Midsummer Dream (Spanish: El Sueño de una noche de San Juan, meaning A Dream of a Night of Saint John, the feast of Saint John, celebrated on the night of June 23rd, being the traditional midsummer feast in Spain and Portugal) is a 2005 computer-animated film from Dygra Films, the creators of The Living Forest. Made in Spain and Portugal, the film is loosely based on William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Character[link]

The main character is the girl Helena, a princess.

Voice cast[link]

The voice cast of the English speaking version includes:

• Romola Garai
• Bernard Hill
• Billy Boyd
• Rhys Ifans
• Miranda Richardson
• Fiona Shaw
• Toby Stephens

Production[link]

Directed by: Ángel de la Cruz and Manolo Gómez

External links[link]

• Official site
• Midsummer Dream at the Internet Movie Database

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Photo by Yousuf Karsh, mid 1950s

Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten,^[1] OM CH (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist; and one of the central figures of 20th century British classical music. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to international fame. For the next fifteen years he devoted much of his compositional attention to writing operas, establishing him as one of the leading 20th century figures in this genre.

Britten's interests as a composer were wide-ranging; he produced important music in such varied genres as orchestral, choral, solo vocal (much of it written for his life partner, tenor Peter Pears), chamber and instrumental, as well as film music. He also took a great interest in writing music for children and amateur performers, and was an outstanding pianist and conductor.

Life[link]

Britten was born in Lowestoft, Suffolk, on 22 November 1913, the youngest of four children. His father, Robert, was a dentist, and his mother Edith, a talented amateur musician who gave Britten his first lessons in piano and notation. He showed musical gifts very early in life, making his first attempts at composition aged five, and thereafter composing prolifically as a child.^[2] He started piano lessons with a teacher from his pre-prep school when aged 7, and viola lessons with Audrey Alston when 10 years old.

John Piper's Benjamin Britten memorial window in the Church of St Peter and St Paul, Aldeburgh

Britten heard Frank Bridge’s orchestral poem The Sea at a festival and was, as he put it, ‘knocked sideways’.^[2] Alston was a family friend of Frank Bridge and was able to arrange an introduction. After examining Britten's work, Bridge took him on as a composition pupil, and the first lesson took place on 10 January 1928, a few weeks after Britten's 14th birthday.^[3] One of the first pieces composed during the period of Bridge's tutelage was the Quatre Chansons françaises for soprano and orchestra, though it appears that Britten's abilities as an orchestrator were essentially self-taught rather than learned from Bridge.^[4]

He was educated at Gresham's School, Holt and then studied, 1930–33, at the Royal College of Music under John Ireland (composition) and Arthur Benjamin (piano). Britten also used his time in London to attend concerts and become better acquainted with the music of Igor Stravinsky, Gustav Mahler, and Dmitry Shostakovich. Although ultimately dissuaded by his parents (at the suggestion of College staff), Britten had also intended postgraduate study with Alban Berg in Vienna.

Britten was a prolific juvenile composer: some 800 works and fragments precede his early published works. His first compositions to attract wide attention were the Sinfonietta Op. 1, A Hymn to the Virgin (1930) and a set of choral variations A Boy was Born, written in 1934 for the BBC Singers. In this same period he wrote Friday Afternoons, a collection of 12 songs mostly for unison singing, for the pupils of Clive House School, Prestatyn where Britten's brother, Robert, was headmaster.^[5]

Early professional life[link]

In April 1935 he was approached by the film director Alberto Cavalcanti to write the film score for the documentary The King's Stamp, produced by the GPO Film Unit.^[6] He subsequently met W. H. Auden, who was also working for the GPO Film Unit; together they worked on the films Coal Face and Night Mail.^[7] They also collaborated on the song cycle Our Hunting Fathers Op. 8, radical both in politics and musical treatment, and other works.

Of more lasting importance to Britten was his meeting in 1937 with the tenor Peter Pears, who was to become his musical collaborator and inspiration as well as his life partner. In the same year he composed a Pacifist March (words, Ronald Duncan) for the Peace Pledge Union, of which, as a pacifist, he had become an active member, but the work was not a success and soon withdrawn. One of Britten's most noteworthy works from the 1930s was Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge for string orchestra, Op. 10, written in 1937.

In April 1939 Britten and Pears followed Auden to America. There, in 1940, Britten composed Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, the first of many song cycles for Pears. Already friends with the composer Aaron Copland, Britten encountered his latest works Billy the Kid and An Outdoor Overture, both of which manifestly influenced his own music.^[8] While in America Britten wrote his first music drama, Paul Bunyan, an operetta (to a libretto by Auden). The period in America was also remarkable for a number of orchestral works, including the Violin Concerto Op. 15, and Sinfonia da Requiem Op. 20 (for full orchestra).

