A Captivating Evening with Sarah Lenton at the Arts Society Mallorca

Recently at Artmadams Hotel in Palma, guests enjoyed an entertaining and thought-provoking talk by Sarah Lenton titled All Singing All Dancing Shakespeare.

Drawing on her long career working with companies including the Royal Opera House, English National Opera and Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Sarah explored how Shakespeare’s plays have inspired generations of opera composers and ballet choreographers.

The central question of the evening was whether Shakespeare can survive without his words. As Sarah explained, Shakespeare’s writing depends so heavily on language, yet opera requires text to be shortened and shaped for singing, while ballet tells stories without words at all. Using examples from well-known productions, she showed how some adaptations successfully captured the emotion and drama of the original plays — while others were less convincing.

The talk combined insight, humour and vivid musical examples, making for a lively and engaging evening enjoyed by both regular opera-goers and newcomers alike.

Afterwards, guests stayed on for wine and tapas, with animated conversation continuing in the warm atmosphere of the hotel. The evening was a wonderful celebration of Shakespeare’s enduring influence on music, dance and theatre.

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Photos by Jane Thompson and Steve Cochran