Shakespeare's the man

[snycock]

My chorus is doing some really beautiful music this semester; an oratorio called My Rose by Steve Dobrogosz. He's modern, and the piece is a series of Shakespeare's sonnets set to music. Some of it is jazzy and some is madrigal-like. So far in the bits we've done there's some satisfyingly low alto notes

Comments

[caarianna]

I've always loved Shakespeare ... used to read his work for pure enjoyment in high school; the other kids thought I was nuts. I've often wished we knew more about the man, about what inspired him, about why he wrote the things he did and how he managed to be so prolific. He so far outshines and outstrips virtually all other writers in the English language from any era that it's hard not to stand in awe, even hundreds of years later.

[snycock]

Yeah, it's too bad we don't know more of the story - his stuff is so consistently good, though, that I can't imagine that it wasn't just one guy, admittedly a terrifically prolific one.

[bluewolf458]

I quite liked Shakespeare at school, unlike most of my classmates - though it's amazing how much getting the plays dissected line by line ruins the mood of them!

What's interesting is that in his day, he was basically a pot-boiler; it was his job, to write a new play at regular intervals. (A modern comparison would be the Beatles writing classical music). It's also interesting how many words he introduced to the language; if there wasn't one that fitted exactly what he wanted to say, he coined one, and they slipped into general usage.

[snycock]

Huh, that's interesting about the words - I never knew that! I guess that's a sign of how popular he was even in his own time, let alone now.

We did a fair amount of Shakespeare in my acting program, so we did quite a bit of dissection, but it's a lot different when you're actually doing the play rather than just reading it in class. :-)

[tehomet]

Lovely. Must be delightful to sing.

[snycock]

It is - the pieces we've learned so far are really beautiful.

[snailbones]

I've always loved that - so much that my Complete Works falls open on that page *g*

[snycock]

I am ashamed to admit that I've read the plays more than the sonnets (comes from approaching it through acting school rather than English class, I think), but singing this is making me want to go drag my Complete Works out as well... :-)

[vamysteryfan]

Oh, that's beautiful! It must be lovely to sing.

I'm another Shakespeare buff - read all the plays in high school, not just the required ones.

Speaking of plays and theatres - March is coming soon!

[snycock]

It really is gorgeous, the parts we've learned so far.

And, yes! March is coming soon! I'm so excited... :-D

I'm still not sure which role Benedict is going to be in when we see it. Word has it that the National Theatre is taping two versions, so they'll have each of the actors in each of the parts. Maybe they'll do a later showing after a few months, or maybe put it out on DVD.