Klarinet Archive - Posting 000270.txt from 1996/04

From: Marie McDonough <mm46@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Dan and Michelangelo-WARNING:DIATRIBE!
Date: Wed, 10 Apr 1996 14:28:46 -0400

> I will go further out on the "what the composer would've
> liked" limb: given that composition/theatre is
> inherently a temporal medium, wouldn't a composer's wish
> be that the piece is kept alive? No, I'm not talking
> about excessive alterations (Rap Amadeus!), but
> reasonable latitude (changes in articulation,
> instrumentation, yes, even tempi!), can actually breathe
> life into a composition and ensure it's survival (I
> know: I'm mixing enough metaphors, so I won't go into
> Darwinism!). Back to theatre, there have been
> productions of Shakespeare and Sophocles that have been
> "modernized"
> ("Antigone" was reset in London in the 1950's, I think).
> Would Sophocles have been appalled?

Scott--

Not to quibble too much with your basic premise--that interpretations *will*
vary, and that's just artistic life--but until he died, Samuel Beckett, the
author of "Waiting for Godot" and many other plays, went around the world,
observing rehearsals of his works and threatening lawsuits against directors who
deviated too far from what he perceived to be the *right* way to stage his
plays. Some creators would rather see their works die than see them transformed
in any significant way.

Marie

Marie McDonough
mm46@-----.edu