#volpone

[unulf0]

was recommended john musto's operatic adaptation of ben jonson's play, volpone ( the whole thing's available on YT, footage is low-quality but you know what they say. )

i love jonson ( oberon's probably my favourite work of his ), and joseph kaiser's mosca is very cute ( based on what i've seen so far ). unfortunately, i have exams this week, so expect any further updates from the mosca volpone front next wednesday.

[gennsoup]

"I was born With all good stars my enemies."

Ben Jonson, Volpone

[dukeofstratford]

One Sentence Reviews of Plays I've Read in my Early Modern Drama Seminar Thus Far

The Spanish Tragedy: Genre-defining revenge tragedy, full of madness and gruesome violence. 8.5/10

Tamburlaine the Great, Part One: More like Tamburlaine the OK; guy conquers a bunch of stuff. 5/10

Edward II: Complex political drama full of excellent poetry. 8/10

Doctor Faustus: Marlowe doing his Marlowe thing at his best--a great, short drama about why making a deal with the devil is always a terrible idea. 9/10

Volpone: Hilarious, high-energy satire about awful, greedy people tricking each other. 10/10

The Alchemist: Complex plotline of trickery and gulling reads almost like a precursor to Arrested Development. 8/10

Bartholomew Fair: An utterly chaotic, genuinely funny comedy that would be delightful to watch onstage--however, there's just so much of it. 7/10

[the-picture-of-eve]

I was born with all good stars my enemies

Ben Jonson, Volpone

[suits-of-woe]

i think mosca should be gay

[alvadee]

Eighteen-year-old Victor Buono in the title role of “Volpone” at the San Diego Old Globe in 1956.

Always mugging that boy... 

[letmeinimafairy]

Well, I love galaxy-braining stuff. And masquerades. And animal imagery. I also like Ian McDiarmid and suffer quietly about the absence of recordings of some of the plays he was in with old reviews as the only thing remaining. I was reading about the Almeida theatre’s 1990 production of  ‘ Volpone’ with him as the main character, and apparently they had gotten all the animalistic symbolism really good, and Ian literally looked like a fox, just by himself, with costumes and props being rather minimalistic. Then this happened. A description of Ian’s potrayal+some vague Venetian vibes in Naboo’s visual I’ve got in ‘Phantom menace’+foxes = ??? I’ve even thought up a character based on Ian and an article about old Scottish superstitions.  Also Denis Lawson was in this production and judging by the photos they had fun.

[cano2]