The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is among the orchestras this season with Shakespeare-themed programming that involves collaboration with a local theater company. For its two performances of Tchaikovsky’s Hamlet Fantasy-Overture on January 16 and 18, narrators will be members of the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, which is currently in the middle of its own January-February run of performances of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The CSO’s performances, led by guest conductor John Storgårds, will also include Sibelius’s Lemminkäinen Suite (Four Legends from the Kalevala) and Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2, with soloist Pekka Kuusisto. Other orchestras that have partnered with actors and local theater companies for Shakespeare-themed performances in 2013-14 include the National Symphony Orchestra (Shakespeare Theatre Company on Capitol Hill), Eugene Symphony (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), the Delaware Symphony Orchestra (British actor Derek Jacobi), and the Hartford Symphony Orchestra (Hartford Stage Company). Last winter the Florida Orchestra performed a full-blown Shakespeare Festival, collaborating with the Dali Museum and Sunscreen Film Festival.
Posted January 13, 2014
