Prom 36: Bonis/Mozart/Mendelssohn, BBC SSO/NYCOS Ch. Choir, McGill/Akande/Black/New

[alywin]

Shakespeare's prose?

Well, some of MND is in prose, isn't it?

[Pulcinella]

Well, some of MND is in prose, isn't it?

Of course, and a programme on why could have been of interest, if a little basic, as in principle court = verse and rustics = prose.
But my point was that it looked odd to think of Shakespeare as (primarily) a writer of prose, rather than of poetry.
William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet and actor. (Wiki)

[Ein Heldenleben]

Of course, and a programme on why could have been of interest, if a little basic, as in principle court = verse and rustics = prose.
But my point was that it looked odd to think of Shakespeare as (primarily) a writer of prose, rather than of poetry.
William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet and actor. (Wiki)

I’m not sure I would even characterise the rude mechanicals words as “prose” . Dramatic speech might be better. It’s a kind of heightened speech some way from the prose Shakespeare might have written in his endless legal disputes . But even the “prose” of the First Folio introduction is a long way from our dreary workaday stuff written nowadays . It has a kind of life and biblical cadence that we seem to have lost . The use of balanced , echoing clauses , antithesis , repetition. The ignoring of “rules “ - don’t start a sentence with “And” .,The Elizabethans wrote both our greatest verse and prose.

”Who, as he was a happie imitator of Nature, was a most gentle expresser of it. His mind and hand went together: And what he thought, he uttered with that easinesse, that wee have scarse received from him a blot in his papers. But it is not our province, who onely gather his works, and give them you, to praise him. It is yours that reade him. And there we hope, to your divers capacities, you will finde enough, both to draw, and hold you: for his wit can no more lie hid, then it could be lost. Reade him, therefore; and againe, and againe : And if then you doe not like him, surely you are in some manifest danger, not to understand him. And so we leave you to other of his Friends, whom if you need, can be your guides: if you neede them not, you can lead yourselves, and others, and such readers we wish him”

[Pulcinella]

I’m not sure I would even characterise the rude mechanicals words as “prose” . Dramatic speech might be better. It’s a kind of heightened speech some way from the prose Shakespeare might have written in his endless legal disputes . But even the “prose” of the First Folio introduction is a long way from our dreary workaday stuff written nowadays . It has a kind of life and biblical cadence that we seem to have lost . The use of balanced , echoing clauses , antithesis , repetition. The ignoring of “rules “ - don’t start a sentence with “And” .,The Elizabethans wrote both our greatest verse and prose.

”Who, as he was a happie imitator of Nature, was a most gentle expresser of it. His mind and hand went together: And what he thought, he uttered with that easinesse, that wee have scarse received from him a blot in his papers. But it is not our province, who onely gather his works, and give them you, to praise him. It is yours that reade him. And there we hope, to your divers capacities, you will finde enough, both to draw, and hold you: for his wit can no more lie hid, then it could be lost. Reade him, therefore; and againe, and againe : And if then you doe not like him, surely you are in some manifest danger, not to understand him. And so we leave you to other of his Friends, whom if you need, can be your guides: if you neede them not, you can lead yourselves, and others, and such readers we wish him”

My sloppy 'prose'; 'not formal blank verse' might have been better.

I have great admiration for the treatment/distillation of the text that Pears and Britten devised for Britten's opera, which is of course coming up soon in the season (eagerly awaited here).

[Ein Heldenleben]

My sloppy 'prose'; 'not formal blank verse' might have been better.

I have great admiration for the treatment/distillation of the text that Pears and Britten devised for Britten's opera, which is of course coming up soon in the season (eagerly awaited here).

Yes wonderful - a masterpiece of compression. I read somewhere that setting the whole text would mean an opera as long as the Ring Cycle.
They only had to create one new line apparently “compelling thee to parry with Demetrius “ or something like that

[Barbirollians]

Liked the first half but agree Mozart outer movements a bit quick for my taste. Interval discussion was egregious as was including Dire Straits !

Enjoyed the playing and singing in the Mendelssohn not the very over the top hammy acting.