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.
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 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.
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.