Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Shakespeare

Shakespeare’s First Folio 400th & Music

2023 marks the 400th anniversary of the so-called First Folio, a collection of Shakespeare’s plays, published seven years after the author’s death and considered to be one of the most influential books ever issued.

Although not quite on the same level of significance, this Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll devote an hour to music inspired by the Bard – a topic which, of course, could fill many years of such programs – in observation of William Shakespeare’s birthday.

First, fairy high jinks are a metaphor for the mutability and volatility of the human heart in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” We’ll hear two works inspired by Shakespeare’s pixilated comedy.

English composer Walter Leigh (1905-1942) was killed in action during the Second World War, just shy of his 37th birthday. Like Paul Hindemith, who was his teacher for two years, Leigh thrived on writing music made to order for specific occasions. His incidental music for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” first played in open air in 1936, sounds like a throwback to the Restoration period.

Italian-born composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968) fled fascism in Europe to settle in California. There, he wrote concertos for Jascha Heifetz, Gregor Piatigorsky and Andrés Segovia. He is particularly well-regarded for his guitar music, having composed nearly 100 works for the instrument. He also worked on about 200 film scores. As a teacher, his students included André Previn, Nelson Riddle, Herman Stein, Henry Mancini, Jerry Goldsmith, and John Williams.

Over the course of his career, Castelnuovo-Tedesco churned out an extraordinary amount of music inspired by the Bard. He composed an opera after “The Taming of the Shrew,” four dances for “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” 33 Shakespeare songs drawn from the plays, and settings of 35 of the sonnets.

Between 1930 and 1953, he wrote a number of overtures on Shakespearean themes – at least 11, enough to fill two compact discs, which have been issued on the Naxos label. His overture to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” dates from 1940.

Czech composer Josef Bohuslav Foerster (1859-1951) lived a very long life, during which he witnessed, firsthand, many remarkable events in music history. Born in Prague, Foerster worked as a critic in Hamburg, then moved to Vienna, where he became closely acquainted with Gustav Mahler.

Although he occasionally employed in his works musical inflections of his native land, he wasn’t truly part of the Czech nationalist school embraced by Dvořák and others. Because his music is not as overtly Czech-sounding as some, and because he spent so much of his early career in Germany and Austria, Foerster’s output and reputation were embraced only gradually by his countrymen.

He returned to Prague in 1918, with the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic, and found employment there at both the conservatory and university. Gradually, he attained the status of “grand old man” of Czech music.

He composed his symphonic suite “From Shakespeare” in 1909. Made up of four portraits of prominent female characters from Shakespeare plays, the work consists of a brief introduction, followed by musical meditations on Perdita (from “The Winter’s Tale”), Viola (from “Twelfth Night”), Lady Macbeth (from – well, you know), and finally, Katherina, Petruchio and Eros (from “The Taming of the Shrew”).

I’ll provide the whipped cream and maraschino cherries. Bring your own straws for “Great Shakes” – celebrating William Shakespeare and 400 years of the First Folio – this Sunday night at 10:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

April 23, 2023
Patrick Doyle’s Shakespeare Sound

“Is it not strange that sheep’s guts should hale souls out of men’s bodies?”

This week on “Picture Perfect,” on the presumed birthday of William Shakespeare (April 23, 1564), we’ll make much ado about Patrick Doyle, with selections from his scores written for the films of Kenneth Branagh.

In 1987, Doyle joined Branagh’s Renaissance Theatre Company, for which he provided incidental music. Two years later, Branagh – and by extension, Doyle – made a leap to the big screen, where they achieved a remarkable feat, rethinking Shakespeare’s “Henry V.” Remember, this is the play that propelled Laurence Olivier to worldwide fame in 1944, both as a filmmaker and the Bard’s most celebrated interpreter, and William Walton’s score is regarded as one of the best of all time.

Branagh’s version is quite different. Though equally rousing, it doesn’t shy away from Henry’s more complicated nature and the grittier aspects of what it means to go to war. It was a bold gamble, but one that paid off. Not only did this revisionist “Henry” receive nearly universal acclaim, the film was a box office success, and Branagh would be nominated for two Academy Awards, like his predecessor, in the categories of Best Actor and Best Director. Certainly, the film’s score deserved to be recognized – but in the year of “The Little Mermaid,” it failed even to secure an Academy Award nomination.

An interesting footnote: Doyle himself is the baritone who introduces “Non nobis Domine,” a prayer of thanksgiving, following the Battle of Agincourt.

In 2006, Branagh directed an adaptation of “As You Like It.” As has become his custom, he took a celebrity approach to its casting, although perhaps not so widely uneven as some of the cameos in his big screen “Hamlet.” Kevin Kline plays Jacques; Alfred Molina the fool, Touchstone; and Branagh regulars, Brian Blessed and Richard Briers appear, as well.

