The delight of having both - A Midsummer Nights Dream

Lucy Thatcher and David North - A Midsummer Night's Dream  - © 2016 Celia Bartlett Photography

Mendelssohn/Shakespeare A Midsummer Nights Dream; David North, Lucy Thatcher, Nigel Richards, Joe Sleight, Mark Hawkins, Ben Wiggins, Bebe Sanders, Frances McNamee, Rob Hughes, David Edwards, Michael Vivian, Outcry Ensemble, James Henshaw; Temple Music at Middle Temple Hal
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on May 3 2016
Star rating: 4.0
Mendelssohn's incidental music in a lively new production of Shakespeare's play in Middle Temple Hall

Joe Sleight, Sam Townsend and one of the fairies
 © 2016 Celia Bartlett Photography

Middle Temple Hall's connection to Shakespeare dates back to the playwright's lifetime when we know that As You Like It was performed there, so that the hall is the only surviving venue we have where Shakespeare's plays were performed in his lifetime. Temple Music now puts on a highly regarded concert series in the hall, so in celebration of the Shakespeare 400 anniversary, they presented a performance of Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream with Mendelssohn's incidental music, we caught the second performance on 3 May 2016.

The production director was David Edwards, with Michael Vivian directing the play. James Henshaw conducted the Outcry Ensemble, designs were by Colin Mayes with lighting by Mike Lambert. David North was Theseus & Oberon, Lucy Thatcher was Hippolyta & Titania, Joe Sleight was Puck, Nigel Richards was Egeus & Snout, Mark Hawkins was Lysander, Ben Wiggins was Demetrius, Bebe Sanders was Hermia, Frances McNamee was Helena, Rob Hughes was Bottom, Bobby Hirston was Quince, Sam Townsend was Flute, Michael Luxton was Starveling and Scarlett Neville was Snug. Aidan Oliver was the chorus master of the women's chorus, with Jessica Cale and Lucy Goddard singing the solos.

Mendelssohn's music was written to accompany a performance of Shakespeare's play in Potsdam in 1843, utilising the overture which the young Mendelssohn had written in 1826 The music is best known from Mendelssohn's suite and the larger movements, Scherzo, Nocturne, Wedding March are all intended as intermezzos. Additionally there are the two settings of the fairy songs (Ye spotted snakes from Act Two and the final Through the house give glimmering light) plus much incidental music, either linking passages or melodramas, which hardly makes sense out of context. Interestingly, Mendelssohn confines these musical elements to the fairies and the mechanicals (the melodramas are there to enhance the magical moments from Puck and Oberon), the young lovers are played without any musical elements. In this Mendelssohn's technique was remarkably akin to that of Purcell in his semi-operas, where it was only the minor characters or the non-humans who sang.

At Middle Temple Hall, both play and music were cut, the play substantially so and the music slightly, to bring the playing time in at around two hours 20 minutes. But there was the essence of both to give the right idea, and the cutting of the play was probably true to the original Berlin performances as Henry Irving's famous London performances of Shakespeare were always heavily cut.

‘DR SCROGGY’S WAR’ - GLOBE SEP 2014

James Garnon as Harold Gillies in Dr Scroggy's War
photo Mark Douet

Dr Scroggy's War; Howard Brenton, director John Dove, music William Lyons; Globe Theatre
Reviewed by Guest reviewer Jill Barlow on Sep 17 2014
Star rating: 3.5
Dr Scroggy's War, world premiere music theatre review

William Lyons’ incidental music, complete with three piece band in khaki uniform ,and themes from Popular Songs of WW1, helps to underscore the pure futility of war, in the world premiere of this enigmatic play by Howard Brenton, set in a military rehabilitation hospital in Sidcup pioneering the new advances in plastic surgery by Dr Gillies (alias the fictional Dr Scroggy) in 1915, following the catastrophic carnage of The Battle of Loos of that year. Dr Scroggy's War opened at the Globe Theatre on 17 September 2014

'We don't do 'glum' here' pronounces pioneering plastic surgeon Dr Harold Gillies, when coming up against the despondency of his World War One casualties, during the long process of his striving to patch up their faces damaged at the Front, at the disastrously badly planned Battle of Loos 1915, using new 'reconstruction' techniques, at the Queens Hospital, Sidcup. What is more disguised as his 'alter ego' Dr Scroggy, complete with tartan. kilt, and supplies of the occasional wee dram of 'the real stuff', to lift their spirits in more ways than one, Gillies makes fleeting nightly visits to the wards, dodging the wary eye of the ever vigilant austere, starched uniformed young nurses.

Julius Caesar - Globe July 2014

George Irving as Julius Caesar
Credit Manuel Harlan

Claire van Kampen; new score for Julius Caesar; Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre
Reviewed by Jill Barlow on Jul 2 2014
Star rating: 4.0
Music so robust & noisy - even before play starts - Drunken sounds of re-enactment of Roman Feast of Lupercalia in foyer as prelude to play on stage

The music for the Globe's new production of Julius Caesar (press night 2 July 2014) was robust and noisy even before Shakespeare's immortal play opened on stage. As one approached the Globe precincts, a rowdy prelude was being enacted in the foyer, representing the feast of Lupercalia, complete with loud drums and bawdy shouts, which historically it is said, accompanied Caesar's return to Rome in triumph having won his battles over Pompey.

On stage the play opens with trumpets from the centre of Musicians' Gallery above the stage ominously tempered by a discordant note to the right, which I am informed by Globe Music department, was made using 'a long trumpet, played with particular effect, - a brass instrument of the period'.

Charles Spencer writes of this production in the Daily Telegraph July 4:- 'staged in Elizabethan dress, with Roman trimmings, with music played on period instruments that make a speciality of fruity, fart like noises---'.

Alex Baranowski - Last Days of Troy 2014 - Globe Theatre Music review (new score)

Lily Cole as Helen of Troy in The Last Days of Troy
© Jonathan Keenan

Simon Armitage The Last Days of Troy, music by Alex Baranowski: Shakespeare's Globe
Reviewed by Jill Barlow on June 27 2014
Star rating: 3.0
 
The Last Days of Troy by Simon Armitage
Premiered Royal Exchange Manchester May 8 2014
Transferred to Shakespeare's Globe (run - 10-28 June 2014)
With acoustic music specially composed by Alex Baranowski (born 1983)
Whose film score for McCullin has just won best Feature Film score award at Cannes (June 2014)
 
In The Last Days of Troy Lily Cole – model & actress, stars as Helen of Troy - 'The face that launched 1000 ships' - bringing Homer's Iliad to the Globe stage.

Having reviewed the use of new scores at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, on London's South Bank since year 2000, I couldn't resist the opportunity to go along to review Alex Baranowski's music for 'The Last Days of Troy' when I heard towards the end of its run that he had just won best Feature Film score award at Cannes June 21st. Born in 1983, such an achievement at so young an age. Trained at Paul McCartney's 'LIPA' (Liverpool institute of Performing Arts) and the winner of other impressive accolades, he has already written music for plays at The Royal Court theatre, National Theatre, and will be the composer for 'Street Car named Desire' at the Young Vic this July, which has apparently already sold out. He also wrote the music for Globe's Henry VI trilogy, 2013