The John Rylands Library and the RNCM present:
Neon Sonnets
Programme of activity
Manchester After Hours, 12 May 2016
Sonnet 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no; it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
The John Rylands Library and the RNCM would like to take you
on this beautiful journey marking the 400th anniversary since
Shakespeare’s death.
Walking through the Historic Entrance, we are heralded by fanfares
and greeted in the hall by a lyrical, yet witty work by Ned Rorem
based on Shakespearean characters, evoking the contrasting
female characters of Katherine and Portia. Our pied pipers and
actors guide us along the way, as we walk towards the Rylands
Gallery which is displaying the book we all want to see tonight
– Shakespeare’s First Folio, whilst 16th century lute music is
performed in the Gallery throughout the evening.
Walking towards the splendid architecture of the Juliet balcony, we
will be onlookers of the renowned Romeo and Juliet balcony scene
as we make our way towards the Reading Room, while, high above
us, in the Lantern Gallery, a flute quartet will be performing the
spirited Scherzo from Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
We are then led to a performance of a new work for mezzo-soprano
and clarsach (a Gaelic harp – dare I mention the Scottish play?),
inspired by Sonnet 116.
Still in the splendour of the Historic Reading Room, we go back to
the 16th century with the use of Gabrieli’s cori spezzati practice
on brass, while actors roam around and guide us to Beethoven’s
impassioned Adagio from his first string quartet – a movement
inspired by the tomb scene of Romeo and Juliet.
Concluding the evening will be an evocative work, playing on the
enveloping quality created by the wonderful acoustic properties of
this equally evocative neo-gothic architectural gem, with Song for
Athene by John Tavener, with its Hamlet connection.
Dr Michelle Castelletti
Artistic Director: RNCM
Programme will start on the hour at 6pm, 7pm and 8pm but feel free to explore at your leisure
Mins past
the hour
Where
00
Historic
Entrance
Hall
01
Historic
Entrance
Hall
08
19
23
Rylands
Gallery
Historic
Staircase
Lantern
Gallery
Performance
Magnus Thomsen:
Sonata (1598)
Hannah Colville, Richard Kingon,
Naomi Martin, Nina Pryce (trumpet)
Ned Rorem: After Reading Shakespeare
(excerpts)
Mins past
the hour
Where
Performance
33
Historic
Reading
Room
Hannah Colville, Richard Kingon, Naomi Martin, Nina Pryce
(trumpet), Ross Marshall, Jack Percy, Rhiannon Symonds,
Shaun Yin Chan (trombone)
38
Historic
Reading
Room
42
Historic
Reading
Room
51
Historic
Reading
Room
Eliza Carew (cello)
Shakespeare Folio Presentation
Sara Salloum (guitar) performs lute music from
16th century England in the Gallery
(throughout the evening)
William Shakespeare: Act 2 Scene 2 (excerpt)
from Romeo and Juliet
Jake Robson as Romeo
Juliet Montgomery as Juliet
Felix Mendelssohn: Scherzo from
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Ivan Alekhin, Timothy Bingham,
Lily Caunt, Jeremy Salter (flute)
29
Melissa Douglas: An ever-fixed mark
(based on Sonnet 116) (world première)
Joanna Harries (mezzo-soprano)
Kathryn Mason (clarsach)
William Shakespeare: Act 1 Scene 5 (excerpt)
from Twelfth Night
Louisa Haggerty as Olivia
Elizabeth Barry as Viola
Ludwig van Beethoven: Adagio from String
Quartet Op 18 No 1
Marvelo String Quartet: Isabella Baker (violin),
Jody Smith (violin), Natalia Senior-Brown (viola),
Malcolm Goodare (cello)
William Shakespeare: Sonnets 18 and 29
Elizabeth Barry, Louisa Haggerty, Juliet Montgomery,
Jake Robson
John Tavener: Song for Athene
James Hendry: conductor
53
Historic
Reading
Room
Giovanni Gabrieli: Sonata pian e’ forte (1597)
Historic
Reading
Room
Freya Holliman, Helen Lacey, Erin Rossington, Xiang Teng,
Abigail Williams, Margarita Wood (soprano)
Charlotte Badham, Rebecca Barry, Joanna Harries,
Lucy Vallis (mezzo-soprano)
Ryan Davies, Ryan Hunt (tenor)
Sam Jackson, Edwin Kaye, Liam McNally, Luke Scott
(bass-baritone)
In association with
the Royal Northern College of Music and Cundall Light4