In the meantime, Britten had had his first encounter with Balinese gamelan music through the transcriptions for two pianos made by the Canadian composer Colin McPhee. Britten first met McPhee at Stanton Cottage in the summer of 1939, and the two subsequently performed a number of McPhee's transcriptions for a recording.^[9] This musical encounter was to bear fruit decades later in several Balinese-inspired works including The Prince of the Pagodas,^[10] Noye's Fludde^[11] and Death in Venice.^[12]

Return to England[link]

Britten and Pears returned to England in April 1942, and both applied for recognition as conscientious objectors; Britten was initially allowed only non-combatant service in the military, but gained unconditional exemption on appeal. He completed the choral works Hymn to St. Cecilia (his last large-scale collaboration with Auden) and A Ceremony of Carols during the long sea voyage. He had already begun work on his opera Peter Grimes based on the writings of Suffolk poet George Crabbe; its première at Sadler's Wells in 1945 was his greatest success thus far. However, Britten encountered opposition from sectors of the English musical establishment and gradually withdrew from the London scene, founding the English Opera Group in 1947 and the Aldeburgh Festival the following year, partly (though by no means solely) to perform his own works. From 1949 to 1951 he had his only private pupil, Arthur Oldham. One of Oldham's achievements was the setting for full orchestra of Britten's Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge, for the Frederick Ashton ballet Le Rêve de Léonor (1949).^[13]

Peter Grimes was the first in a series of English operas, of which Billy Budd (1951) and The Turn of the Screw (1954) were particularly admired. His Shakespeare opera, A Midsummer Night's Dream, followed in 1960. These operas share common themes. Even in his comic opera Albert Herring of 1947, all feature an 'outsider' character excluded or misunderstood by society. Often this is the eponymous protagonist, as in Peter Grimes and Owen Wingrave.

Britten was appointed a Companion of Honour (CH) in the Coronation Honours, 1953.^[14]

An increasingly important influence was the music of the East, an interest that was fostered by a tour with Pears in 1957, when Britten was struck by the music of the Balinese gamelan and by Japanese Noh plays. The fruits of this tour include the ballet The Prince of the Pagodas (1957) and the series of semi-operatic "Parables for Church Performance": Curlew River (1964), The Burning Fiery Furnace (1966) and The Prodigal Son (1968). The greatest success of Britten's career was, however, the War Requiem, written for the 1962 consecration of the newly reconstructed Coventry Cathedral.

Britten developed close friendships with Russian musicians Dmitri Shostakovich and Mstislav Rostropovich in the 1960s. He composed his Cello Suites, Cello Symphony and Cello Sonata for Mstislav Rostropovich, and conducted the first Western performance of Shostakovich's Fourteenth Symphony. Shostakovich dedicated this score to Britten, and often spoke very highly of his music. Britten himself had previously dedicated The Prodigal Son (the third and last of the 'Church Parables') to Shostakovich. He was honoured again by appointment to the Order of Merit (OM) on 23 March 1965.^[15]

In his last decade, Britten's health deteriorated, and his later works became more and more sparse in texture. They include the operas Owen Wingrave (1970) and Death in Venice (1971–1973), the Suite on English Folk Tunes "A Time There Was" (1974) and Third String Quartet (1975)— which drew on material from Death in Venice— as well as the dramatic cantata Phaedra (1975), written for Janet Baker.

	Op92; A Birthday Hansel for high voice and harp (1975) Part 1 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Performance by Alexander Kaimbacher (Tenor) and Volker Kempf (Harp).
Problems listening to these files? See media help.

Having previously declined a knighthood, Britten accepted a life peerage on 2 July 1976 as Baron Britten, of Aldeburgh in the County of Suffolk.^[16] A few months later he died of heart failure at his house in Aldeburgh. He is buried in the churchyard of St. Peter and St. Paul's Church there, with a gravestone carved by Reynolds Stone. The grave of his partner, Sir Peter Pears, lies next to his, and near to that of Imogen Holst, a close friend. A memorial stone to him was unveiled in the north choir aisle of Westminster Abbey in 1978.

The Red House in Aldeburgh, where Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears lived and worked together for almost thirty years, is now the home of the Britten-Pears Foundation, established to promote their musical legacy.

Music[link]

Operas[link]

Britten's operas are firmly established in the international repertoire. According to Operabase, he has more operas played worldwide than any other composer born in the 20th century,^[17] and only Puccini and Richard Strauss come ahead of him if the list is extended to all operas composed after 1900.^[18]

Other genres[link]

Britten was an accomplished pianist, frequently performing chamber music and accompanying lieder and song recitals. However, apart from the Holiday Diary (1934), Piano Concerto (1938), Young Apollo (1939), Diversions (written for Paul Wittgenstein in 1940), Scottish Ballad (1941), he wrote relatively little music that puts the piano in the spotlight, and in a 1963 interview for the BBC said that he thought of it as "a background instrument".

One of Britten's best known works is The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1946), which was composed to accompany Instruments of the Orchestra, an educational film produced by the British government, narrated and conducted by Malcolm Sargent. Its subtitle is Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell; the theme is a melody from Henry Purcell's Abdelazar. Britten gives individual variations to each of the sections of the orchestra, starting with the woodwind, then the string instruments, the brass instruments and finally the percussion. Britten then brings the whole orchestra together again in a fugue before restating the theme to close the work. The original film's spoken commentary is often omitted in concert performances and recordings.

Britten's church music is also considerable: it contains frequently performed 'classics' such as Rejoice in the Lamb, composed for St Matthew's Northampton (where the Vicar was Revd Walter Hussey), as well as A Hymn to the Virgin, and Missa Brevis for boys' voices and organ.

As a conductor, Britten performed the music of many composers, as well as his own. Among his celebrated recordings are versions of Mozart's 40th Symphony and Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius (with Pears as Gerontius), and an album of works by Grainger in which Britten features as pianist as well as conductor.

Nocturnal after John Dowland for guitar (1963) has an indisputably central place in the repertoire of its instrument. This work is typically spare in his late style, and shows the depth of his lifelong admiration for Elizabethan lute songs. In each of the eight variations Britten focuses on a different feature of the work's theme, Dowland's song Come, Heavy Sleep, or its lute accompaniment, before the theme emerges complete at the close of the work.

