Past news and events

Colloquia ─ part of the Department's programme of research papers delivered by residents and visiting speakers

• Tuesday, 17 February | Cressida Ryan (University of Nottingham)

  4.30pm, Endsleigh Room, Music Department
  ‘Sacchini's Oedipe à Colone  and its Sophoclean context’

• Friday, 20 February | Nicholas Sackman  (University of Nottingham)

  5.30pm, Djanogly Recital Hall, Music Department
  ‘Kurt Weill – Composer for the Modern World’ (lecture-recital)

• Wednesday, 28 April | Colin Matthews  (University of Nottingham)
  in conversation with Mervyn Cooke

  4.30pm, Endsleigh Room, Music Department
  ‘Working with Britten’

• Tuesday, 21 October | Nicholas Baragwanath (Royal Northern College of Music)

  4.30pm, Endsleigh Room, Music Department
  'Puccini and the Italian Traditions'

• Tuesday, 4 November | Jacob Smith  (University of Nottingham)

  4.30pm, Endsleigh Room, Music Department
  'A Town Called Riddle: Excavating Todd Haynes' I'm Not There '

• Tuesday, 11 November | David Metzer (University of British Columbia)

  4.30pm, Endsleigh Room, Music Department
  'Sound and Expression in Helmut Lachenmann's The Little Match Stick Girl '

Other Events

• Friday 27 February | Research Symposium

  9.30-5.30pm, Endsleigh Room, Music Department
  'Music and the Moving Image'

• Saturday, 28 February | Brush up your Shakespeare

  7.30pm, Djanogly Recital Hall, Music Department

  A staged programme of song settings of Shakespeare by Warlock, Tippett, Foss, Maconchy, Quilter, Finzi and Dring, from Love’s Labours Lost , The Tempest , Hamlet , Cymbeline , As You Like It and Twelfth Night .

  Performed by University of Nottingham students under the direction of Dr Jean Andrews: Hannah Dobra, Jennifer Lambert, Abbey Whittle, Kathryn Smith (event organiser), Elizabeth Rogers, Kathryn Greenlee, Rebecca Dobra, Sami Moosajee, Charlotte Watson, James Giddings. With piano accompaniment by Robert Challinor and  Daniel Graham (also rehearsal répétiteur).

• Saturday, 8 November | A Night Club at the Opera

  7.30pm, Djanogly Recital Hall

  A programme of scenes from operas by Monteverdi ( L'incoronazione di Poppea ), Purcell ( The Fairy Queen ) and Mozart ( Die Zauberflöte , Don Giovanni , Così fan tutte , Le nozze di Figaro ), performed by University of Nottingham students under the direction of Dr Jean Andrews.

  Heather Caddick (also co-artistic director), Elizabeth Charlesworth, Alex Patterson, Lucie McHardie-Jones, Elizabeth Rogers, Anna Curzon, René Bloice-Sanders, Kathryn Smith, Kathryn Greenlee, Hannah Dobra, Patrick Heery, Tamara Dollin, Philip Rashleigh. Wiith Robert Challinor (piano), Daniel Graham (répétiteur), Jonathan Pether (cello). View images of the event.

• Saturday, 15 November

  Inside Opera

  11-1.30pm: Gershwin: Of Thee I Sing
  2.30-5pm: Puccini: Tosca

  Opera North and Nottingham University come together for a day behind the scenes at the opera.

  Focusing on two of Opera North's current productions, Of Thee I Sing and Tosca , these events will take an in-depth look at the works and offer new perspectives on their cultures and contemporary contexts. Participants will include Prof Mervyn Cooke (University of Nottingham) and Dr Susan Rutherford (University of Manchester), and members of Opera North.

• Opera North Workshop, Keiser, Fortunes of King Croesus (1730), 19 October, 10.00am-4.00pm, Rehearsal Hall

  In Sardis, capital of Lydia, King Croesus is at the height of his wealth and power and enjoys the acclamation of his people. Only the philosopher Solon is sceptical. When asked why, he points out that pride often comes before a fall, and warns that earthly glory and riches are only ever fleeting. Croesus is not impressed. Enjoy it while it lasts is his philosophy, and he sees no reason why it shouldn’t last forever.

  A workshop with assistant director Pia Furtado, singers Gillian Keith, Mark Le Brocq and Håkan Ekenäs and repetiteur Lada Valesova.

• AHRC workshop

  • Music and the Melodramatic Aestheti

  • West Side Story at 50 – A Celebration, 2 November, 2.00pm-7.00pm, Arts Centre Lecture Theatre

    2.00-3.00pm: THE SOURCES OF WEST SIDE STORY 

    Nigel Simeone will explore the extensive manuscript sources for

    West Side Story in the Leonard Bernstein Collection of the Library of Congress. His talk will include discussion of the early outlines of the show by Jerome Robbins, Arthur Laurents and Bernstein, and the arrival of Stephen Sondheim as a member of the creative team. He will then present some of the highlights of the rarely seen manuscript sources for the musical numbers themselves, especially those that were cut (and never performed), and those that were extensively rewritten, such as "A Boy Like That", the Prologue, and the entire Balcony Scene. The talk will be extensively illustrated by photographs and facsimiles, as well as audio and video examples.

    3.30-4.00pm: WEST SIDE STORY FILMED

    A short introduction to the Robert Wise / Jerome Robbins film version of West Side Story , including extracts from interviews with those involved.

    4.10-6.40pm: WEST SIDE STORY, THE MOVIE

    A complete showing of the the film, which won 10 Academy Awards including Best Picture of 1961. This will be followed by an opportunity for discussion about the show itself and the film version.

    NIGEL SIMEONE is Professor of Historical Musicology at the University of Sheffield. As well as working extensively on French music, he is currently writing a book on West Side Story for Ashgate's series of Landmarks in Music Since 1950 .

• Chroma Workshop, 17 November

  The Tête à Tête Opera Company and the chamber ensemble CHROMA have joined forces to offer us a workshop with Bill Bankes-Jones (director), Stuart King (clarinet) Phyllis Cannan (mezzo-soprano) and Anne Sinclair (Fair-Isle knitter) on their latest collaboration Odysseus Unwound .

• Odysseus Unwound, 23 November

  DH Lawrence Theatre. Music: Julian Grant; libretto: Hattie Naylor. Based on the story of Odysseus, drawing inspiration from the common ground shared with the Shetland tradition of knitting and spinning, the opera went through an extensive period of research and development in both London and Shetland and was premiered at Alexandra Palace, London, 10 October 2006.

• Guest Lectures (All on Tuesdays at 5.15pm in the Arts Centre Lecture Theatre)

  • 6 February: Dr Bret Battey (De Montfort University), Autarkeia Aggregatum: Visual Music in the Digital Age
  • 20 February: Prof Jeremy Tambling (University of Manchester), 'The Power of Emotion': Opera and Film[examines Alexander Kluge’s 1983 film]
  • 6 March:  Prof William Brooks (University of York), Ah Sin: The legacy, [traces the Chinese character Ah Sin through 100 years of American culture]
  • 8 May:  Prof David Charlton (Royal Holloway, University of London), Casanova's laugh: or the quiddity of French opera c.1750

  • An Afternoon of Stephen Sondheim, 2.00-5.30pm, Arts Centre Lecture Theatre

    24 February:  Prof Nigel Simeone (University of Sheffield)

    Open to all, this afternoon will consider some important moments in Sondheim's career, extensively illustrated with his own words and music.

    • 2.00: Sondheim: an introduction to the man, his music and his lyrics.
    • 2.45: Putting it Together: the creative process - demos, cuts, revisions, final versions, illustrated with rare recordings.
    • 4.00: The Making of a Cast Recording: Company. A complete showing of the documentary film by D.A. Pennebaker. 
    • 5.15: Concluding discussion.

    • Guest Seminars (4pm, Endsleigh Room)

      • 25 April: Dr Philip Carli (Rochester, NY), 'The crucial place of film editing in designing musical accompaniment'
      • 2 July: Prof. Janice Misurell-Mithcell (Chicago) '"From Text to Music to Film": a discussion of the creation and production of Sermon of the Spider for tenor, chamber ensemble and gospel choir (2003)'