Did I ever tell you about the time Captain Kirk saved a Canadian Shakespeare festival? No? Read on…
Immediately following today’s Noontime Concert with the Rolston String Quartet (even as I type, performing Beethoven’s Op. 132), our Shakespeare celebration will commence, in honor of the possible anniversary of the Bard’s birth. Shakespeare died on this date in 1616. We don’t know when he was born, really, but he was baptized on April 26,1564, and for many the potential symmetry is irresistible.
Also, April 23 happens to be St. George’s Day. As I say, irresistible.
Among my featured highlights this afternoon will be an extended suite of William Wallton’s music for the Laurence Olivier film of “Henry V.” The speaker will be Christopher Plummer.
Plummer played Henry at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, of Stratford, Ontario, in 1956, when one night he was hospitalized with a kidney stone. His understudy for that particular production was none other than William Shatner, who had been cast in the role of Gloucester. You can read how it all panned out here:
Henry V (06/18/1956)
Anyway, Plummer has gone on record as saying that Henry V is his favorite role.
Our Shakespeare salute will begin around 1:45. I expect I’ll start the Walton around 2:55.
We’ll be going batty for the Bard until 4 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
PHOTO: That’s Plummer as Baron von Tra — uh, Henry, I mean.