In 2005, the Britten-Pears Foundation in partnership with the University of East Anglia was awarded funding from the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to produce a thematic catalogue of Britten's works. The project is distinguished by being the first composer thematic catalogue to be published initially online. (All previous thematic catalogues have been print publications, though some have been published online later.) The work involves gathering and cataloguing manuscript and published notation and published recordings, producing a chronology, and assigning identifiers to Britten's works. These identifiers are in addition to Britten's own opus numbers and, after the style of preceding thematic catalogues such as BWV for J.S. Bach, comprise the letters 'BTC' followed by numbers assigned in chronological order. The catalogue includes numerous unpublished works and is expected, when completed in 2013, to include around 1,200 works. (Britten's published output includes around 200 works, of which 95 were assigned opus numbers.)

Reputation[link]

The Scallop by Maggi Hambling is a sculpture dedicated to Benjamin Britten on the beach at Aldeburgh. The edge of the shell is pierced with the words "I hear those voices that will not be drowned" from Peter Grimes.

Early in his career, Britten made a conscious effort to set himself apart from the English musical mainstream, which he regarded as complacent, insular and amateurish. Many contemporary critics distrusted his facility, cosmopolitanism and admiration for composers such as Mahler, Berg, and Stravinsky, not at the time considered appropriate models for a young English musician. Britten's status as one of the greatest composers of the 20th century is now secure among professional critics. However, criticism of his music is apt to become entangled with consideration of his personality, his politics (especially his pacifism in World War II) and his sexuality.^{[19][not in citation given]} Humphrey Carpenter's 1992 biography further described Britten's often fraught social, professional and sexual relationships, as did Alan Bennett's 2009 play The Habit of Art, set while Britten is composing the opera Death in Venice and centred on a fictional meeting between Britten and W. H. Auden (Britten was played in the premiere production by Alex Jennings).

In 2003, a selection of Britten's writings, edited by Paul Kildea, revealed other ways that he addressed such issues as his pacifism.^[20] A further study along the lines begun by Carpenter is John Bridcut's Britten's Children, 2006, which describes Britten’s infatuation with a series of pre-adolescent and adolescent boys throughout his life, most notably David Hemmings.^[21]

For many musicians, however, Britten's technique, broad musical and human sympathies and ability to treat the most traditional of musical forms with freshness and originality place him at the head of composers of his generation. A notable tribute is Cantus In Memoriam Benjamin Britten, an orchestral piece written in 1977 by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt.

Awards[link]

• UNESCO’s International Rostrum of Composers 1961, (for A Midsummer Night's Dream)
• Grammy Awards 1963 – Classical Album of the Year, Best Classical Composition by a Contemporary Composer, Best Classical Performance – Choral (Other Than Opera) (all for War Requiem)
• Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal, 1964
• Sonning Award 1967 (Denmark)
• Ernst von Siemens Music Prize 1974
• BRIT Awards 1977 – Best Orchestral Album (of the past 25 years) (for War Requiem)
• Grammy Hall of Fame Award 1998 (for War Requiem)

Recordings by Britten[link]

• Facets of Benjamin Britten Pearl, Pavilion Records (0220 GEM)
• Benjamin Britten – Premiere recordings 1938–46 Pearl, Pavilion Records (0002 GEM)
• Britten the Performer (BBC Legends Music)
• Benjamin Britten: In Rehearsal and Performance with Peter Pears

See also[link]

Ballet portal

• Britten's Children
• List of compositions by Benjamin Britten

References[link]

Sources[link]

• F. Avellar de Aquino. "Song of Sorrow". in The Strad Magazine, London, v. 117, Vol. 1391, p. 52–57, 2006. (on Britten's 3rd. Cello Suite)
• Philip Brett. "Benjamin Britten", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (accessed 18 October 2004), grovemusic.com (subscription access).
• Bridcut, John, Britten's Children, Faber and Faber, 2006. ISBN 0-571-22839-9
• Britten, Benjamin (edited by Philip Reed, Mervyn Cooke and Donald Mitchell) Letters from a Life: The Selected Letters of Benjamin Britten, Volume IV, 1952–1957 The Boydell Press, 633pp
• Britten, Benjamin (edited by John Evans) Journeying Boy: the Diaries of the Young Benjamin Britten, 1928–1938 (London: Faber and Faber), 2009)
• Humphrey Carpenter, Benjamin Britten: a biography (London: Faber and Faber, 1992) ISBN 0-571-14324-5
• Peter Evans. The Music of Benjamin Britten (London: J. M. Dent, 1979) ISBN 0-460-04350-1
• Michael Kennedy, 1981. Britten (London: J. M. Dent, 1983) ISBN 0-460-02201-6
• Donald Mitchell, "Britten, (Edward) Benjamin, Baron Britten (1913–1976)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. Accessed 18 October 2004: http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/30853
• Michael Oliver. Benjamin Britten (London: Phaidon Press, 1996) ISBN 0-7148-3277-4

External links[link]

• Britten-Pears Foundation: biographies of Britten and Pears, timelines, work lists and descriptions, performance schedules.
• Boosey & Hawkes (Britten's publishers up to 1963): biographies, work lists and descriptions, recordings, performance schedules
• Faber Music (Publishers set up by Britten for his works after 1963): biography, work lists, recordings, performance schedules

Biographies and profiles[link]

• MusicWeb International. Benjamin Britten (1913–1976), by Rob Barnett
• Gresham College. 'Britten and Bridge', lecture and performance investigating the relation between the two composers, 5 February 2008 (available for download as text, audio or video file).
• On An Overgrown Path (blog). Photo essay on Britten's childhood home, November 2008.
• BBC. Audio (.ram files) of 1957 and 1963 interviews

Portraits[link]

• National Portrait Gallery. Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (1913–1976), 109 portraits.

