Nina Sosanya

Nina Sosanya (born 1969) is an English stage, television, and film actress.

Early life and education

She was born in London, with a Nigerian father, and trained at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, gaining A-Levels in performing arts.

Career

She has appeared in many roles in the theatre, on television and in films, for example in Sorted, People Like Us, Teachers, Love Actually, Nathan Barley, Renaissance, Casanova, as Karen Blaine in the Jonathan Creek episode "The Three Gamblers", Much Ado About Nothing, Cape Wrath/Meadowlands, the Doctor Who episode "Fear Her", and FM.

In 2003, she played Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company ("RSC") at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon; in 2008 she returned to the RSC to play Rosaline in Love's Labour's Lost and in 2009 appeared in a radio adaptation of a story from the short story collection The State of the Art.

She reads the part of Sephy on the audio book versions of Malorie Blackman's Noughts and Crosses series.

Reik (album)

Reik is the debut eponymous album from Mexican pop group Reik, released on May 24, 2005 through Sony Music. The album features the singles "Yo Quisiera", "Qué Vida La Mía", "Noviembre Sin Ti", "Niña" and "Levemente". The song "Noviembre Sin Ti" is also featured on the compilation album Now Esto Es Musica! Latino, while "Levemente" is featured on Now Esto Es Musica! Latino 2.

Track listing

Production credits

Nina (opera)

Nina, o sia La pazza per amore (Nina, or the Girl Driven Mad by Love) is an opera, described as a commedia in prosa ed in verso per musica, in two acts by Giovanni Paisiello to an Italian libretto by Giambattista (also Giovanni Battista) Lorenzi after Giuseppe Carpani's translation of Benoît-Joseph Marsollier's Nina, ou La folle par amour, set by Nicolas Dalayrac in 1786.

The work is a sentimental comedy with set numbers, recitative and spoken dialog. It is set in Italy in the 18th century.

Nina was first performed in a one act version at the Teatro del Reale Sito di Belvedere in Caserta, San Leucio on 25 June 1789. A revised two-act work was presented at the Teatro dei Fiorentini in Naples in the autumn of 1790.

Roles

Discography

Nina (Xiu Xiu album)

Nina is a Nina Simone tribute album recorded by Xiu Xiu. It was released on Graveface Records on December 3, 2013 to generally favorable reviews.

Recording

The idea for the album came while Jamie Stewart was on tour with Swans.Nina was recorded in a day. The album features Jamie Stewart's voice, Ches Smith on drums, Tim Berne and Tony Malaby on saxophones, Andrea Parkins on accordion, and Mary Halvorson on guitar. The latter four had experience in avant jazz. The album reimagines rather than recreates Nina Simone's songs. It was released on Graveface Records on December 3, 2013.

Reception

Nina received a "generally favorable" score of 65 (out of 100) from the ratings aggregator Metacritic. Nate Chinen from The New York Times described the album as accentuating Simone's "spooky, unsettling side". He adds that Stewart's vocals add to the "psychodrama" in "Four Women" and "the wildness" in "Wild Is the Wild". Chinen thought the art rock Nina Simone covers field was already crowded before Nina. Heather Phares of AllMusic considered Stewart's stylistic choices "provocative" and the album Stewart's "most avant-garde ... in years". She added that the album considered the "more progressive aspects" of Simone's music. Kyle Fowle of Slant Magazine thought the album to be Xiu Xiu's "most ambitious ... in years". He thought Stewart's vocal style was out of place on "Don't Explain" and "Just Say I Love Him". Billy Hamilton of Under the Radar wrote that Simone would approve of the album. Mark Richardson of Pitchfork noted a mystical connection between Xiu Xiu and Simone as artists who perform raw emotions, but described the album as a "wasted opportunity" and "weirdly conservative". For this, he blamed Stewart's vocals for being "theatrical" and insincere. Richardson praised the album's selection of songs covered.