Brush up on your Shakespeare!
We don’t know exactly when Shakespeare was born. We do know that he was baptized on April 26, 1564. Scholars must have found the potential for symmetry irresistible: since he died on April 23, 1616, the Bard’s birthday has traditionally been observed on the same date as his death.
Of course, he’s one of the most influential artists who ever lived. Regardless of what anyone may argue to the contrary, his relevancy will never wane, for as long as humans continue to exist. Who knows, maybe longer. I’ll have to consult Sycorax.
In the meantime, I’ll be doing my small part, in anticipation of the Bard’s birthday anniversary, with three programs of music inspired by his works.
First, on “Picture Perfect” (tonight at 8:00 EDT/5:00 PDT), we’ll have an hour of selections from cinematic adaptations of the comedies, including “As You Like It” (William Walton), “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (Erich Wolfgang Korngold), “The Taming of the Shrew” (Nino Rota), and “Much Ado About Nothing” (Patrick Doyle).
Then, on “Sweetness and Light” (Saturday morning at 11:00 EDT/8:00 PST), we’ll do our best to charm and to cheer with Shakespearean inspirations by Johan Wagenaar, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Felix Mendelssohn (transcribed by Sergei Rachmaninoff), Sir Thomas Morley, and again, Erich Wolfgang Korngold (same composer, different work).
Finally, on “The Lost Chord,” power corrupts, as we juxtapose musical adaptations of “Macbeth,” by William Walton and Sir Arthur Sullivan, with works inspired by Eugene O’Neill’s “The Emperor Jones,” by Louis Gruenberg and Heitor Villa-Lobos, on a program titled “Power Plays” (Saturday at 7:00 p.m. EDT/4:00 p.m. PDT).
If music be the food of love, stream on, on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!
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