Fear no more the heat o’ the sun. At least for today in the Princeton area, with increasing clouds, afternoon showers anticipated, and highs in the upper 50s. The musical forecast, however, is for 100 percent Shakespeare.
We’ll round out our month-long, Thursday morning salute to the Bard with the last of four installments commemorating the quadricentennial of his death, on April 23, 1616. Is the date etched into your memory yet? Fret thee not: the next major anniversary will be the 500th anniversary of his birth, in 2064 – by which time, I fancy, many of us will be able to congratulate him in person.
In this first hour, we’ll have musical greatness thrust upon us, with selections from Ernest Chausson’s “The Tempest,” Gabriel Fauré’s incidental music for “Shylock” (after “The Merchant of Venice”) and Sir Alexander Mackenzie’s merry – and extended – overture for “Twelfth Night.”
Those now a-bed shall think themselves accursed they were not here, from 6 to 11 EDT on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. The fewer the listeners, the greater the share of honour, on Classic Ross Amico.
Hark, hark! the lark at heaven’s gate sings,
And Phoebus ‘gins arise,
His steeds to water at those springs
On chaliced flowers that lies;
And winking Mary-buds begin
To ope their golden eyes:
With every thing that pretty is,
My lady sweet, arise:
Arise, arise.
- “Cymbeline,” Act II, scene 3
BTW: The birders among you might be interested to know that, according to the Scottish geologist Sir Archibald Geikie, in his 1916 book “The Birds of Shakespeare,” the Bard references all of the following in his plays: the Blackbird, Bunting, Buzzard, Chough, Cock, Cormorant, Crow, Cuckoo, Dive-dapper, Dove and Pigeon, Duck, Eagle, Falcon and Sparrowhawk, Finch, Goose, Hedge Sparrow, House Martin, Jackdaw, Jay, Kite, Lapwing, Lark, Loon, Magpie, Nightingale, Osprey, Ostrich, Owl, Parrot, Partridge, Peacock, Pelican, Pheasant, Quail, Raven, Robin, Snipe, Sparrow, Starling, Swallow, Swan, Thrush, Turkey, Vulture, Wagtail, Woodcock and the Wren.
Interestingly, the House Sparrow gets four mentions – in “Hamlet,” “As You Like It,” “The Tempest” and “Troilus and Cressida.”
