If you’re in Charlotte, NC this sounds pretty cool — a Renaissance Music concert featuring “original music from Shakespeare’s plays”. They play on historical instruments and even provide commentary and context for the play so you understand the placement of the music. Plays include Twelfth Night, Henry V, Merry Wives, Tempest, Hamlet, Othello and Macbeth.

I love it. One of the great things about Shakespeare that many people forget is that his work is now in the public domain, and thus its often the first place people go for quality source material when they want to try something new. The BBC is at it again, this time with
Interactive TV Apps.

Known as “red button apps”, the four productions (Much Ado, Macbeth, Shrew, and Midsummer’s) will allow the viewer to view various scenes in original text, from a variety of angles, with the help of a glossary, interviews with the actors, and so on.

From the first paragraph, in a parenthetical note: “the productions…are part of a BBC initiative, dubbed “ShakespeaReTold”, that is designed to bring Shakespeare’s work to new audiences via TV, radio and the web).” Love it! I only wish that over here in the US we had a similar appreciation for the man.

Finally, some fun stuff to post. Ever wonder what shopping was like in Shakespeare’s day? Did young Will hang out at the local equivalent of the mall, listening to the 400yr old version of CDs?
The Folger Library has a new exhibit on exactly this subject. The “Royal Exchange”, Britain’s first shopping mall (according to co-curator Linda Peck), housed 120 tiny shops and was opened by Queen Elizabeth in 1570. I like the story that the merchants moved their goods around between the shops behind the scenes so that the queen would not see how empty it was.

I can’t listen to this NPR piece on ‘A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare’ because I only do MP3, not streaming formats like RealAudio. So somebody tell me if it’s good.

Talk of the Nation, October 18, 2005 · Professor and author James Shapiro talks about A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599. The book provides a look into the daily life of the playwright during a time of personal upheaval and prodigious creativity. During this period, Shakespeare produced Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It and Hamlet.

This article on reading and writing about poems might be the most boring treatment of the sonnets I’ve ever read, but if it’s the sort of thing you need to finish your homework, then here you go.

Shakespeare’s Sonnet 30 uses terms from finance and law. How does the use of particular words or a pattern of diction affect tone and meaning or contribute to the “message” of the poem? Here you should also notice any unusual word choice and consider its function.

*yawn*

Tag: Shakespeare