The Taming of the Shrew- Shakespeare’s Globe Click here for tickets The Taming of The Shrew, like The Merchant of Venice, has long been considered one of Shakespeare’s ‘problem plays’ for very real considerations of political correctness. Merchant is thought to be (well, is) deeply anti-semitic, and Shrew pushes all the anti-feminist buttons on the door. Many solutions have been tried to make this beautiful play acceptable to a 20th/21st century audience, some quite successful, such as playing the entire play as a drunken dream of the character Christopher Sly. This is just one ruse to make it possible to make the play work, thus side-stepping the more egregious pronouncements of Katherine towards the end of the play about how women must obey their husbands in all things, thereby disavowing all her feminist sentiments expressed at the start. There have been many others, and many adaptations of Shrew, the most wondrous being Cole Porter’s blissful musical version, Kiss Me Kate. Shakespeare’s Globe has now made their very funny production available on Globe Player. (Usual ritual, you can buy just one production for 9.99 or pay an annual fee for all their productions for 99.99). Samantha Spiro goes head to head with Simon Paisley Day here with predictable results. It’s harder to make The Merchant of Venice’s Shylock a sympathetic character, harder still to make the title character, who contrary to belief is Antonio, not Shylock, anything but an anti-semite. But that’s an argument for another day. For today, sufficient to watch one of Shakespeare’s funniest comedies and try not to be offended. Come on, he wrote it 400 years ago and, as he points out, women were made of sterner stuff then. Mary Beard – National Gallery of Art Click here to watch My favourite historian and interpreter of antiquity, the great Mary Beard, has the irreplaceable gift of making ancient Rome, its history and especially its people, as alive as if they were right here with us. Here she tells us about an ancient Roman, the Emperor Tiberius and his great love, Agrippina, in a painting by Peter Paul Rubens in the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, a sad little love story. But is it really Agrippina and, if so, which one? Is it really Tiberius? Or is it Germanicus? Music and Power: The Power of Music - Medici Click here to subscribe "The word is indirect," says Schopenhauer; "music is direct. It speaks from one soul to another." This quotation illustrates the power of music, its capacity to express what cannot be expressed otherwise. More than perhaps any other language, however, music is subject to interpretation by those who hear it, and in the wrong hands its power can be mobilized toward dangerous ends. Musicians are thus confronted with a difficult choice: to ignore all nonmusical meanings in their art, or to contribute actively and directly to the conversation—for, as pianist Gabriela Montero says, "music reaches the core of who we are as human beings." How does music move and incite, and how is it affected by political and social powers? Is it more than an artform? How has it been diverted to personal ends—for better or worse—over the centuries? What is the scope and extent of its power? Can music change the world? Engaging with these and other questions, this final volume in a three-part documentary series on music, war, and revolution compares the present-day relationships between music and power to those in place during the time of the World Wars. Check out this documentary to learn more about the ways that music, history, politics, and power have intersected, impacted one another, and changed the world. From Germany to Venezuela and the Middle East, luminaries of the music world like Iván Fischer, Daniel Barenboim, and Anita Lasker-Wallfisch—one of the last surviving members of the Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz, now 97— reflect and share their experiences. This fascinating documentary is on the classical music site, Medici, and requires a premium subscription to watch. $12.99 monthly or $129 annually with a 7-day free trial The Sacral Dance: Compañia de Danza Contemporánea de Cuba Click here to watch The Sacral Dance was created by Christophe Béranger and Jonathan Pranlas-Descours for the Compañia de Danza Contemporánea de Cuba. It was performed at the historic Garcia Lorca Theatre in Havana and features Cuban drumming paired with Igor Stravinsky's time-honoured score 'The Rite of Spring' - making this production relevant for the 60 year-old company’s long legacy. The programme notes “the strong presence of Stravinsky's music“ but, honestly, while the drumming is fine, and the ritual dancing is often mesmerising, I couldn’t hear much of Stravinsky in the instrumental accompaniment or the songs in the first scene, The Adoration of the Earth, but it’s recognisable in the second, The Sacrifice. Both interweave the ritual and the magic, supported by songs, and the dancing from the huge company is committed and accomplished. The director is Miguel Ferrer. Tenderly - Sarah Vaughan and Sammy Davis Jr Click here to play I don’t need any excuse to play you this wonderful number from Sarah Vaughan and Sammy Davis Jr. This is from a 1983 telethon but it’s ageless and timeless. They’ve both gone now, much too young – The Divine Sarah was only 66 when she died, brilliant and versatile Sammy was only 65, and we’ll never hear anything like them again. This song, in this performance, is here because I love it and because I believe that the art of popular singing never got any better than this. I hope you agree.
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AuthorRuth Leon is a writer and critic specialising in music and theatre. Archives
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