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Why have so many musical works been based on fairy tales? How does music interact with the underlying stories in ways that translate them into something new? How might we identify a ‘magical’ topic in a piece of music?
This series of lectures investigates musical adaptations of fairy tales across genres from musical theatre to opera and ballet. It also considers who fairy tales are for and how music can heighten the perceived bleakness or seriousness of subject matter that may appeared to be primarily geared towards children. Starting with Shakespeare’s Titania and Oberon in the sixteenth century and encompassing more recent examples from ballet to Broadway, the lectures explore meaning in some of the most beloved and ubiquitous musical depictions of fairies and their worlds.