The most radical liberty taken with the play is that Branagh transplants the action to 19th century Japan. The language remains firmly rooted in Shakespeare’s text, although there are striking cross-cultural elements, including ample kimonos, kabuki theatre, ninjas, and a sumo wrestler. Still, it’s a long way off from the astounding bomb that was Branagh’s American Songbook-interpolated “Love’s Labour’s Lost.”

While Olivier’s “Hamlet” won four Academy Awards in 1948, including those for Best Picture and Best Actor, Branagh’s 1996 version is cinema’s first adaptation of the complete text. It is, perhaps, an uneven interpretation, with some puzzling casting choices – including walk-ons by Jack Lemmon, Robin Williams, and Gerard Depardieu – but there are enough merits, certainly, to make the four-hour trek worthwhile.

Finally, Branagh teamed with his then-wife, Emma Thompson, for a “merry war” of wits, as Benedick and Beatrice, in his 1993 adaptation of “Much Ado About Nothing.” Again, the film features an eclectic supporting cast of classically trained actors and pop Hollywood phenomena. Briers, Blessed, and Imelda Staunton share screen time with Denzel Washington, Michael Keaton, and Keanu Reeves. Yet, somehow, despite the different nationalities, ethnicities, and accents, the entire enterprise works. There is an exuberance to the over-the-top opening sequence which sets up a momentum that carries through the rest of the film.

Sigh no more, but join me for the Shakespeare scores of Patrick Doyle on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

How could you not love this opening?

Faith and sheep’s guts in “Much Ado About Nothing”

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17450918.2014.968607#:~:text=In%20Benedick’s%20response%20to%20Balthasar’s,member%20of%20Shakespeare’s%20original%20audience.

April 23, 2022
Shakespeare’s Birthday: Music Inspired by the Bard

We don’t know when exactly Shakespeare was born. We do know that he was baptized on April 26, 1564. Since he died on April 23, 1616, many have found it difficult to resist the pull of symmetry. Therefore, his birthday has traditionally been merged with the anniversary of his death. To borrow from “The Tempest,” our little lives are rounded with a sleep. But if you’re Shakespeare, and you die close enough to your natal day, your birthday is also rounded down.

It doesn’t really matter when the Bard was born. As one of the world’s most insightful and versatile playwrights, his output remains fresh, and his writings tie in beautifully with the spirit of renewal that springtime fosters. Also, there is just so much interesting and vital music inspired by his plays and sonnets.

Happy birthday, William Shakespeare (observed)!

Richard Wagner, “Das Liebesverbot” (after “Measure for Measure”)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a_-M8FKJDc

Josef Bohuslav Foerster, “From Shakespeare” (Introduction, Perdita, Viola, Lady Macbeth, and Katerina, Petruchio and Eros)

Geoffrey Bush, “Overture, Yorick” (A comedy overture inspired by “Hamlet!”)

Gerald Finzi, “Let Us Garlands Bring”

Mily Balakirev, “King Lear Overture”

Sir Arthur Sullivan, “The Merchant of Venice”

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, “Othello Suite”

Florent Schmitt, “Antoine et Cléopâtre”

Amy Beach, “Three Shakespeare Songs,” Op. 37
I. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_xNoT5MRCs
II. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAJ735zUdwI
III. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3evsktsyZI

Johan Wagenaar, “The Taming of the Shrew Overture”

Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky, completed by Sergei Taneyev, “Romeo and Juliet”: Duet (from a projected opera)

Ralph Vaughan Williams, “In Windsor Forest” (adapted from the Falstaff opera, “Sir John in Love”)

Bedřich Smetana, “Richard III”

Erich Wolfgang Korngold, “Much Ado About Nothing”

Paul Moravec, “Tempest Fantasy” in five movements (Recipient of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Music)

Lars-Erik Larsson, “The Winter’s Tale”

The Musicians of the Globe present “Shakespeare’s Musick” (28 tracks)

The Broadside Band performs 39 “Songs & Dances from Shakespeare”

William Walton, “Henry V” (narrated by the late Christopher Plummer)

On St. George’s Day, “Cry ‘God for Harry, England, and St. Geeeeeeorge!’”

April 23, 2021
Shakespeare Italian Style on Film

William Shakespeare certainly has legs. As England’s greatest playwright, his works have been performed, more or less continuously, for 400 years. He’s trod the boards of the Globe, and he’s circumnavigated the globe. This week on “Picture Perfect,” the Bard gets the “the boot,” with film adaptations scored by composers from the Italian Peninsula.

Just about everyone knows about Orson Welles’ difficulties in Hollywood after skewering William Randolph Hearst in “Citizen Kane.” For flying too close to the sun, all at once cinema’s boy wonder was persona non grata. As a result, Welles spent the bulk of his career trying to secure his own funding and devise creative solutions when the money ran out.