Worklists and performances[link]

• Scott Eric Smith. An extensive list of Benjamin Britten's works (archived / current)
• Britten-Pears Foundation/AHRC. A thematic catalogue of Britten's works (under development)
• Operabase. Recent and future performances of Britten operas.

Interpretations[link]

• Britten: A Ceremony of Carols (op. 28). Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge/ Harp: Frances Kelly/ Conductor: Richard Marlow (1997)
• Britten: On This Island, Kishani Jayasinghe
• Britten: Cello Symphony performed by cellist Julian Lloyd Webber and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields conducted by Sir Neville Marriner
• University of Iowa. Audio recording of Lachrymae, Viola: Christine Rutledge, piano: Darlene Lawrence. Clapp Recital Hall (1998).

Benno Moiseiwitsch

Benno Moiseiwitsch CBE (22 February 1890 – 9 April 1963) was a Ukrainian-born British pianist.

Biography[link]

Born in Odessa, Ukraine, Moiseiwitsch began his studies at age seven at the Odessa Music Academy. He won the Anton Rubinstein Prize when he was just nine years old. He later took lessons from Theodor Leschetizky in Vienna. He first appeared in London in 1909 and made his American debut in 1919. He settled in England and took British citizenship in 1937.

Moiseiwitsch was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1946, for his consistent contributions during the Second World War, performing hundreds of recitals to servicemen and charities.

He married Daisy Kennedy, an Australian concert violinist, and had two daughters, Sandra and the set designer, Tanya Moiseiwitsch.

He was a friend of Nikolai Medtner and commissioned the Piano Concerto No. 3 "Ballade" (1940-43).^[1]

Playing style[link]

Moiseiwitsch was particularly known for his interpretations of the late Romantic repertoire, especially the works of Sergei Rachmaninoff (who was an admirer of his playing and referred to Moiseiwitsch as his "spiritual heir"). At the piano, Moiseiwitsch was noted for his elegance, poetry, lyrical phrasing, brilliance, rhythmic freedom, and relaxed virtuosity.

He made recordings for His Master's Voice (now EMI) starting in the 78RPM shellac era, continuing with long-playing records and into the early stereo era. His distinctive style can be heard in his recording of Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and the Barcarolle, Ballade No. 4 and Nocturne, Op. 62 of Frédéric Chopin. In 1950 critic and musicologist Irving Kolodin said about the Ballade in F minor of Chopin played by Moiseiwitsch: "A featherweight touch in the opening section of this work, an apt feeling for its "once upon a time" narrative quality give Moiseiwitsch pre-eminence among present day interpreters...", thus summing up the sensitivity of the playing by Benno Moiseiwitsch.^[2] He worked meticulously and amicably as a chamber musician, including in Rachmaninoff's Trio Élégiaque and Cello Sonata in G minor. American critic Harold C. Schonberg praised Moiseiwitsch's formidable technique and free approach to the music, adding that such freedom was "always tempered by impeccable musicality."^[3]

Discography[link]

There is currently no comprehensive reissue of Moiseiwitsch's entire discography, but much of his recorded output is available on CD. Though there are duplicates of recordings across the labels, they will differ in sound quality due to the different restoration techniques employed by the companies.

Releases by Naxos Records Historical[link]

• Vol.1:- SCHUMANN: Kinderszenen / MUSORGSKY: Pictures at an Exhibition (8.110668)
• Vol.2:- LISZT: Hungarian Rhapsody / WEBER: Rondo Brillante (8.110669)
• Vol.3:- TCHAIKOVSKY: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 (8.110655)
• Vol.4:- RACHMANINOV: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 (8.110676)
• Vol.5:- GRIEG / SAINT-SAENS: Piano Concertos / LISZT: Hungarian Fantasy (8.110683)
• Vol.6:- DELIUS: Piano Concerto / RAVEL: Jeux d'eau (8.110689)
• Vol.7:- RACHMANINOV: Preludes / MEDTNER: Sonata (8.110675)
• Vol.8:- BEETHOVEN: Piano Concertos Nos. 3 and 5 (8.110776)
• Vol.9:- BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonatas Nos. 8, 14, and 21 (8.111115)
• Vol.10:- MOISEIWITSCH, Benno: Acoustic Recordings 1916-1925 (8.111116)
• Vol.11:- CHOPIN: Piano Works (1917–1927) (8.111117)
• Vol.12:- CHOPIN: 24 Preludes / Ballades / Fantaisie-Impromptu (1938–1952) (8.111118)
• BEETHOVEN / BRAHMS / FRANCK: Violin Sonatas (Heifetz) — Moiseiwitsch accompanies Jascha Heifetz in Beethoven's Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major, Op. 47

Releases by APR[link]

• The complete Rachmaninov recordings 1937-43 (APR 5505)
• Benno Moiseiwitsch plays SAINT-SAENS Concerto 2 / GRIEG Concerto / LISZT Hungarian Fantasia (APR 5529)
• Benno Moiseiwitsch plays Beethoven Volume 1 (APR 5530)
• Benno Moiseiwitsch plays Beethoven Volume 2 (APR 5610)
• Benno Moiseiwitsch plays Chopin Volume 1 (APR 5575)
• Benno Moiseiwitsch plays Chopin Volume 2 (APR 5576)
• Benno Moiseiwitsch plays Tchaikovsky

