When Love Speaks

[intertext]

I'm spending some enjoyable time sampling the pleasures of this CD, which arrived from Amazon yesterday. It's some of Shakespeare's sonnets, read by wonderful British Actors. Some of them are put to music, too, but I haven't tried any of those yet. There are some treats: Ralph Fiennes, reading "Th'expense of spirit in a waste of shame" as if in the middle of love-making, complete with orgasm and post-coital relaxation. John Gielgud, Diana Rigg, Richard Briers, Jonathan Pryce, Timothy Spall, and many many more.

For a taste (and a marvellous one - you may be hooked) try a version of Sonnet 130 read by Alan Rickman. I have to send you to a link in someone else's blog - and I'm sorry that I don't remember who or what led me there, but am grateful to aslowhite for the post. Alan Rickman reads Sonnet 130 as a seduction - you'll swoon. One of my colleagues, to whom I sent the link, pointed out that he falls victim to the common misreading of "any she belied," reading "she" as a pronoun, subject of "belied," rather than, as it should be, noun, object in the phrase "as any she." Thus he promotes the interpretation "she's hideous, but I love her anyway." I tell my students I will beat them, or throw them out the window, if any of them interpret the sonnet that way, but lots do anyway, and now they have Alan Rickman supporting them. But, oh, you'll swoon, and it's worth it.

PS: lidocafe: I have already ordered a copy for the library.

Comments

[marri.livejournal.com]

There are some treats: Ralph Fiennes, reading "Th'expense of spirit in a waste of shame" as if in the middle of love-making, complete with orgasm and post-coital relaxation.

I would love to hear the outtakes that wound up on the cutting room floor from that.

That sounds like a fantastic CD. Much better than the student readings one's subjected to in highschool *shudder* Sad to say that's the first thing that springs to mind when I think of Shakespeare.

[lidocafe.livejournal.com]

Just listened to the Alan Rickman. Lovely articulation and pacing. Sexy voice. Thanks.

[wordweaverlynn.livejournal.com]

I swoon.

There's a stunning CD/book set my girlfriend has -- authors reading their own poetry. It goes all the way back to the very aged Walt Whitman and Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and includes TS Eliot's dry voice and Edna St. Vincent Millay's lovely tones.

Here it is: Poetry Speaks. (http://www.amazon.com/Poetry-Speaks-Great-Poets-Tennyson/dp/1570717206/ref=pd_sim_m_1/104-6165128-8907169?ie=UTF8&qid=1187819312&sr=8-2)

[intertext.livejournal.com]

Thanks - that looks very desirable, too. As does the recommendation that popped up with it: a Caedmon collection along the same lines.

[lidocafe.livejournal.com]

I think we might have the Caedmon and more in the college library. I ordered it some time ago. :)

[intertext.livejournal.com]

Oh, excellent :)