Director Bill Barclay and conductor JoAnn Falletta talk about mounting a dramatic adaptation of Antony & Cleopatra that pairs Shakespeare’s words with Florent Schmitt’s jaw-dropping music from the 1920 Paris production of the play.

May 24, 2019 · by Phillip Nones | in Classical Music, Composers, French Composers | tagged Andre Gide, Barbican, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Bill Barclay, Buffalo Philharmonic, Camille Chevillard, Concert Theatre Works, Florent Schmitt, Henry Purcell, Ida Rubinstein, JoAnn Falletta, Midsummer Night's Dream, Orchestre Lamoureux, Peer Gynt, Sakari Oramo, Schmitt, Shakespeare 400, Shakespeare's Globe, The Fairy Queen, Virginia Arts Festival, Virginia Symphony Orchestra | Leave a comment

By now, it seems that Florent Schmitt’s two Antoine et Cléopâtre Suites, Op. 69 have at last transitioned from being true rarities to become orchestral repertoire that is actually known. There are now four commercial recordings of the suites (three of them made within the past decade), and in the past several years the music […]

Experiencing Florent Schmitt’s Antony & Cleopatra (1920) in a dramatic adaptation: An eyewitness report from London.

October 10, 2016 · by Phillip Nones | in Classical Music, Composers, French Composers | tagged Andre Gide, Antoine et Cleopatre, Antony & Cleopatra, BBC Symphony, Bill Barclay, Bramwell Tovey, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Camille Chevillard, Edmund Harris, Florent Schmitt, Ida Rubinstein, Iqbal Khan, Janie Dee, JoAnn Falletta, LAPO, Leonid Desyatnikov, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Mark Pullinger, Olivier Messiaen, Sakara Oramo, Shakespeare 400, Shakespeare's Glob, The Children of Rosenthal, Turangalila | Leave a comment

In 2010, the American conductor JoAnn Falletta resurrected a Florent Schmitt rarity: The Suite No. 1 from the incidental music the composer had written for Andre Gide’s adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play Antony & Cleopatra. It was an Ida Rubinstein production done in her characteristically outré style: an entire-evening extravaganza mounted at the Paris Opéra. […]

Is Florent Schmitt’s Antony & Cleopatra (1920) beginning the transition from “rarity” to “rep we know”?

April 16, 2016 · by Phillip Nones | in Classical Music, Composers, French Composers | tagged Andre Gide, Antoine et Cleopatre, Antony & Cleopatra, Barbican, BBC Music Magazine, BBC Symphony, Berlioz, Bill Barclay, Bramwell Tovey, Buffalo Philharmonic, Cybelia, Fabien Gabel, Fanfare Magazine, Florent Schmitt, Hollywood Bowl, Ida Rubinstein, JoAnn Falletta, Jongen, Korngold, LAPO, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Mahler, Much Ado About Nothing, NAXOS Classics, Orchestre de Paris, Romeo & Juliet, Sakari Oramo, Schmitt, Shakespeare, Shakespeare 400, Shakespeare's Globe, Symphony Concertante, Tchaikovsky, The Classical Source, William Shakespeare | 1 Comment

This year, Florent Schmitt’s opulent score will be presented by two leading orchestras — the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the BBC Symphony — in collaboration with Shakespeare’s Globe. It’s quite interesting to witness a piece of classical music make the journey from being a rarity to becoming mainstream. I can think of several examples, headlined by […]