in me it seems it will make wise men mad
This afternoon I went to Borders so that I might spend my tax refund check on books and whatnot. Here is what transpired as I crossed through the audiobook aisle, en route to the Medieval and Renaissance Studies section:
OUR HEROINE: Hey, there's Will in the World on CD... Oh, look! Audio Shakespeare! Let's see what they have! Richard III, Henry IV -- both parts -- Henry V, Romeo and Juliet... Hrm. I wonder if...
ARKANGEL RECORDING OF RICHARD II STARRING RUPERT GRAVES AND JULIAN GLOVER: You know you want me, baby!
OUR HEROINE: !!! *purchases*
I am a hopelessly obsessive geek.
It's a pretty decent recording, though. Observations, from slightly less than halfway through it:
Rupert Graves, playing Richard, does have a certain je ne sais quoi about his delivery that makes him very well-suited to playing a dissolute aristocrat. Of course, my opinion may just be colored by the fact that in the only thing I've seen him in, he was playing a dissolute aristocrat. (He's not as good as Sam West though. ;) )
John Wood, who plays John of Gaunt, played Edward IV in the Loncraine-McKellen Richard III, which means that during his scenes I was picturing him toting an oxygen tank and attempting to grope nurses. From what I know of the historical Gaunt, this is not wholly out of character.
How many times has Julian Glover played Henry IV, anyway? I thought about returning, when I had more money, for the Arkangel Henry IVs, but I already have a Henry IV starring Julian and Jamie Glover and it would just be confusing. (Plus, on the Arkangel version Richard Griffiths plays Falstaff, and there you run up against the Harry Potter Effect again. ;) )
It is, in general, a bad idea for radio productions to cast people with similar-sounding voices in roles where they talk to each other all the time. In this production they have an Aumerle who sounds a lot like Richard and a Northumberland who sounds a lot like Bolingbroke and it's just odd.
I also acquired some Molière plays in French, Erasmus' Praise of Folly which, come on, I really ought to own by now, a recording of The Planets, on which see comments on The Praise of Folly, and a CD of early music by the Hilliard Ensemble (which has Matteo Flecha's "El jubilate," an absolutely spectacular Spanish hymn to the Blessed Virgin which makes me astoundingly happy). And I had random conversations with a guy at Borders who saw my "Michigan Alumni" T-shirt and asked what year I'd graduated, and with the girl behind the checkout who remarked on my purchase of French literature. It was all very pleasantly geeky. ;)
Also, I almost bought Diarmid MacCullough's history of the Reformation, but decided not to. Have any of you read it? Should I have bought it?
I also need to compose a "Here's what all of us in DSP should be doing now, for values of now equal to 'when we have time,'" as now that I have time for it myself I am positively giddy about our production. :D
ETA: Also, radio productions should NOT have GRATUITOUS BEE NOISES in the background because it is FREAKING FREAKY.
*fears bees, even if she has an LJ icon with a picture of them*
OUR HEROINE: Hey, there's Will in the World on CD... Oh, look! Audio Shakespeare! Let's see what they have! Richard III, Henry IV -- both parts -- Henry V, Romeo and Juliet... Hrm. I wonder if...
ARKANGEL RECORDING OF RICHARD II STARRING RUPERT GRAVES AND JULIAN GLOVER: You know you want me, baby!
OUR HEROINE: !!! *purchases*
I am a hopelessly obsessive geek.
It's a pretty decent recording, though. Observations, from slightly less than halfway through it:
Rupert Graves, playing Richard, does have a certain je ne sais quoi about his delivery that makes him very well-suited to playing a dissolute aristocrat. Of course, my opinion may just be colored by the fact that in the only thing I've seen him in, he was playing a dissolute aristocrat. (He's not as good as Sam West though. ;) )
John Wood, who plays John of Gaunt, played Edward IV in the Loncraine-McKellen Richard III, which means that during his scenes I was picturing him toting an oxygen tank and attempting to grope nurses. From what I know of the historical Gaunt, this is not wholly out of character.
How many times has Julian Glover played Henry IV, anyway? I thought about returning, when I had more money, for the Arkangel Henry IVs, but I already have a Henry IV starring Julian and Jamie Glover and it would just be confusing. (Plus, on the Arkangel version Richard Griffiths plays Falstaff, and there you run up against the Harry Potter Effect again. ;) )
It is, in general, a bad idea for radio productions to cast people with similar-sounding voices in roles where they talk to each other all the time. In this production they have an Aumerle who sounds a lot like Richard and a Northumberland who sounds a lot like Bolingbroke and it's just odd.
I also acquired some Molière plays in French, Erasmus' Praise of Folly which, come on, I really ought to own by now, a recording of The Planets, on which see comments on The Praise of Folly, and a CD of early music by the Hilliard Ensemble (which has Matteo Flecha's "El jubilate," an absolutely spectacular Spanish hymn to the Blessed Virgin which makes me astoundingly happy). And I had random conversations with a guy at Borders who saw my "Michigan Alumni" T-shirt and asked what year I'd graduated, and with the girl behind the checkout who remarked on my purchase of French literature. It was all very pleasantly geeky. ;)
Also, I almost bought Diarmid MacCullough's history of the Reformation, but decided not to. Have any of you read it? Should I have bought it?
I also need to compose a "Here's what all of us in DSP should be doing now, for values of now equal to 'when we have time,'" as now that I have time for it myself I am positively giddy about our production. :D
ETA: Also, radio productions should NOT have GRATUITOUS BEE NOISES in the background because it is FREAKING FREAKY.
*fears bees, even if she has an LJ icon with a picture of them*