All Singing, All Dancing Shakespeare, a talk by Sarah Lenton

Shakespeare without words? Composers and choreographers are always using Shakespeare as a springboard, but only the greatest have pulled it off. Amongst that band are Verdi, Berlioz, Britten, Frederick Ashton and Kenneth MacMillan with their versions of Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet and Midsummer Night’s Dream. Well-meaning casualties are Rossini, Auber and Bellini. What’s the difference? Sarah will be exploring this using clips from the operas and ballets, and first hand accounts from the artists themselves.

Sarah Lenton has spent her working life in the theatre. Her principal employers are the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Garsington Opera. She writes programme articles, radio and play scripts, gives lectures and broadcasts regularly for BBC Radios 3 and 4. She is also a cartoonist.