Re: Jewish music and The Tempest

[Trudi Goodman <goobietheg...>]

   Oy to be in England now that theatre season's here!
   wish I could believe me!!!
   Trudi the G


>From: TomP317 (at) aol(dot)com
>Reply-To: jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
>To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
>Subject: Jewish music and The Tempest
>Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 17:39:42 EDT
>
>
>This weekend I went to the Globe Theatre in London, to see The Tempest. I 
>was
>in a seat where you don't see the action much, but you do get to sit next 
>to
>the musicians. I didn't know who the musicians would be before I went (a
>friend got me in) but here's the line-up:
>
>Violin: Steve Bentley Klein/Joe Townsend
>Drummer: Michael Gregory/Phil Hopkins
>Double Bass: Andy Lewis/Dave Ayre
>Clarinet: Merlin Shepherd/Dai Pritchard
>Accordian: Kevin Street/Mark Bousie
>
>List members going on my night would have recognised Merlin Shepherd at 
>least
>- he gets to stand over the balcony a lot and invokes storms with his
>clarinet. I don't think Kevin Street was playing when I went but he plays a
>lot of Jewish music too. The effect during a Shakespeare wedding scene of
>having a Klezmer outfit on stage was tremendous. They had big tall hats on, 
>a
>little like you see on p111 of Henry Sapoznik's book only taller (it's the
>picture with Naftule Brandwein and Shloimke Beckerman in it, in Joseph
>Cherniavsky's Yiddish-American Jazz Band).
>
>The intention, according to Nigel Osborne the composer, was to respond to 
>the
>director's suggestion that the production have a Balkan character. He 
>writes:
>"At the time of Shakespeare [The Tempest is dated 1610/1611] the Balkans 
>saw
>a melding of Bogumil gnosticism with independent fraternities like the
>Bosnian Church, and Islamic mysticism. Accordingly, I have echoed the 
>sounds
>of both Christian gnostic glossolalia and Dervish chanting in the most
>profound ritual moments of the play."
>
>I only read that afterwards. For me the music and its execution felt at 
>least
>as though it was in touch with the Jewish tradition: the wedding music
>started as a slower and muted ancestor of the Heyser Bulgar melody. It made
>Prospero a cabbalist for me, with his books and magic; and it put the 
>strange
>atmosphere of the Globe, with its attempt to recreate the London stage of
>Shakespeare's time, into a kind of perspective: like with the theatre, we
>couldn't really tell if the music was "authentic" or not; but it set the
>imagination free.
>
>So I heartily recommend the production. The box office number is (44) 20 
>7401
>9919. As for the play itself, I understand it concerns a deposed duke and 
>his
>life on a remote island.
>
>I think this is at least slightly about Jewish music. I mention this 
>because
>of all the emails I've been getting which talk about talking about Jewish
>music (and which now appear to outnumber the ones about Jewish music).
>
>Tom Payne
>
>

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