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The University of Southampton
MusicPart of Humanities

In the Alps, with Juliet Fraser Event

In the Alps poster
Time:
19:00
Date:
9 February 2020
Venue:
Turner Sims

Event details

A concert presented by the Department of Music at University of Southampton in association with Turner Sims.

The Department of Music Hartley Loop Orchestra, directed by Benjamin Oliver, return with another extraordinary performance project featuring British composer Richard Ayres’ melodramatic masterpiece, In the Alps (2008), for soprano and orchestra. The solo part will be sung by leading soprano Juliet Fraser, playing the part of a girl who is stranded on top of an un-climbable mountain peak as a young baby and is then taught to sing by the mountain animals. Like any self respecting melodrama the text and music combine to depict or imply a wide ranging theatrical adventure, in this piece starting at the Creation (or the big bang), a lonely existence, scenes of rustic village life, some carpentry, many mountain goats, unrequited love, and ending in a quest destined to fail.

Photo of Juliet Fraser ©Dimitri Djuric
Photo of Juliet Fraser ©Dimitri Djuric

The first half will feature Saint-Saëns' Carnival of the Animals (1886) with piano soloists Professor David Owen Norris and Southampton finalist Verity Brooks, as well as a brand new commission by Masters composer Zoe Sones.

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