Shakespeare

[(poco) Sforzando]

I've really been on a Shakespeare binge since early December, filling a lot of gaps by reading a bunch of his plays for the first time. I want to read more; here's what I've read so far:

Hamlet
Othello
King Lear
Macbeth
Julius Caesar
The Taming of the Shrew
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Twelfth Night
The Tempest
Romeo & Juliet (this one was a reread)

Where to from here, Shakespeareans of GMG? Can't wait to reread all those I've read, too...

Antony and Cleopatra, Troilus and Cressida, and the two Henry IV plays (especially Part One).

[Ganondorf]

King John is often considered incoherent mess but kind of like in Herman Melville's Mardi it is the journey, not the destination which counts (quite fitting considering Mardi's full title is Mardi, or a voyage thither. And the poetic language of both works is absolutely gorgeous. Famously George Orwell liked King John.I also have guilty pleasure in Timon of Athens.

[vers la flamme]

King John is often considered incoherent mess but kind of like in Herman Melville's Mardi it is the journey, not the destination which counts (quite fitting considering Mardi's full title is Mardi, or a voyage thither. And the poetic language of both works is absolutely gorgeous. Famously George Orwell liked King John.I also have guilty pleasure in Timon of Athens.

Why guilty re: Timon?

[Ganondorf]

Why guilty re: Timon?

Probably because it is often cited as one of Shakespeare's worst plays although there has been an occasional supporter or two. I however prefer it to King Lear greatly and the two plays have certain similarities.

[ando]

I recently came cross a talk by Emma Smith, Professor of Shakespeare Studies at the University of Oxford, who considers the biggest myths about Shakespeare. It's a fine one. The presentation begins at 3:27.

[ando]

Late night viewings of this one reminds me of the old 7 channel television late, late shows when they used to air. Course, you watched it as nothing else was on. Some things never change. 

Romeo & Juliet (1968, Franco Zeffirelli) Streaming free on YouTube

[DavidW]

@ando That movie was actually in the news a year or two ago due to a lawsuit because both actors were underage in their sex scene and also pressured to do it.  It was strange for them to wait so long.

That was the version I saw in my ninth grade English class back in the day.

[ando]

@ando That movie was actually in the news a year or two ago due to a lawsuit because both actors were underage in their sex scene and also pressured to do it.  It was strange for them to wait so long.

That was the version I saw in my ninth grade English class back in the day.

I agree it was long overdue. It seems to have come in at the back end of the Me-Too Movement. I seem to recall Olivia Hussey (Juliet) speaking on it. Disgraceful as that so-called professional behavior certainly was it doesn't detract from the glorious attraction that is Zeffirelli's version of Shakespeare's classic (for me). It's still a favorite. Like you, I grew up with it as the most famous cinematic version. The Baz Luhrman film is fun.

[DavidW]

I agree it was long overdue. It seems to have come in at the back end of the Me-Too Movement. I seem to recall Olivia Hussey (Juliet) speaking on it. Disgraceful as that so-called professional behavior certainly was it doesn't detract from the glorious attraction that is Zeffirelli's version of Shakespeare's classic (for me). It's still a favorite. Like you, I grew up with it as the most famous cinematic version. The Baz Luhrman film is fun.

I also liked the Baz Luhrman film... but I had not seen it since it was new!!

[SimonNZ]

Watched over the last two weeks; these two from the BBC Big Box.

First exposure to LLL in its entirety. (in fact wikipedia has the Branagh film at a record low 25% text - shouldn't be surprised as how cut it seems in the first place, and as what remains in that oddity is largely musical numbers)

[ando]

Watched over the last two weeks; these two from the BBC Big Box.

First exposure to LLL in its entirety. (in fact wikipedia has the Branagh film at a record low 25% text - shouldn't be surprised as how cut it seems in the first place, and as what remains in that oddity is largely musical numbers)

My favorite Richard II, led by that deluded Oxfordian, plus Gielgud and the usually superlative cast makes this a must watch. 

With the exception of Armado's speech LLL never piqued my interest. I've got the big BBC box, too. I'll get to it on some rainy day.

[ando]

The '75 BBC version of LLL gets a lot praise.

[SimonNZ]

The '75 BBC version of LLL gets a lot praise.

Martin Shaw as the king right there at the start!! I'll definitely be watching that in the near future. Thanks! And I see from imdb it also has Sinead Cusack as Rosaline.

One big thing I hadn't known about LLL before a week or two ago was that besides all the footnotes for obscure meanings etc there's also constant allusions to then-current public literary feuds and mocking of literary enemies. Digs that would only have been clear to the very first audience, and long forgotten and confusing to audiences even a year or two later. I'm lucky enough to have the Arden edition of the play (only because I'm unlucky enough to have not yet found it in my preferred edition) and I was spending quite a bit of time going down those rabbit holes in the notes.

[ando]

One big thing I hadn't known about LLL before a week or two ago was that besides all the footnotes for obscure meanings etc there's also constant allusions to then-current public literary feuds and mocking of literary enemies. Digs that would only have been clear to the very first audience, and long forgotten and confusing to audiences even a year or two later. I'm lucky enough to have the Arden edition of the play (only because I'm unlucky enough to have not yet found it in my preferred edition) and I was spending quite a bit of time going down those rabbit holes in the notes.

Wow, that's actually fascinating and not surprising if you know anything about that time in the world of London theater. Thanks! I'll be sure to nab the Arden edition of Love's next time I see it.

[SimonNZ]

Speaking off LLL: if you're interested and desperately in need of another podcast episode/series to fill up all that unwanted free time...there was a really interesting episode of The Good, The Bard And The Ugly where they discuss a production done entirely in sign language:

Deafinitely Theatre's Love's Labour's Lost

I really miss G,B&U, they only lasted for as long as covid had his theatre company and her university shut down or limited, and I don't begrudge them getting back to their real jobs, but they were such fun.

[JBS]

One bit of LLL lore that's tangential to the play itself is the mystery of Love's Labour Won, which might be a lost sequel to LLL, a completely independent play now lost to us, or simply an alternative title for a play we have.

Wikipedia provides the small amount of evidence and the various possibilities here
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love%27s_Labour%27s_Won

[ando]

A 4K edition of Prospero's Books, Peter Greenaway's cinematic translation of The Tempest, is streaming free on the Tube tomorrow at noon (12 pm, EST). It's a personal favorite; John Gielgud speaks most of the parts over one of the most bizarre panoramas of art extolling the experience of reading that I've ever seen. Not sure how long it will stay up afterward. Here's a recent BFI discussion with Greenaway.

[ando]

A 4K edition of Prospero's Books, Peter Greenaway's cinematic translation of The Tempest, is streaming free on the Tube tomorrow at noon (12 pm, EST). It's a personal favorite; John Gielgud speaks most of the parts over one of the most bizarre panoramas of art extolling the experience of reading that I've ever seen. Not sure how long it will stay up afterward. Here's a recent BFI discussion with Greenaway.

PB stream starts shortly. Nice Channel 4 featurette:

[ando]

Enjoying this album of incidental music from Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream, featuring spoken text delivered by Dame Judi Dench; sopranos Kathleen Battle and Frederica von Stade and the Boston Symphony, conducted by the late Seiji Ozawa:

(1994, DG)

[ando]

A rather stiffly dramatized but judiciously written life of Shakespeare is this 1965 BBC account: