Podcast Shakespeare

 The Sonnet Sessions continue...

You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at [email protected]. You can subscribe to the podcast at  iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or download direct from Libsyn.

William Shakespeare, Sonnet VII

 Lo! in the orient when the gracious light Lifts up his burning head, each under eye Doth homage to his new-appearing sight, Serving with looks his sacred majesty; And having climbed the steep-up heavenly hill, Resembling strong youth in his middle age, Yet mortal looks adore his beauty still, Attending on his golden pilgrimage: But when from highmost pitch, with weary car, Like feeble age, he reeleth from the day, The eyes, 'fore duteous, now converted are From his low tract, and look another way: So thou, thyself outgoing in thy noon Unlooked on diest unless thou get a son. 

Music: Ralph Vaughan Williams, “Fantasia on Greensleeves“, from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928

 The Sonnet Sessions continue...

You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at [email protected]. You can subscribe to the podcast at  iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or download direct from Libsyn.

William Shakespeare, Sonnet VI

 Then let not winter's ragged hand deface, In thee thy summer, ere thou be distilled: Make sweet some vial; treasure thou some place With beauty's treasure ere it be self-killed. That use is not forbidden usury, Which happies those that pay the willing loan; That's for thy self to breed another thee, Or ten times happier, be it ten for one; Ten times thy self were happier than thou art, If ten of thine ten times refigured thee: Then what could death do if thou shouldst depart, Leaving thee living in posterity? Be not self-willed, for thou art much too fair To be death's conquest and make worms thine heir. 

Music clips: Ralph Vaughan Williams, “Fantasia on Greensleeves“, from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928

Gerald Finzi, Nocturne from Love's Labour's Lost Op. 28

The Sonnet Sessions continue...

You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at [email protected]. You can subscribe to the podcast at  iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or download direct from Libsyn.

William Shakespeare, Sonnet V

 Those hours, that with gentle work did frame The lovely gaze where every eye doth dwell, Will play the tyrants to the very same And that unfair which fairly doth excel; For never-resting time leads summer on To hideous winter, and confounds him there; Sap checked with frost, and lusty leaves quite gone, Beauty o'er-snowed and bareness every where: Then were not summer's distillation left, A liquid prisoner pent in walls of glass, Beauty's effect with beauty were bereft, Nor it, nor no remembrance what it was: But flowers distilled, though they with winter meet, Leese but their show; their substance still lives sweet. 

Music clips: Ralph Vaughan Williams, “Fantasia on Greensleeves“, from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928 (Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy)

Joseph Haydn, "She Never Told Her Love", after Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

The Sonnet Sessions continue...

You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at [email protected]. You can subscribe to the podcast at  iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or download direct from Libsyn.

William Shakespeare, Sonnet IV

 Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend Upon thy self thy beauty's legacy? Nature's bequest gives nothing, but doth lend, And being frank she lends to those are free: Then, beauteous niggard, why dost thou abuse The bounteous largess given thee to give? Profitless usurer, why dost thou use So great a sum of sums, yet canst not live? For having traffic with thy self alone, Thou of thy self thy sweet self dost deceive: Then how when nature calls thee to be gone, What acceptable audit canst thou leave? Thy unused beauty must be tombed with thee, Which, used, lives th' executor to be. 

Music clips:  

Ralph Vaughan Williams, “Fantasia on Greensleeves“, from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928 (Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy)

Joseph Haydn, "She Never Told Her Love", after Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

The Sonnet Sessions continue... You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at [email protected]. You can subscribe to the podcast at  iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or download direct from Libsyn.   William Shakespeare, Sonnet III    Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest Now is the time that face should form another; Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest, Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother. For where is she so fair whose uneared womb Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry? Or who is he so fond will be the tomb Of his self-love, to stop posterity? Thou art thy mother's glass and she in thee Calls back the lovely April of her prime; So thou through windows of thine age shalt see, Despite of wrinkles, this thy golden time. But if thou live, remembered not to be, Die single and thine image dies with thee.   Music clips:   Ralph Vaughan Williams, “Fantasia on Greensleeves“, from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928 (Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy)   Nino Rota, “Sarabande” from soundtrack to Zeffirelli’s “The Taming of the Shrew”, 1967 (Columbia Pictures, US / Italy) orchestra conducted by Carlo Savina

