Live music to film events

'Silent Shakespeare'
In 2004-5 Laura brought her scores for Silent Shakespeare round eight cinemas in the UK. The tour was picked as one of the Guardian's '50 best things to do this Christmas'. Silent Shakespeare' was also chosen as an event for the 2005 Belfast film festival and has also been performed live with film at The Barbican, London. The BFI Silent Shakespeare films are scored for piano and string quartet.

The films on Silent Shakespeare:

King John (GB 1899)
The Tempest (GB 1908)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (USA 1909)
King Lear (Italy 1910)
Twelfth Night (USA 1910)
The Merchant of Venice (Italy 1910)
Richard III (GB 1911)

Total running time: 88mins

About the films

With the text so central to Shakespeare’s work the very phrase ‘Silent Shakespeare’ seems a contradiction in terms. But in the early years of cinema, a number of exquisite silent film adaptations of Shakespeare’s work were made, with the narrative delicately conveyed through looks, gestures, and silent film’s nearest approach to dialogue, the inter-title. Silent Shakespeare films have much to tell us about contemporary staging, acting styles, cultural assumptions, how the early cinema saw itself, and (of course) about Shakespeare. They have survived almost a century and include very beautiful examples of hand stenciling and tinted prints, wonderfully demonstrating the exuberance, invention and conviction of these early filmmakers and the possibilities of the Shakespearean text.

Critical acclaim for Silent Shakespeare

'This provides a rare opportunity to see these beautiful early films which are now much to fragile to project.' - Martin Scorsese.

'Laura Rossi has composed a hauntingly atmospheric accompaniment to the seven Silent Shakespeares featured on this tape. Rossi is an award-winning young musician making a startling debut. Under Rossi's direction, the mood sweeps through a spectrum of spine-tingling emotions, encapsulating the drama and poetry of each tale.' - British Film Institute.

'Watching them - hearing the cellos and violins, the piano solos - becomes a dream-like experience' - Nicci Gerrard, The Observer.

'Fascinating! Painstakingly restored...A priceless document in the history of both Shakespearean acting and the cinema' - Daily Telegraph.

'an attractive collection... vigorous... charming...', - Sir Richard Eyre.

Other silent films Laura has scored include:

• 'Twilight of a woman's soul' - a Russian silent film by Bauer scored for Piano Trio.
• 'Tusalava' - an Avant Garde film scored for 5 Pianos
• 'The Battle of the Ancre' - scored for chamber orchestra. (live footage of the 1st world war from 1917).
• 'The Battle of the Somme' - scored for full orchestra (The important 1916 historical war film from the Imperial War Museum)

If you are interested in you showing any of these films with live music or would like more details please contact - laura@laurarossi.com