I first ran this course at Crayford Manor in January 2003 but the latest manifestation was on Saturday 14th March 2020 at the City Lit just before the great lockdown. Following the attempt by James II to re-establish Catholicism in Britain his daughter and son-in-law were invited to oust him to protect the Protestant church….
From being the ruler of an obscure German electorate George I suddenly became king of on the most powerful nations in the world in his fifties. He was never popular in his new kingdom but established a constitutional monarchy which has survived to today. This course was run at the City Lit on Saturday 16th…
Life and times of James VII & II Although his reign was one of the shortest in Britain James had a distinguished career before becoming king and an intriguing one in exile. A Catholic convert he was doomed to fail in Protestant Britain. This course was run at the City Lit on Saturday 10th March…
Life and times of Charles I and Henrietta Maria Charles was never meant to be king but rose to the challenge and he and Henrietta led a glittering court. Sadly they were at odds with Parliament and the people which led to Civil War. This course was run at the Queen’s House Greenwich on Saturday…
The Life and Times of James VI & I This one day course was run at the City Lit on Sunday 26th November 2017. James was already king of Scotland when he succeeded Elizabeth I in 1603. In fact he had been a king virtually his whole life when he became the first monarch of…
Written at Durham Cathedral Easter 1987 Magnificat Nunc Dimitis
MUSIC AND ART INSPIRED BY SHAKESPEARE No. 6 All’s Well That Ends A Summary of the earlier talks and some examples taken from Twentieth Century Music and Art including some Popular ones. Music – Fantasia on Greensleeves by Vaughan Williams. That work is misleadingly called the “Fantasia on Greensleeves” by Vaughan Williams despite not really…
MUSIC AND ART INSPIRED BY SHAKESPEARE No. 5: All At Sea – [this talk was cancelled but I have included it so that anyone interested can see what art I was going to talk about. I have adjusted the music as I included some works in other talks]. Much of Shakespeare takes place when characters…
MUSIC AND ART INSPIRED BY SHAKESPEARE No. 2: Love’s Labours Some Music and Art inspired by Shakespeare’s great love stories, especially Romeo and Juliet but also Othello, Much Ado About Nothing and others. Opening Music – Opening of Act III of Prokofiev’s Ballet “Romeo and Juliet” That music is not the most conventional for a…
This is the first of six postings for lectures from the Cruise on the SAGA Pearl II to the Gulf of Bothnia. MUSIC AND ART INSPIRED BY SHAKESPEARE This series of Six Talks was devised to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in 2016. They were commissioned for a cruise to the Gulf of…