There is plenty of ingenuity on display in Welles’ “Othello” (1949). The film was shot on and off in Italy and Tunisia over a period of three years, as Welles periodically halted production to earn yet another paycheck by acting in somebody else’s picture. When at a point the costumes were repossessed, Welles pivoted by staging a key sequence in a Turkish bath, with the actors clad only in towels.

For the music, Welles employed Angelo Francesco Lavagnino, a classically-trained musician who turned to film in the 1950s. He was soon to become one of the best-known Italian film composers of the era. Lavagnino would be engaged by Welles for several other projects, including a television movie of “The Merchant of Venice.”

Lavagnino received very little or even no payment for his work with Welles, though he was honored to collaborate with the legendary director. For his part, Welles was only too happy to work with Lavagnino, whose music he admired, certainly. But there was an additional incentive in that, in Italy, it was the practice that record companies would pay for everything – orchestration, copying parts, and recording – since they kept the rights.

“Chimes at Midnight” (1965), Welles’ compilation of the Falstaff plays, this time a Spanish-Swiss production, was also scored by Lavignino. Welles’ performance in the picture is considered to be one of his finest. Also in the cast were John Gielgud, Jeanne Moreau, and Margaret Rutherford. Vincent Canby of the New York Times wrote that “Chimes at Midnight” “… may be the greatest Shakespearean film ever made, bar none.” Lavagnino modeled much of his score on Early Music, since Welles had used a lot of it on the temp track.

Much less frugal was Franco Zeffirelli, who enjoyed notable success adapting the Bard, both for film and the operatic stage. He directed a lively version of “The Taming of the Shrew,” with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and an inexorable one of Verdi’s “Otello,” with Placido Domingo recreating one of his most celebrated roles.

Ennio Morricone was Zeffirelli’s composer of choice for “Hamlet” (1990). The film featured a venerable supporting cast, with Glenn Close, Ian Holm, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Bates and Paul Scofield, and Mel Gibson did a surprisingly respectable job as the lead. At the time, Gibson was known for his action roles.

Zeffirelli’s biggest success with Shakespeare came with “Romeo and Juliet” (1968). Much was made of the fact that the film’s leads, Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey, were closer than usual to the age of the characters in the play. “Romeo” became one of the great date movies and retains its broad appeal. The score, by Nino Rota, spawned a popular hit, “A Time for Us.”

All the world’s a stage! I hope you’ll join me for “Shakespeare Italian-Style,” on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

March 6, 2021
Bowdler’s Shadow: Censorship Then and Now

Shakespeare may be for all time. But Thomas Bowdler is for today.

Bowdler, the self-appointed moral guardian who anticipated the Victorian age – a time when it was understood that legs should always be referred to as “limbs” when in the presence of a lady – saw to it that all of the indelicate bits were excised or altered in the Bard’s plays, when he came to edit “The Family Shakespeare” in 1807. Distressingly, the book was a tremendous success that went through at least 11 printings.

No more in “Othello” did an old black ram tup a white ewe. Nor did they make the beast with two backs. Heavens!

All references to sex, violent death, blasphemy, and vulgarity were delicately paraphrased or removed. Bowdler’s crusade to rewrite history was undertaken in the interest of family values.

In the 20th century, there was a sharp backlash, and Bowdler became a figure of fun. That’s the best lesson he could impart. The Oxford English Dictionary defines “Bowdlerise” (in American English spelled with a “z”) as “To expurgate a book or writing, by omitting or modifying words or passages considered indelicate or offensive; to castrate.”

His name has become synonymous with misguided censorship. Libraries and booklovers heap scorn on Bowdler’s memory by celebrating “Bowdler’s Day” every year on July 11, the anniversary of his birth.

But lest we grow smug, it’s helpful to consider that victories without vigilance risk being overturned. There is an alarming tendency in human nature to view uncomfortable remnants of the past as things to be buried or discarded, as if it were some sort of moral victory to do so. But it doesn’t change history. If anything, it betrays an imperfect understanding of history.

Unencumbered by nuance, sweeping gestures undeniably feel good. They are simple. They bring immediate gratification. But they can also be messy.

There is less flash, less exhilaration in arriving at understanding through context. That requires education and consideration. It is a quieter, more thoughtful path, and it calls for cool heads. It will never electrify a mob like the golden calf of revolution.

Bowdler died on this date in 1825. Now, if only his spirit could be laid to rest.

On a more affirmative note, it seems this tug of war has always been with us!

https://sports.yahoo.com/snowflakes-trigger-warnings-shakespearean-violence-113506191.html

Ironically, I had to post a link to a secondary source, reprinting the article, since Australian legislation has restricted the sharing of domestic news links to Facebook!

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, “Othello Suite”

Mily Balakirev, “King Lear Overture”

February 24, 2021

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