in honor of hot elizabethan boykissing
WELL NOW.
This year, I have dropped the ball on a tradition of several years standing. Since moving to DC in 2005, I have held a party on Twelfth Night every year for a Shakespeare reading among my friends. We've done the obvious play twice (until Elissa told me she would stop coming if we did it again, EVEN THOUGH I hadn't had a chance to play Olivia yet), but also branched out into Measure for Measure and The Taming of the Shrew in more recent years. Sadly, I've been a stressball for the past month and didn't get my act together. I made it out to McGinty's last night, where Forum Theatre did a free reading of the play that helped alleviate my craving a little, but mostly just made me wish I'd been more on top of things and organized my own.
ANYWAY.
Instead, I decided to do a little something to share with my Shakespeare friends of the interwebs. Because, you see, Twelfth Night is my very favorite of Shakespeare's plays. I love its humor, its darkness, its words, its songs, and its wonderful chararacters. The very best experience I have EVER had in the theatre was seeing the OP production at the Globe, with Mark Rylance's EXTRAORDINARY Olivia alongside a HEAP of amazing company members- there wasn't a weak link at all, from the Sea Captain to Viola herself. It was an epiphany. It's how my Shakespeare love blossomed into what it is today, and it's definitely why I'm writing a thesis on original practices.
As a direct result of this love, I have accumulated many different recordings of the music of the play, each of them very distinct. I wish I had a copy of the setting my sister did of 'Come Away, Death'- singing it with her is the reason I named my first blog 'sadcypress' back in 2001, after all- but alas, I do not. Instead, I have a heap of other songs from three different productions: the Globe's, of course; the Lincoln Center production with music by Jeanine Tesori that had Helen Hunt and Paul Rudd; and the soundtrack of Trevor Nunn's film with Imogen Stubbes and St. Toby Stephens (one of the patrons of my beloved obasc).
Under the cut, the sampling I chose.
First, the Globe production! This one uses the Musicians of the Globe and period instruments and settings chosen by Claire van Kampen, as well as the actors Liam Brennan (sexy Scottish Orsino) and Peter Hamilton Dyer (probably my favorite Feste ever).
To start, we have the first music before the play starts, that I no longer have the track name of! (angevin2?) Here it is anyway!
Then there's Orsino's famous speech: If Music be the Food of Love
Then we have Feste, first on O, Mistress Mine
And a haunting Come Away, Death.
I do love this version of Hey Robin, sung by the full company at the start of the second half of the play.
And finally, the last sequence of music in the play. There's When That I was a Little, Tiny Boy, followed by a brief instrumental version as the cast comes on stage... for the JIIIIIIIIIIIIG. GOD I LOVE A JIG. I thought my face would BURST from how much I smiled during this. :)
Now for something COMPLETELY different. Nicolas Hytner, now of the National Theatre, directed this back in 1998. It was a GORGEOUS production, judging from the taped version I saw on PBS- a simple set design combined with costumes from a mix of times and places was a beautiful complement to the text. Plus, I'm a sucker for water on stage, and this used the back half of the stage for a shallow pool, as well as a deeper one downstage that characters would bathe in. AMAZING. The performances vary, of course, but the music is WONDERFUL- you can see some of it on youtube if you're interested.
For your delight, I've got mostly the songs from the text:
O, Mistress Mine
Come Away, Death
When That I was a Little Tiny Boy
The other music is gorgeous, but I really love the piece that opens the second half- Feste and the other musicians play it together as the audiences is settling in, and it's great fun. It's got the rather unfortunate name of Feste's Jam, but don't hold that against it.
Finally, the Trevor Nunn film. I haven't seen it in YEARS, but when I get past all the fiddling they did with the text to make an ~*exciting film*~, I know there's stuff to enjoy.
From this, I've just taken the songs, as I'm not as familiar with the score.
