From Ariel....

Win a signed copy of The Innumerable Dance: The Life and Work of William Alwyn by Adrian Wright! Boydell & Brewer is offering three lucky followers the chance to win copies of the book, in celebration of their 50 th year as an independent book publisher. 📌 The competition is running on their Music Twitter feed (@boydellmusic). ✨ Simply Follow and Retweet for a chance to win! 🗓 W inners will be announced Thursday 10th October! https://boybrew.co/2naDNVJ

On Thursday 3rd October, William Alwyn's opera Miss Julie , is to get its London concert premiere at the Barbican. It was one of Alwyn's favourite works, but has had a long and difficult history. August Strindberg. Portrait by Richard Bergh, 1905. As early as the 1930s, Alwyn had become interested in Strindberg 's play, and thought about turning it into an opera. At the time, he had recently finished his first opera, a very different work, an Irish confection,  The Fairy Fiddler , which had rather more in common with Brigadoon, than the red-blooded Miss Julie . Alwyn's career as a film composer was just taking off, he had a young family, and a steady and busy job at the Royal Academy of Music. So perhaps it's not surprising that early thoughts of adapting Miss Julie were put to one side. In 1954, the idea surfaced again, and Alwyn contacted Christopher Hassall , well known as a lyricist, who had worked closely with Ivor Novello . Hassall had recently moved