Releases by Pearl[link]

• Benno Moiseiwitsch - The Complete Acoustic Recordings (0142)
• Benno Moiseiwitsch Vol 1 - Brahms, Mendelssohn, et al. (9135)
• Moiseiwitsch In Recital (9192)

Releases by Testament[link]

• Benno Moiseiwitsch Plays Schumann & Brahms (1023)
• Chopin, Schumann, Weber, Medtner, et al. / Benno Moiseiwitsch (1196)
• Delius: Concertos For Violin And Piano, Legende, Etc. (1014)
• Moiseiwitsch - Schumann, Grieg: Piano Concertos (1187)

Other releases[link]

• Moisewitsch In Recital - Chopin, Stravinsky, Liszt (ARBITER 120)
• Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.2, Beethoven Piano Concerto No.5 (BBC LEGENDS 4074)
• Benno Moiseiwitsch (Great Pianists of the 20th Century series by Phillips)
• Benno Moiseiwitsch (GHCH 2326 Label: Guild Historical) — Live recordings of Delius's Piano Concerto and Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini from the Proms in 1955. Also included is a studio recording of Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto also from 1955.

Bibliography[link]

• MOISEIWITSCH, Maurice. Moiseiwitsch, biography of a Concert Pianist, London: F.Muller, 1965.

Filmography[link]

• Georges Cziffra (EMI DVD Classics 4906819) — Bonus footage of Moiseiwitsch playing Wagner-Liszt: Overture to Tannhauser
• The Art of Piano: Great Pianists of the 20th Century — Moiseiwitsch plays Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No.2 (excerpt), Prelude in B minor Op.32 (the beginning contains commentary) and speaks about a conversation he had with Rachmaninov.

References[link]

1. ^ Presto Classical
2. ^ Irving Kolodin, The New Guide To Recorded Music, Double Day & Company, New York, 1950
3. ^ Harold C. Schonberg, The Great Pianists from Mozart to the Present, Simon & Schuster, Second Edition (1987)

External links[link]

• Playing in the Grand Style — Moiseiwitsch discusses the "Grand Style"
• A radio interview transcript — Moiseiwitsch speaks about his career, music and other subjects
• Sergei Rachmaninoff, 1873-1943 —Moiseiwitsch writes on the late Sergei Rachmaninoff in a May 1943 article of Gramophone
• Benno Moiseiwitsch — An article on Moiseiwitsch by W. S. Meadmore from a March 1940 issue of Gramophone

Dame Judi Dench
Dench at the 2007 BAFTAs.
Born	Judith Olivia Dench (1934-12-09) 9 December 1934 (age 77)[1] York, Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom
Occupation	Actress, Author[2]
Years active	1957–present
Spouse	Michael Williams (1971–2001; widowed)
Children	Finty Williams
Parents	Reginald Arthur Dench Eleanora Olave Jones

Dame Judith Olivia “Judi” Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA (born 9 December 1934) is an English film, stage and television actress.

Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth. She branched into film work, and won a BAFTA Award as Most Promising Newcomer; however, most of her work during this period was in theatre. Not generally known as a singer, she drew strong reviews for her leading role in the musical Cabaret in 1968.

During the next two decades, she established herself as one of the most significant British theatre performers, working for the National Theatre Company and the Royal Shakespeare Company. In television, she achieved success during this period, in the series A Fine Romance from 1981 until 1984 and in 1992 began a continuing role in the television romantic comedy series As Time Goes By.

Her film appearances were infrequent until she was cast as M in GoldenEye (1995), a role she has played in each James Bond film since. She received several notable film awards for her role as Queen Victoria in Mrs. Brown (1997), and has since been acclaimed for her work in such films as Shakespeare in Love (1998), Chocolat (2000), Iris (2001), Mrs Henderson Presents (2005) and Notes on a Scandal (2006), and the television production The Last of the Blonde Bombshells (2001).

Dench has received many award nominations for her acting in theatre, film and television; her awards include ten BAFTAs, (including the Bafta Fellowship in 2001) seven Laurence Olivier Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Golden Globes, an Academy Award, and a Tony Award. In June 2011, she received a fellowship from the British Film Institute (BFI).^[3]

She was married to actor Michael Williams from 1971 until his death in 2001. They are the parents of actress Finty Williams.

Personal life[link]

Dench was born in Heworth, York, England, the daughter of Eleanora Olave (née Jones), a native of Dublin, and Reginald Arthur Dench, a doctor who met Judi's mother while studying medicine at Trinity College, Dublin.^[4] Dench attended the Mount School, a Quaker independent secondary school in York, and became a Quaker.^[5][6] Her brothers, one of whom is actor Jeffery Dench, were born in Tyldesley, Lancashire.^[5][6] Notable relatives also include her niece, Emma Dench, a Roman historian and professor previously at Birkbeck, University of London, and currently at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.^[7]

In 1971, Dench married British actor Michael Williams and they had their only child, Tara Cressida Frances Williams, known professionally as Finty Williams, on 24 September 1972.

Dench and her husband starred together in several stage productions, and the Bob Larbey British television sitcom, A Fine Romance (1981–84). Michael Williams died from lung cancer in 2001, aged 65.

