for the inky-black “motiveless malignity” of the role, but phrasing intelligently.  … Still, premiere performers Keenlyside and Spence followed by Bell’s perfectly stratospheric Ariel made much of the awkward vocal writing. …

Mark Pullinger, bachtrack.com, 24.4.16

“……the programme was intelligently constructed to provide a sense of flow  ….There is no more pulsating, volatile opening than the storm which opens Otello. A mighty orchestral crash, a flicker of strobe lighting, thunderous pedal notes from the Royal Festival Hall’s organ and the brassy rasp of a cimbasso brought the evening bursting to life. Cue the Otello of Ronald Samm – a clarion “Esultate!” – swiftly followed by Simon Keenlyside and Toby Spence declaiming Iago and Roderigo’s lines. “I hate the Moor” segued into the Credo ……..

 David Truslove, classicalsource.com, 26.04.16

“…The evening began with the perfect curtain-raiser: the storm music that opens Verdi’s Otello. Ronald Samm, in the title-role, was peerless in his ‘Esultate!’ and Simon Keenlyside was no less impressive as Iago in ‘Credo in un Dio crudel’ (Act Two)…..

Richard Fairman, Financial Times, 25.4.16  (fee payable)

Rebecca Franks, The Times, 25.4.16   (fee payable)