O Mistress Mine
Come Away, Death
When That I AM NOT GOING TO TYPE OUT THE DAMN NAME AGAIN YOU KNOW WHICH ONE I MEAN
There you have it! A very small sampling from my scores for Twelfth Night. I hope you enjoy them if you take them. :)
This year, I have dropped the ball on a tradition of several years standing. Since moving to DC in 2005, I have held a party on Twelfth Night every year for a Shakespeare reading among my friends. We've done the obvious play twice (until Elissa told me she would stop coming if we did it again, EVEN THOUGH I hadn't had a chance to play Olivia yet), but also branched out into Measure for Measure and The Taming of the Shrew in more recent years. Sadly, I've been a stressball for the past month and didn't get my act together. I made it out to McGinty's last night, where Forum Theatre did a free reading of the play that helped alleviate my craving a little, but mostly just made me wish I'd been more on top of things and organized my own.
ANYWAY.
Instead, I decided to do a little something to share with my Shakespeare friends of the interwebs. Because, you see, Twelfth Night is my very favorite of Shakespeare's plays. I love its humor, its darkness, its words, its songs, and its wonderful chararacters. The very best experience I have EVER had in the theatre was seeing the OP production at the Globe, with Mark Rylance's EXTRAORDINARY Olivia alongside a HEAP of amazing company members- there wasn't a weak link at all, from the Sea Captain to Viola herself. It was an epiphany. It's how my Shakespeare love blossomed into what it is today, and it's definitely why I'm writing a thesis on original practices.
As a direct result of this love, I have accumulated many different recordings of the music of the play, each of them very distinct. I wish I had a copy of the setting my sister did of 'Come Away, Death'- singing it with her is the reason I named my first blog 'sadcypress' back in 2001, after all- but alas, I do not. Instead, I have a heap of other songs from three different productions: the Globe's, of course; the Lincoln Center production with music by Jeanine Tesori that had Helen Hunt and Paul Rudd; and the soundtrack of Trevor Nunn's film with Imogen Stubbes and St. Toby Stephens (one of the patrons of my beloved obasc).
Under the cut, the sampling I chose.
First, the Globe production! This one uses the Musicians of the Globe and period instruments and settings chosen by Claire van Kampen, as well as the actors Liam Brennan (sexy Scottish Orsino) and Peter Hamilton Dyer (probably my favorite Feste ever).
To start, we have the first music before the play starts, that I no longer have the track name of! (angevin2?) Here it is anyway!
Then there's Orsino's famous speech: If Music be the Food of Love
Then we have Feste, first on O, Mistress Mine
And a haunting Come Away, Death.
I do love this version of Hey Robin, sung by the full company at the start of the second half of the play.
And finally, the last sequence of music in the play. There's When That I was a Little, Tiny Boy, followed by a brief instrumental version as the cast comes on stage... for the JIIIIIIIIIIIIG. GOD I LOVE A JIG. I thought my face would BURST from how much I smiled during this. :)
Now for something COMPLETELY different. Nicolas Hytner, now of the National Theatre, directed this back in 1998. It was a GORGEOUS production, judging from the taped version I saw on PBS- a simple set design combined with costumes from a mix of times and places was a beautiful complement to the text. Plus, I'm a sucker for water on stage, and this used the back half of the stage for a shallow pool, as well as a deeper one downstage that characters would bathe in. AMAZING. The performances vary, of course, but the music is WONDERFUL- you can see some of it on youtube if you're interested.
For your delight, I've got mostly the songs from the text:
O, Mistress Mine
Come Away, Death
When That I was a Little Tiny Boy
The other music is gorgeous, but I really love the piece that opens the second half- Feste and the other musicians play it together as the audiences is settling in, and it's great fun. It's got the rather unfortunate name of Feste's Jam, but don't hold that against it.
Finally, the Trevor Nunn film. I haven't seen it in YEARS, but when I get past all the fiddling they did with the text to make an ~*exciting film*~, I know there's stuff to enjoy.
From this, I've just taken the songs, as I'm not as familiar with the score.
O Mistress Mine
Come Away, Death
When That I AM NOT GOING TO TYPE OUT THE DAMN NAME AGAIN YOU KNOW WHICH ONE I MEAN
There you have it! A very small sampling from my scores for Twelfth Night. I hope you enjoy them if you take them. :)