F28T Romeo and Juliet (Zoom)
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[NEW COURSE] Everyone thinks they know Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. But overuse and over familiarity have reduced the title to the status of a cliché. Today we mostly see the play through the lens of 400 years worth of unsuccessful reinterpretations. We will return to the original play before our happy-ending culture ripped the heart out of this tragedy. To do this we will look into the long history of the story before Shakespeare and watch two quite different performances of the play. In addition we will sample a number of musical works inspired by the story. Audio/Visual, Discussion, Lecture
Extended Description:
This is a course about William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Almost everyone is familiar with the title, but in most cases the Romeo and Juliet they know is a catch-all term for stories about lovers who encounter and eventually overcome obstacles in their relationship. It exists as the stock plot for many romantic comedies. This is not Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. This course hopes to recapture Shakespeare’s original play by careful reading of the text and watching videos of two quite different performances: one a video of a live stage performance, the other a film version. We will discuss the origins of the story and the sources Shakespeare relied upon when writing the play. There will be background on the lowly stature of the theater in Shakespeare’s time that led to the closing of all London theaters shortly after Shakespeare’ death. This resulted in a catastrophic decline in performance standards that persisted until the end of the 19th century. In addition to two complete performances there will be a number of short excerpts from other performances to illustrate either alternative performance approaches or, in some cases, how badly off base some performances can get. There will also be several videos of analyses of the play along with some examples of musical works inspired by the play.
Richard Mallory
Richard Mallory taught wireless communications classes on five continents and has written several textbooks on radio theory of operation and maintenance. He has also led four previous opera courses at Osher.