Macular degeneration[link]

In early 2012, Dench discussed her macular degeneration, with one eye "dry" and the other "wet", for which she has been treated with injections into the eye. She said that she was needing someone to read scripts to her.^[8]

Career[link]

In Britain, Dench has developed a reputation as one of the greatest actresses of the post-war period, primarily through her work in theatre, which has been her forte throughout her career. She has more than once been named number one in polls for Britain's best actress.^[9][10]

Early years[link]

Through her parents, Dench had regular contact with the theatre. Her father, a physician, was also the GP for the York theatre, and her mother was its wardrobe mistress.^[11] Actors often stayed in the Dench household. During these years, Judi was involved on a non-professional basis in the first three productions of the modern revival of the York Mystery Plays in the 1950s. In 1957, in one of the last productions in which she appeared during this period, she played the role of the Virgin Mary, performed on a fixed stage in the Museum Gardens.^[12] Though she initially trained as a set designer, she became interested in drama school as her brother Jeff attended the Central School of Speech and Drama.^[11] She applied and was accepted, where she was a classmate of Vanessa Redgrave, graduating with a first class degree in drama and four acting prizes, one being the Gold Medal as Outstanding Student.^[11]

In September 1957, she made her first professional stage appearance with the Old Vic Company, at the Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool, as Ophelia in Hamlet, then her London debut in the same production at the Old Vic. She remained a member of the company for four seasons, 1957–1961, her roles including Katherine in Henry V in 1958 (which was also her New York debut), and as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet in October 1960, directed and designed by Franco Zeffirelli. During this period, she toured the United States and Canada, and appeared in Yugoslavia and at the Edinburgh Festival.

She joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in December 1961 playing Anya in The Cherry Orchard at the Aldwych Theatre in London, and made her Stratford-upon-Avon debut in April 1962 as Isabella in Measure for Measure. She subsequently spent seasons in repertory both with the Playhouse in Nottingham from January 1963 (including a West African tour as Lady Macbeth for the British Council), and with the Playhouse Company in Oxford from April 1964. That same year, she made her film debut in The Third Secret.

Prominence[link]

In 1968, she was offered the role of Sally Bowles in the musical Cabaret. As Sheridan Morley later reported: "At first she thought they were joking. She had never done a musical and she has an unusual croaky voice which sounds as if she has a permanent cold. So frightened was she of singing in public that she auditioned from the wings, leaving the pianists alone on stage".^[13] But when it opened at the Palace Theatre in February 1968, Frank Marcus, reviewing for Plays and Players, commented that: "She sings well. The title song in particular is projected with great feeling."

After a long run in Cabaret, she rejoined the RSC making numerous appearances with the company in Stratford and London for nearly twenty years, winning several best actress awards. Among her roles with the RSC, she was the Duchess in John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi in 1971. In the Stratford 1976 season, and then at the Aldwych in 1977, she gave two comedy performances, first in Trevor Nunn's musical staging of The Comedy of Errors as Adriana, then partnered with Donald Sinden as Beatrice and Benedick in John Barton's "British Raj" revival of Much Ado About Nothing. As Bernard Levin wrote in The Sunday Times: "...demonstrating once more that she is a comic actress of consummate skill, perhaps the very best we have."^[14]

One of her most notable achievements with the RSC was her performance as Lady Macbeth in 1976. Nunn's acclaimed production of Macbeth was first staged with a minimalist design at The Other Place theatre in Stratford. Its small round stage focused attention on the psychological dynamics of the characters, and both Ian McKellen in the title role, and Dench, received exceptionally favourable notices. "If this is not great acting I don't know what is", wrote Michael Billington in The Guardian. "It will astonish me if the performance is matched by any in this actress's generation", commented J C Trewin in The Lady. The production transferred to London, opening at the Donmar Warehouse in September 1977, and was adapted for television, later released on VHS and DVD. Dench won the SWET Best Actress Award in 1977.

Dench was nominated for a BAFTA for her role as Hazel Wiles in the 1979 BBC drama On Giant's Shoulders.^[15] In 1989, she was cast as Pru Forrest, the long-time silent wife of Tom Forrest, in the BBC soap opera The Archers on its 10,000th edition.^[16]

She had a romantic role in the BBC television film Langrishe, Go Down (1978), with Jeremy Irons and a screenplay by Harold Pinter from the Aidan Higgins novel, directed by David Jones, in which she played one of three spinster sisters living in a fading Irish mansion in the Waterford countryside.

Dench made her debut as a director in 1988 with the Renaissance Theatre Company's touring season, Renaissance Shakespeare on the Road, co-produced with the Birmingham Rep, and ending with a three month repertory programme at the Phoenix Theatre in London. Dench's contribution was a staging of Much Ado About Nothing, set in the Napoleonic era, which starred Kenneth Branagh and Samantha Bond as Benedick and Beatrice.

She has made numerous appearances in the West End including the role of Miss Trant in the 1974 musical version of The Good Companions at Her Majesty's Theatre. In 1981, Dench was due to play the title role of Grizabella in the original production of Cats, but was forced to pull out due to a torn Achilles tendon, leaving Elaine Paige to play the role.^[17] She has acted with the National Theatre in London where, in September 1995, she played Desiree Armfeldt in a major revival of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music, for which she won an Olivier Award.

Popular success[link]

In 1995, she took over the role of M (James Bond's boss) with the James Bond film series, starting with GoldenEye replacing Robert Brown. She has appeared in six James Bond films, including Die Another Day (2002),Casino Royale (2006) and its direct sequel Quantum of Solace (2008), making her the longest-running current cast member of the series. She is currently filming her seventh Bond film, Skyfall, to be released in 2012.

