If you’d like to find out more about the Shakespeare and Music Group, please visit shakespeareandmusic.wordpress.com and @shakesmus on Twitter.

Episode 9

In this episode Michelle Assay interviews composer, violist and conductor Brett Dean on his 2017 opera Hamlet, discussing his approach to Shakespeare's original play, the composition process, collaborating with librettist Matthew Jocelyn as well as various performers, and the opera in performance at Glyndeborne and beyond.
 

• 0:52 - Initial approach to Hamlet; researching other productions;  working with librettist Matthew Jocelyn; inspiration from cinematic adaptations of Hamlet  (including  Michael Almereyda's 2000 film starring Ethan Hawke);  awareness and avoidance of other musical adaptations of Shakespeare
• 9:41 - deconstructing the text of Hamlet and exploring Ophelia in more depth
• 15:06 -  adaptation choices concerning characters, themes and structure
• 17:42 - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and moving between comedy and tragedy in opera
• 25:06 - influences of Alban Berg's opera Wozzeck
• 26:56 - who is Hamlet? distilling the play's psychological explorations
• 32:19 - orchestrating specific moments, including the Ghost's arrival
• 35:27 - writing vocal lines with performers in mind
• 37:13 - using energetic, agitato musical passages
• 40:17 - individual composing identity; composing in an "angular" but relatable style for singers and audiences
• 42:12 - staging choices for the Glyndebourne premiere and later productions of Hamlet
• 44:49 - the compatibility of Shakespeare's words with the operatic medium
• 46:59 - planning the structure of acts and scenes; visualising Elsinore and keeping notes and sketches
• 50:40 - differences between the operatic scenes in Australia and Europe
• 52:55 - Dean's composing plans for the future

Brett Dean studied in Australia before moving to Germany where he was a member of the Berlin Philharmonic for fourteen years, during which time he began composing. His music is championed by many leading conductors and orchestras, including Sir Simon Rattle, Vladimir Jurowski, Simone Young, Daniel Harding, Andris Nelsons, Marin Alsop and Sakari Oramo. Much of Dean’s work draws from literary, political, environmental or visual stimuli, including a number of compositions inspired by artwork by his wife Heather Betts.

Dean began composing in 1988, and gained international recognition through works such as his clarinet concerto Ariel’s Music (1995), which won a UNESCO Composers award, and Carlo (1997), inspired by the music of Carlo Gesualdo. In 2009 Dean won the Grawemeyer Award for violin concerto The Lost Art of Letter Writing. In June 2017 his second opera Hamlet was premiered at Glyndebourne Festival Opera to great acclaim, winning the 2018 South Bank Sky Arts Awards and an International Opera Award. The DVD of Hamlet was released by Glyndebourne in June 2018 and won a Gramophone Award in 2019.  Hamlet has also been performed at The Met and in Munich, most recently at the Bayerische Staatsoper in May 2023.

Dean also appears with many of the world’s leading orchestras as a conductor and as violist, performing his own Viola Concerto and in chamber music with other soloists and ensembles. Dean has recently finished a three-year post as Composer in Residence with the London Philharmonic Orchestra; compositions include his recent work In spe contra spem for two sopranos and orchestra which premiered in May 2023.

If you’d like to find out more about the Shakespeare and Music Group, please visit shakespeareandmusic.wordpress.com and @shakesmus on Twitter.

Episode 8

In this episode, Michael Graham interviews musical theatre expert Hannah Marie Robbins on the writing, performance history and gender politics of Kiss Me, Kate (1948), a musical adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew written by Cole Porter and Bella & Sam Spewack.

