Music and Shakespeare

Music is one of the great uniters of people. All races sing and make music, and all people can recognize good music when they hear it (okay, not all people, but people of all races). It is, in a way, the great unifier of the arts.

I have seen music used in two different Shakespeare productions, first in Twelth Night, and then in Love's Labour Lost. Once it was done very well, and the other time it completely ditracted from the work.

Of course, those of you who saw Twelth Night know that the song at the end of that production was done very well. It created a beautiful ending to the movie, and the song was wonderfully well done musically. It didn't hurt that Shakespeare wrote the words to it, either.

In Love's Labour Lost, however, the music was by far the worst part of that production, primarily because, for whatever absurd reason, it was done as a musical. The actors would be speaking in a Shakespearean dialect, then spontanously break out into song written in modern American style.

The lack of unity was so extreme, it seemed that the musical numbers were not part of the same world, but rather a trip into some demented faerie, where all the people must act as if in a musical (ala Once More With Feeling). I am going to dedicate more time later to the idea of faerie, both in Shakespear and myth (it will probably be a couple of posts, given the size of the issue).

All in all, I did not really enjoy this version of Love's Labour Lost. The music was a major distraction, and there was nothing specifically stunning about the production. Kenneth Branagh was not in particularly fine form, nor were any of the other actors note worthy. I would not reccomend this, unless you really wanted to see a version of LLL. Most of Branagh's other work is far better, and there are no poorly placed musical numbers to fast forward through.