She has won multiple awards for performances on the London stage, including a record six Laurence Olivier Awards. She also won the Tony Award for her 1999 Broadway performance in the role of Esme Allen in David Hare's Amy's View. She has taken on the role of Director for a number of stage productions. Dench won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress as Elizabeth I in the film Shakespeare in Love.

Judi Dench has frequently appeared with her close friend Geoffrey Palmer. They co-starred in the series As Time Goes By, where she played Jean Pargetter, becoming Jean Hardcastle after she married Lionel Hardcastle. The programme spanned nine seasons. They also worked together on the films Mrs. Brown and Tomorrow Never Dies, both filmed in 1997. Dench has also lent her distinctive voice to many animated characters, narrations, and various other voice work. She plays the role of "Miss Lilly" in the children's animated series Angelina Ballerina (alongside her daughter, Finty Williams, as the voice of Angelina) and as Mrs. Calloway in the Disney animated film Home on the Range. She has narrated various classical music recordings (notably Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Britten's Canticles-The Heart of the Matter), and has appeared in numerous BBC Radio broadcasts as well as commercials. Her many television appearances include lead roles in the series A Fine Romance and As Time Goes By. In the United States, As Time Goes By has been repeated on PBS and on BBC America.

Recent years[link]

Dench returned to the West End stage in April 2006 in Hay Fever alongside Peter Bowles, Belinda Lang and Kim Medcalf. She finished off 2006 with the role of Mistress Quickly in the RSC's new musical The Merry Wives, a version of The Merry Wives of Windsor.^[18]

Dench's more recent film career has garnered six Academy Award nominations in nine years for Mrs. Brown in 1997; her Oscar-winning turn as Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love in 1998; for Chocolat in 2000; for the lead role of writer Iris Murdoch in Iris in 2001 (with Kate Winslet playing her as a younger woman); for Mrs Henderson Presents (a romanticised history of the Windmill Theatre) in 2005; and for 2006's Notes on a Scandal, a film for which she received critical acclaim, including Golden Globe, Academy Award, BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild nominations.

In 2007, the BBC issued The Judi Dench Collection, DVDs of eight television dramas: Talking to a Stranger quartet (1966), Keep an Eye on Amélie (1973), The Cherry Orchard (1981), Going Gently (1981), Ghosts (with Kenneth Branagh, Natasha Richardson and Michael Gambon, 1987), Make and Break (with Robert Hardy, 1987), Can You Hear Me Thinking? (co-starring with her husband, Michael Williams, 1990) and Absolute Hell (1991).^[19]

Dench, as Miss Matty Jenkins, co-starred with Eileen Atkins, Michael Gambon, Imelda Staunton and Francesca Annis, in the BBC One five-part series Cranford. The series began transmission in the UK in November 2007, and on the BBC's U.S. producing partner station WGBH (PBS Boston) in spring 2008.

Dench became the voice for the narration for the updated Walt Disney World Epcot attraction Spaceship Earth in February 2008.

In February 2008, she was named as the first official patron of the York Youth Mysteries 2008, a project to allow young people to explore the York Mystery Plays through dance, film-making and circus. This culminated on 21 June with a day of city centre performances in York.

She worked on the 22nd Bond adventure Quantum of Solace and reprised her role as M.

She is interested in horse racing and in partnership with her chauffeur Bryan Agar owns a four-year-old horse, "Smokey Oakey", who won the 2008 Brigadier Gerard Stakes.^[20]

She returned to the West End from 13 March – 23 May 2009, playing Madame de Merteuil in Yukio Mishima's Madame De Sade, directed by Michael Grandage as part of the Donmar season at Wyndham's Theatre. A year later, Dench renewed her collaboration with Sir Peter Hall at the Rose Theatre in Kingston upon Thames in A Midsummer Night's Dream which opened in February 2010, when she played Titania as Queen Elizabeth I in her later years: Queen of the Forest of Arden. On 31 July 2010, Dame Judi performed Send in the Clowns at a special celebratory promenade concert from the Royal Albert Hall as part of the proms season, in honour of composer Stephen Sondheim's 80th birthday, the entire concert in honour of his music.^[21][22]

Public life[link]

Dench was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1970^[23] and promoted to Dame Commander of the order in 1988.^[24] She was appointed a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 2005.^[25] In June 2011, she became a fellow of the British Film Institute (BFI).^[3]

Dench is a patron of the Leaveners, Friends School Saffron Walden and the Archway Theatre, Horley, Surrey. She became president of Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London in 2006,^[26] taking over from Sir John Mills, and is also president of the Questors Theatre, Ealing. In May 2006, she became an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She was also patron of Ovingdean Hall School, a special day and boarding school for the deaf and hard of hearing in Brighton, which closed in 2010,^[27] and Vice President of The Little Foundation.