The Sonnet Sessions continue... You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at [email protected]. You can subscribe to the podcast at  iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or download direct from Libsyn.   William Shakespeare, Sonnet II  When forty winters shall besiege thy brow, And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field, Thy youth's proud livery so gazed on now, Will be a totter'd weed of small worth held: Then being asked, where all thy beauty lies, Where all the treasure of thy lusty days; To say, within thine own deep sunken eyes, Were an all-eating shame, and thriftless praise. How much more praise deserv'd thy beauty's use, If thou couldst answer 'This fair child of mine Shall sum my count, and make my old excuse,' Proving his beauty by succession thine! This were to be new made when thou art old, And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold.    Music clips:   Ralph Vaughan Williams, “Fantasia on Greensleeves“, from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928 (Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy)   Nino Rota, “Sarabande” from soundtrack to Zeffirelli’s “The Taming of the Shrew”, 1967 (Columbia Pictures, US / Italy) orchestra conducted by Carlo Savina

"From fairest creatures we desire increase...."

Hello, friends! This is the first in my Sonnet Sessions.

You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at [email protected]. You can subscribe to the podcast at iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or download direct from Libsyn.

William Shakespeare, Sonnet I

FROM fairest creatures we desire increase, That,  thereby,  beauty's rose might never die, But as the riper should by time decease, His tender heir might bear his memory: But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes, Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel, Making a famine where abundance lies, Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel. Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament And only herald to the gaudy spring, Within thine own bud buriest thy content And, tender churl, makest waste in niggarding. Pity the world, or else this glutton be, To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee.

Music clips:

Sergei Prokofiev, “Montagues and Capulets”, from Romeo and Juliet (ballet), 1935

Ralph Vaughan Williams, "Fantasia on Greensleeves", from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928 (Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy)

Nino Rota, "Sarabande" from soundtrack to Zeffirelli’s “The Taming of the Shrew”, 1967 (Columbia Picutres, US / Italy) orchestra conducted by Carlo Savina

Hello, friends! These are strange times, and I hope you are all well. This is a brief update to promise new content (you've heard that before!) and guarantee new-ish content over the next month.

You can contact me at: [email protected] or on Facebook and Twitter. Stay safe.

“Are you a god? Would you create me new?”

New episode! In episode #14, why won’t anyone let Antipholus in? We’re discussing Shakespeare’s lightest, tightest play: The Comedy of Errors. Wander through the town square of Ephesus at your leisure. But perhaps don't accept any gifts from strangers....

You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at [email protected]. You can subscribe to the podcast at iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or download direct from Libsyn. The Patreon campaign is up and running, with bonus Sonnet episodes! We also have a Spotify playlist, which will be updated as we work through the plays.

Key links below. You can also visit the bibliography page here, which is a work in progress.

Links mentioned:

Plautus, Menaechmi

Harold Bloom, The Invention of the Human (1998)

1988 TV network promo from Australia’s Channel Nine: “Still the One”

Syphilis: the “French disease”

Audio:

The Comedy of Errors, produced as part of the Caedmon Shakespeare (1962), with Finlay Currie (Aegeon), Alec McCowen (Antipholus of Syracuse), John Moffatt (Antipholus of Ephesus) and Mary Miller (Luciana)

The Comedy of Errors, produced as part of the Arkangel Shakespeare, with David Tennant (Antipholus of Syracuse), Jason O’Mara (Dromio of Ephesus), and Alan Cox (Dromio of Syracuse)

The Comedy of Errors, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, 1950, with Patricia Norman (Courtesan) and unknown actors (Antipholus of Syracuse, Dromio of Syracuse, Adriana, Luciana)

The Comedy of Errors (1983), produced for the BBC by Shaun Sutton, directed by James Cellan Jones, with Michael Kitchen (Antipholus of Ephesus), Roger Daltrey (Dromio of Ephesus), Suzanne Bertish (Adriana), Joanne Pearce (Luciana), Wendy Hiller (Aemilia), David Kelly (Balthazar)

Music:

The Boys from Syracuse (1963 cast) with Cathryn Damon singing “Oh, Diogenes!”

