Romeo and Juliet
Programme & Performers
Coleridge-Taylor: Othello Suite
Richard Thompson: The Shadow of dawn - song cycle
Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet
Stephanie Childress: conductor
With their timeless stories brought to life in music, Shakespeare-inspired works by Coleridge-Taylor and Prokofiev bookend this concert of sweeping emotion.
The concert opens with Coleridge-Taylor’s Othello Suite, brimming with vivid colour and theatrical flair.
Originally composed for a production of Shakespeare’s Othello, the Suite distils the drama, romance and tension of the play into five evocative movements.
Next is Richard Thompson’s The Shadow of Dawn, a song cycle exploring themes of race, emotion and nature inspired by the works of African American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar.
Love, fate and tragedy collide in Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet – an orchestral masterpiece that brings Shakespeare’s enduring story vividly to life.