“Love me / Not your idea of me! / Release me / From your fantasy.”
– Silvia in the 1971 rock musical Two Gentlemen of Verona
Episode 4 is now live! We explore the critical and popular history of The Two Gentlemen of Verona from the Elizabethan age to the 1970s counter-culture, by way of light opera, Machiavelli, and the British Invasion.
You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at podcastshakespeare@gmail.com. You can subscribe to the podcast at iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or download direct from Libsyn. We also have a brand spanking new Spotify playlist, which will be updated each week as we work through the plays. On the website, you can find our evolving bibliography.
Contents:
00:00 The play in Shakespeare’s time
18:40 A critical history
40:05 Some literary moments
44:03 A stage history
1:07:23 Staging the final scene
1:13:48 Two Gentlemen: The Musical
1:22:36 A screen history
1:28:04 Music and art
Links mentioned:
Diana, pastoral romance by Jorge de Montemayor
David Bergeron, “Wherefore Verona in ‘The Two Gentlemen of Verona’?”, Comparative Drama vol. 41 (JSTOR access required)
Two Gentlemen in the film Shakespeare in Love
Viola (Gwyneth Paltrow) and the Nurse (Imelda Staunton) discussing the play in Shakespeare in Love
Elizabeth Rivlin, “Mimetic Service in The Two Gentlemen of Verona“, ELH vol. 72 (Project Muse access required)
W.E. Stephenson, “The Adolescent Dream-World of the Two Gentlemen of Verona”, Shakespeare Quarterly vol. 17 (JSTOR access required)
Joan Crawford and Ann Blyth in Mildred Pierce, 1945
Kate Winslet and Evan Rachel Wood in Mildred Pierce, 2011
Charles and Mary Lamb, Tales from Shakespeare, 1807
Machiavelli on wolves and lions
Henry Rowley Bishop’s gorgeous music for Frederick Reynolds’ 1821 operatic version
Stanley Wells’ ‘Shakespeare For All Time’, since I’m going to quote this super legend so often
Peter Hall’s 1960 RSC production
Robin Phillips’ 1970 RSC production
David Thacker’s 1991 RSC production
Joe Dowling’s 2009 Guthrie Theatre production
Simon Godwin’s 2014 RSC production on DVD
A fantastic website on the 1971 rock musical
China’s A Spray of Plum Blossoms, 1931
The BBC production at the fantastic BBC Shakespeare blog
Edward Albee’s The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?
William Holman Hunt’s Valentine Rescuing Silvia
Miscellaneous artworks at Wikimedia
Clips:
The Honeycombs, Who is Sylvia, 1966
Fionnuala Ward, Who is Sylvia (from 5 Shakespeare Songs), Les Sirènes Female Chamber Choir
Mark Stone / Stephen Barlowe, performing Roger Quilter’s Who is Silvia
Nino Rota’s “Love theme from Romeo and Juliet”
C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective performing Jaakko Mäntyjärvi’s Who is Sylvia from More Shakespeare Songs (1997)
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf performing Schubert’s An Silvia
The 1971 rock musical with Raúl Julia (Proteus), Jonelle Allen (Sylvia), Clifton Davis (Valentine), Diana Davila (Julia), Sheila Gibbs, Signa Joy, Kenneth Lowry, Sakinah Mahammud (Quartet)
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