https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/16861 2026-05-22T13:42:36Z 2026-05-22T13:42:36Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/146610 2026-05-20T13:23:27Z 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: An interview with director Barbara Diana Abstract: Barbara Diana's colourful personality has obviously provided the staging of the opera Falstaff at the Manoel Theatre with its multiple hues. A musicologist by training, with a deep personal knowledge of operatic singing on the one hand. and theatre staging on the other, Signora Diana, or Barbara as she likes to be called, has even composed music herself. She has published two monographs on the 20th-century composer Benjamin Britten but admits that her favourite opera is Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito. Barbara starts out from an important principle: the main difference between opera and theatre dramaturgy lies in the music. Opera singers cannot choose the time it would take to say their lines; they are driven by the music and its tempo-rhythm, which is also conditioned by the orchestral colour that is applied to it. So how to work with the music of Falstaff and all that it provides? [excerpt]

2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/144130 2026-02-25T08:39:33Z 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Comparative analysis of performance issues and piano idiom in chosen compositions of Amy Beach and Valborg Aulin Abstract: Western classical music has historically been dominated by men, with women composers generally being denied prominence or canonical prestige. It was challenging for women to establish themselves as creative equals to men owing to social, cultural, and institutional barriers. This dissertation examines the works of two women composers from the late nineteenth century, Amy Beach (1867–1944) from the United States and Valborg Aulin (1860–1928) from Sweden. Despite emerging from different musical environments, their works exhibit significant stylistic similarities, even as each composer cultivated a unique and individual musical idiom. The research largely investigates two early works: Beach's Ballad Op. 6 and Aulin's Piano Sonata Op. 14, Grande Sonate sérieuse. Beach s Four Sketches Op. 15 and Aulin s Three Fantasy Pieces Op. 30 are also briefly addressed. Written at an early stage in each composer's career, these pieces are analysed through the perspective of performance practice, devoting particular attention to pianistic idiom, technical difficulties, expressive demands, and interpretive possibilities. Aulin's formal training in Sweden, Denmark, and France contrasts with Beach's mostly self-taught upbringing in Boston's conservative environment. The study also considers the impact of musical education, geographic and cultural context, and exposure to modern trends. This performance-based method emphasises the works distinctive voices while situating them within late-Romantic musical contexts by integrating score analysis with the real-life experience of preparing for the performance and finally playing the pieces. By delivering the first comparative performance-focused examination of these two composers piano works, the study addresses a scholarly gap and gives particular attention to the under-represented Aulin about whom little has been written in English language. This study aims to expand the canon, inspire historically informed performance, and contribute to a wider appreciation of women's creative accomplishments in nineteenth-century music by showcasing their artistry and recording interpretative observations. Description: Ph.D.(Melit.)

2025-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/143505 2026-02-06T09:25:02Z 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Reports from ICTMD national and regional representatives : Malta Abstract: Malta report (2026) for The International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance (ICTMD).

2026-01-01T00:00:00Z Coleman, Jeremy https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/142808 2026-01-19T06:10:41Z 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Petrushka’s survival Authors: Coleman, Jeremy Abstract: First performed in Paris, 1911, the “burlesque” ballet Petrushka stands today as a central work of the modernist canon and an unruly assemblage of artistic media that eludes any attempt to define it simply in terms of a single “author” or as a work independent of its original production. In this chapter, I focus on Petrushka’s reputation precisely as a concert work—its various instrumental reductions, transcriptions, performances, and their own reception history—as a lens through which to consider the relationship between music and (choreographic) motion. Through a brief analysis of the 1965 Swedish television film of Stravinsky’s Three Movements from Petrushka performed by Alexis Weissenberg and directed by Åke Falck, I consider Petrushka’s life, and that of the work’s eponymous puppet, beyond the theater, and examine in what ways the extra-musical elements of the original work were either erased or preserved in “purely musical” versions.

2026-01-01T00:00:00Z