The Boys from Syracuse (1997 cast):

• “Sing for your Supper” ballet
• The Twins ballet
• “Let Antipholus In!” (finale from Act I)

Stephen Storace, Gli Equivoci (The Misunderstandings), opera after Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors (1786) with libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte

“Defer no time, delays have dangerous ends.”

— Alençon, Act III, scene ii

In episode #13, a quick jaunt through the critical fortunes of Henry VI, Part 1, not an historically beloved play. From the “prequel” question to the plays role as a barometer of Britain’s feelings on nationalism, to just how many times a play can cut Talbot, Joan, or both! Come join me.

Listen to episodes at iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, Castbox, or download direct from Libsyn. The Patreon campaign is up and running, with bonus Sonnet episodes! You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at [email protected]. We also have a Spotify playlist, which will be updated as we work through the plays.

Key links below. You can also visit the bibliography page here, which is a work in progress.

Links mentioned:

E.M.W Tillyard and the “Tudor Myth”

Key source: Edward Hall, The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancaster and Yorke (1548)

Key source: Raphael Holinshed, Chronicles of England, Scotland ,and Ireland (1577)

E.K. Chambers, William Shakespeare: A Study of Facts and Problems, 1930

Thomas Nashe, Defence of Plays from “Pierce Penniless” (1592)

Emrys Jones, Origins of Shakespeare, 1977

Jonathan Bate, Genius of Shakespeare, 1997

Marjorie Garber, Shakespeare After All, 2004

“Shakespeare And Marlowe: Attributing Henry VI Authorship” – Folger Library

Festival of Britain, 1951

Birmingham Rep Theatre:

BBC An Age of Kings (1960)

Royal Shakespeare Company

John Barton and Peter Hall, RSC Wars of the Roses (1963): “The Inheritance” and “Margaret of Anjou” on Youtube

Jane Howell, BBC The First Part of Henry the Sixt (1983) at BFI Screenonline

English Shakespeare Company: Wars of the Roses (1988) d: Michael Bogdanov

Jan Kott (1914-2001), Shakespeare Our Contemporary (1961) – profiled by Michael Billington in The Guardian

Edward Hall, Rose Rage (2001), Propeller Theatre Company

Shakespeare’s Rugby Wars: Toronto Fringe Festival

Michael Boyd, This England (2001) – Royal Shakespeare Company

Yushi Odashima, complete translations of Shakespeare into Japanese: at Oxford Reference

Bell Shakespeare, Wars of the Roses (2005 – 2008), reviewed by Alison Croggon

Benedict Andrews, Wars of the Roses (2010) for Sydney Theatre Company, reviewed by Alison Croggon

Globe Theatre: Wars of the Roses Battlefield Performances, review in Telegraph

Seattle Shakespeare Company, Bring Down the House (2016), review in Seattle Times

Dominic Cooke, Henry VI, BBC Hollow Crown cycle (2016)

Audio:

Donald Sinden (Plantagenet), RSC Wars of the Roses “The Inheritance” (1965)

Music:

Sergei Prokofiev, “Montagues and Capulets”, from Romeo and Juliet (ballet), 1935

Armand Broshka, The Sadness of King Henry VI

Tchaikovsky, The Maid of Orléans , 1881, Jeanne’s aria performed by Elena Obraztsova

Ralph Vaughan Williams, Serenade to Music (1938) from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice

Giuseppe Verdi, Overture from Giovanna d’Arco (Joan of Arc), 1845

Henry Ley, The Prayer of King Henry VI (c. 1940), The King’s Singers