Music update

by Graeme Stevenson

With the move to semesters, OPSOC are faced with the nightmare of having to lose about a month of rehearsals as they prepare for their annual production. But the word is that rehearsals are going well and hopefully their space adventure won’t suffer the same fate as Beagle 2.

Return to the Forbidden Planet, Shakespeare's forgotten rock and roll masterpiece and winner of the 1990 Olivier Award for Best Musical, is set in outer space and follows the adventures of the crew of the Albatross as they embark on what was originally designated as a "routine survey flight" but not surprisingly ends up as something else. Like all good space crews, they have brought along their own in-flight band and this enables them to break off their trip by singing the odd rock and roll number such as Gloria, Shake Rattle and Roll and Wipeout.

The show runs from 17 to 20 March in the Bonar Hall (Planet Earth) and starts promptly at 7.30pm with pre-flight checks and emergency flight drill. More information from the OPSOC website: www.opsoc.org.uk

The Courier described the Music Society’s winter concert as, "Quite an event in the musical calendar" and the students are working hard to maintain the high level that they have reached.

Following their successful performances of Mozart and Faur's requiems and Saint-Saens Christmas Oratorio, this semester's work is a set of love song waltzes by Johannes Brahms: the Liebeslieder Op. 52.

Although Brahms started to orchestrate these, it was never completed so the choir will be performing the original piano duet and choral version.

The March concert is traditionally when the orchestra plays their large scale work and this semester they return to Mendelssohn and will be putting on his popular Italian Symphony No. 4. The Big Band and Chamber choir will also be performing a number of times throughout the semester and information about all these can be found at www.dums.co.uk