Dench is an Honorary Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge. In 1996, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate (D.Univ) from Surrey University^[28] and in 2000–2001 she received an Honorary DLitt from Durham University.^[29] In July 2000, she was awarded a Doctor of Letters (D.Litt) by Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, where she actively supported their Drama School at the Gateway Theatre on Elm Row.^{[citation needed]} On 24 June 2008, she was honoured by the University of St Andrews, receiving the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (D.Litt) at the university's graduation ceremony.^[30]

Dench has worked with the non-governmental indigenous organisation, Survival International, campaigning in the defence of the tribal people, the Bushmen of Botswana and the Arhuaco of Colombia. She made a small supporting video saying the Bushmen are victims of tyranny, greed and racism.^[31][32]

On 22 July 2010, Dench was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (DLitt) by Nottingham Trent University.^[33]

The Dr. Hadwen Trust announced on 15 January 2011 that Dench had become a patron of the trust joining existing high profile personalities, Joanna Lumley and David Shepherd.^[34]

On 19 March 2012 it was announced that Dench was to become honorary patron of the charity "Everton in the Community", the official charity of Everton F.C. in Everton, Liverpool. It was also revealed that Dench is a supporter of Everton.^[35]

Filmography[link]

She has also lent her likeness and voice for the role of M in James Bond video games:

• Everything or Nothing
• GoldenEye: Rogue Agent
• Quantum of Solace
• GoldenEye 007
• Blood Stone

Theatre work[link]

This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. No cleanup reason has been specified. Please help improve this section if you can; the talk page may contain suggestions. (March 2009)

Source: "Judi Dench: With a Crack in her Voice" by John Miller

As an actress[link]

As a director[link]

• 1988 – Much Ado About Nothing, Renaissance Theatre Company
• 1989 – Look Back in Anger – Renaissance Theatre Company
• 1989 – Macbeth – Central School of Speech and Drama
• 1991 – The Boy from Syracuse, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre
• 1993 – Romeo and Juliet, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre

Discography[link]

• Cabaret (1968), Original London cast album CBS (1973)
• The Good Companions (1974), Original London cast recording (1974)
• A Midsummer Night's Dream (1995); from Felix Mendelssohn as Recitant. Conducted by Seiji Ozawa
• A Little Night Music (1995) by Stephen Sondheim, Royal National Theatre Cast
• Nine (2009) Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Awards and nominations[link]

Theatre[link]

Awards

• 1977: Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Revival – Macbeth
• 1980: Evening Standard Award for Best Actress – Juno and the Paycock
• 1980: Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Revival – Juno and the Paycock
• 1982: Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actress – The Importance of Being Earnest and A Kind of Alaska
• 1982: Evening Standard Award for Best Actress – The Importance of Being Earnest and A Kind of Alaska
• 1984: Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a New Play – Pack of Lies
• 1987: Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actress – Antony and Cleopatra
• 1987: Evening Standard Award for Best Actress – Antony and Cleopatra
• 1987: Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress – Antony and Cleopatra
• 1996: Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress – Absolute Hell
• 1996: Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical or Entertainment – A Little Night Music
• 1997: Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actress – Amy's View
• 1999: Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play – Amy's View
• 2004: Laurence Olivier Award: Special Award for Outstanding Contributions to British Theatre

Television[link]

Awards

• 1967: BAFTA Television Award for Best Actress – Talking to a Stranger^[37]
• 1982: British Academy Television Award for Best Actress – A Fine Romance, Going Gently and The Cherry Orchard
• 1982: Broadcast Press Guild Award for Best Actress – A Fine Romance
• 1985: British Academy Television Award for Best Light Entertainment Performance – A Fine Romance
• 2001: British Academy Television Award for Best Actress – The Last of the Blonde Bombshells
• 2001: Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Miniseries or Television Film – The Last of the Blonde Bombshells

Nominations

• 1979 British Academy Television Award for Best Actress – On Giant's Shoulders
• 1983: British Television Academy Award for Best Light Entertainment Performance – A Fine Romance
• 1984: British Academy Television Award for Best Actress – Saigon: Year of the Cat
• 1984: British Television Academy Award for Best Light Entertainment Performance – A Fine Romance
• 1990: British Academy Television Award for Best Actress – Behaving Badly
• 1998: British Television Academy Award for Best Comedy Performance – As Time Goes By
• 2001: American Comedy Award for Funniest Female Performer in a TV Special – The Last of the Blonde Bombshells
• 2001: Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie^[38] – The Last of the Blonde Bombshells
• 2001: Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie – The Last of the Blonde Bombshells
• 2008: British Academy Television Award for Best Actress – Cranford
• 2008: Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie – Cranford
• 2008: Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Miniseries or Television Film – Cranford
• 2008: Satellite Award for Best Actress - Miniseries or Television Film – Cranford
• 2010: Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie – Return to Cranford

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Dench, Judi. And Furthermore. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2010. ISBN 978-0-297-85967-3.
• Lavery, Alison (ed.). The Judi Dench Handbook. Emereo, 2010. ISBN 978-1-74244-659-2.
• Miller, John (ed.). Darling Judi: A Celebration of Judi Dench. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2004. ISBN 0-297-84791-0.
• Trowbridge, Simon. The Company: A Biographical Dictionary of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Oxford: Editions Albert Creed, 2010. ISBN 978-0-9559830-2-3.
• Herbert, Ian; Christine Baxter and Robert E. Finlay (1981). Who's Who in the Theatre (17th ed.). Detroit: Gale. ISBN 0-273-01717-9. 
• Billington, Michael (1993). One Night Stands: A critic's view of British theatre from 1971–1991. London: Nick Hern Books. ISBN 1-85459-185-1. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Judi Dench

• Judi Dench Biography
• Judi Dench at the Internet Movie Database
• Judi Dench at the Internet Broadway Database
• Judi Dench at AllRovi
• Judi Dench at the Royal Shakespeare Company performance database
• As Time Goes By Central website
• Judi Dench on Acting Regal
• University of Bristol Theatre Collection, University of Bristol
• The Company: A Biographical Dictionary of the RSC: Online database
• Dame Judi Dench at Emmys.com