*Content warning: this episode includes discussion of domestic violence*

02:15 Introducing Kiss Me, Kate
04:52 What's so fascinating about this musical?
  08:02 Kiss Me, Kate in an opera context; the balance between "high" and "low" art
11:04 The creative process of Cole Porter and Sam & Bella Spewack; treatment of Shakespeare and the gender politics of collaboration
19:46 Adaptation of the gender politics of The Taming of the Shrew  in Kiss Me, Kate
28:58 Kiss Me Kate in a 1940s performance context
32:30 Stage and screen adaptations of the musical 1948-1999
39:10 The Taming of the Shrew and Kiss Me, Kate in a present-day context; gender and power dynamics
 44:51 Final thoughts; potential pitfalls of staging the musical; reading/listening recommendations 

Hannah Marie Robbins is an Assistant Professor in Popular Music at the University of Nottingham, and Director of the University of Nottingham Centre for Black Studies. They specialise in musical theatre history and the representation of race and gender on the musical stage.

Hannah's research interests include the life and work of Cole Porter and the role and representation of Black creatives in musical theatre history. They are currently writing their first book on the hit musical Kiss Me, Kate (1948), as well as working on publications about film star Lena Horne, and on intersectionality in musical theatre.

Hannah is also co-curator of the international network Black in Arts and Humanities, and the Publishing Partnerships Officer for the Free Black University. In their spare time, they run The Black Book Challenge, championing geographically diverse publications by Black women and trans spectrum authors, as well as supporting Black and queer people in accessing higher education.

Episode 7

Michelle Assay interviews composer, director, playwright, and all-round Renaissance person, Claire Van Kampen, on her richly varied career working for stage and screen.

00:02:00 Claire's introduction to early music, composing for historic instruments
00:08:00 The RSC and touring with Phoebus Cart
00:13:42 Working at the Globe and composing music for Shakespeare's plays
00:23:05 Incorporating early music research into composing
00:29:02 Changing approaches to theatre music at the Globe
00:39:16 Dances and jigs
00:42:29 Twelfth Night and the Globe to Globe project
00:46:24 Theatre music mishaps, playfulness and conviviality
00:50:15 The legacy of Claire's work
00:54:15 Composing, writing and directing in television and film
00:59:38 Shakespeare and race
01:03:32 Living through the pandemic, and finding a sense of purpose


Claire van Kampen trained at London’s Royal College of Music. Studying music theory with Ruth Gipps and piano with Peter Element, she specialized in 20th-century music performance, premiering many works by today’s leading composers. She subsequently developed a career as a composer and performer, writing and playing for theater, radio, television, film soundtracks, and the concert hall.

She began her theatre career with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1986, then the Royal National Theatre in 1987, becoming the first female musical director with either company. In 1990, she co-founded the theatre company Phoebus Cart with her husband Mark Rylance. At Shakespeare’s Globe, she served as Director of Theatre Music and Artistic Associate from 1996 to 2006, directing the music for more than a hundred of the Globe's productions. She is currently the Globe Associate and Senior Research Fellow for early modern music. 

In spring 2007, she received the Vero Nihil Verius award for Distinguished Achievement in the Arts, conferred upon her by Concordia University in Oregon, United States. Together with Mark Rylance and Jenny Tiramani, she received the 2007 Sam Wanamaker Award for the founding work during the opening ten years at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.

Ms. van Kampen has created original scores for Broadway’s True West (2000), Boeing-Boeing (2008), La Bête (2010), Twelfth Night and Richard III (2013–14): all were nominated for Tony Awards. She also wrote the play Farinelli and the King (2017–18),  first performed at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse and then the West End in 2015: it received six Olivier Award nominations, and five tony nominations when it was staged on Broadway in 2018. 

Claire  has also written the music for numerous film and television productions, including Wolf Hall for the BBC. As well as adapting Farinelli and the King for the screen (under the new title Farinelli and the Queen), she has written It Never Entered My Mind, a film about the abstract expressionist painter Elaine de Kooning, and is currently working as its director in production.

Claire also gives regular lectures on Shakespeare and music, and in 2019 she received an honorary doctorate of music from Brunel University. She is also writing a book on Shakespeare and music.