#008 - The Taming of the Shrew

04/10/19 • 76 min

“He that is giddy thinks the world turns round” – The Widow

We’re back with episode 8! Despite some mid-episode audio issues, we’re commencing my look at The Taming of the Shrew, circa 1592, one of the Bard’s rougher early works. Join me for a journey through the plot’s highs and lows, Shakespeare’s first googlewhack, and a heckuva lot of male privilege.

You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at [email protected]. You can subscribe to the podcast at iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or download direct from Libsyn.

Key links below. You can also visit the bibliography page here, which is a work in progress.

Links mentioned:

Patient Griselda Ovid, Heroides (Penelope to Ulysses) Dittography 10 Things I Hate About You (1999; d: Gil Junger) Deliver Us From Eva (2003; d: Gary Hardwick) ShakespeaRe-Told: The Taming of the Shrew (2005; d: David Richards) Marjorie Garber, Shakespeare After All (Penguin Random House, 2005) John Fletcher, The Woman’s Prize, or the Tamer Tamed (1611)

Music clips:

Nino Rota, soundtrack to Zeffirelli’s “The Taming of the Shrew”, 1967 (Columbia Picutres, US / Italy) orchestra conducted by Carlo Savina

-Overture -Student’s Masquerade -Sarabande -Married on Sunday

“Orchestral selections from Kiss Me, Kate” (Naxos), conducted by Richard Hayman

Excerpts:

“The Taming of the Shrew”, Shakespeare’s Globe (2011), d: Toby Frow; members of the company (Lord / Huntsmen), Simon Paisley Day (Petruchio), Samantha Spiro (Katharina), Pearce Quigley (Grumio)

“The Taming of the Shrew”, Shakespeare: The Animated Tales (1994), d: Aida Ziablikova, Malcolm Storry (Christopher Sly); John Warner (Servant), and Hilton McRae (Peter)

“Kiss Me Kate” by Cole Porter, and Sam and Bella Spewack, PBS: Great Performances (2003), d: Chris Hunt; Brent Barrett (Petruchio)

“The Taming of the Shrew”, BBC Television Shakespeare (1980), d: Jonathan Miller; John Cleese (Petruchio), Susan Penhaligon (Bianca), Simon Chandler (Lucentio), Jonathan Cecil (Hortensio), Harry Waters (Biondello), Anthony Pedley (Tranio), John Barron (Vincentio), Sarah Badel (Katharina)

“Kiss Me, Petruchio” (BBC2, 1979), d: Christopher Dixon, from Joseph Papp’s 1978 Taming of the Shrew (Delacorte Theatre, Central Park); Meryl Streep (Kate), Raul Julia (Petruchio)

“The Taming of the Shrew”, Arkangel Shakespeare (2005); Roger Allam (Petruchio), Frances Barber (Katharina), Charles Simpson (Hortensio)

“The Taming of the Shrew” (Pickford Corporation, 1929), d: Sam Taylor; Mary Pickford (Katherine)

Final speech (details above):

Meryl Streep (1979); Mary Pickford (1929); Frances Barber (2005); Samantha Spiro (2011); Sarah Badel (1980)

“He that is giddy thinks the world turns round” – The Widow

You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at [email protected]. You can subscribe to the podcast at iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or download direct from Libsyn.

Key links below. You can also visit the bibliography page here, which is a work in progress.

Links mentioned:

Music clips:

Nino Rota, soundtrack to Zeffirelli’s “The Taming of the Shrew”, 1967 (Columbia Picutres, US / Italy) orchestra conducted by Carlo Savina

-Overture -Student’s Masquerade -Sarabande -Married on Sunday

“Orchestral selections from Kiss Me, Kate” (Naxos), conducted by Richard Hayman

Excerpts:

“The Taming of the Shrew”, Shakespeare’s Globe (2011), d: Toby Frow; members of the company (Lord / Huntsmen), Simon Paisley Day (Petruchio), Samantha Spiro (Katharina), Pearce Quigley (Grumio)

“The Taming of the Shrew”, Shakespeare: The Animated Tales (1994), d: Aida Ziablikova, Malcolm Storry (Christopher Sly); John Warner (Servant), and Hilton McRae (Peter)

“Kiss Me Kate” by Cole Porter, and Sam and Bella Spewack, PBS: Great Performances (2003), d: Chris Hunt; Brent Barrett (Petruchio)

“Kiss Me, Petruchio” (BBC2, 1979), d: Christopher Dixon, from Joseph Papp’s 1978 Taming of the Shrew (Delacorte Theatre, Central Park); Meryl Streep (Kate), Raul Julia (Petruchio)

“The Taming of the Shrew”, Arkangel Shakespeare (2005); Roger Allam (Petruchio), Frances Barber (Katharina), Charles Simpson (Hortensio)

“The Taming of the Shrew” (Pickford Corporation, 1929), d: Sam Taylor; Mary Pickford (Katherine)

Final speech (details above):

Meryl Streep (1979); Mary Pickford (1929); Frances Barber (2005); Samantha Spiro (2011); Sarah Badel (1980)

Previous Episode

"I would the gods had made thee poetical": Shakespeare and the world's worst poet

"Truly, the tree yields bad fruit."

Meet William McGonagall, the worst poet in the English language, and his exquisite Address to Shakespeare.

You can listen to the podcast at iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or download direct from Libsyn.

You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at [email protected]. You can subscribe to our Spotify playlist, which will be updated each week as we work through the plays. And if you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a review at the iTunes store; it really does help bring new listeners!

The website for the podcast is https://podcastshakespeare.com/. On the website, you can find an evolving bibliography.

Links mentioned:

McGonagall Online: A one-stop shop for the life and poets of this second Bard"

The real Tay Bridge Disaster chronicled on Wikipedia

McGonagall on Twitter

Clips:

Sergei Prokofiev, "Montagues and Capulets", from Romeo and Juliet (ballet), 1935

Claude Debussy, Prélude #11 - La danse de Puck played by Daniel Barenboim

Next Episode

#009 Bonus Episode - Sonnet I

"From fairest creatures we desire increase...."

Hello, friends! This is a bonus episode to give you a taste of my new Patreon campaign. Subscribers to the Patreon can contribute a few dollars to the running of the podcast in exchange for bonus content.

I'll be recording Shakespeare's sonnets, with analysis and discussion, and posting them exclusively to Patreon. In the meantime, my standard episodes will always remain free via your favourite podcast app. You can visit the Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/podshakespeare.

And you can listen to this bonus episode, and previous public episodes,

You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at [email protected]. You can subscribe to the podcast at iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or download direct from Libsyn.

William Shakespeare, Sonnet I

FROM fairest creatures we desire increase, That, thereby, beauty's rose might never die, But as the riper should by time decease, His tender heir might bear his memory: But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes, Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel, Making a famine where abundance lies, Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel. Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament And only herald to the gaudy spring, Within thine own bud buriest thy content And, tender churl, makest waste in niggarding. Pity the world, or else this glutton be, To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee.

Music clips:

Sergei Prokofiev, “Montagues and Capulets”, from Romeo and Juliet (ballet), 1935

Ralph Vaughan Williams, "Fantasia on Greensleeves", from Sir John in Love, opera adapted from William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1928 (Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy)

Nino Rota, "Sarabande" from soundtrack to Zeffirelli’s “The Taming of the Shrew”, 1967 (Columbia Picutres, US / Italy) orchestra conducted by Carlo Savina