While in New York at Christmas we managed to see two sublime Shakespearian comedies (in spite of the law which mandates that only Messiahs and Nutcrackers can be performed between Dec 15 and December 30). The first was the Globe Theatre's production of "The Twelfth Night", featuring an all male cast, and done with live music of the period and authentic musical instruments. The play was so well directed and acted that you soon forgot that the women were played by men, except in the case of Viola, of course, who is a man playing a women acting as a man... When the play was over, I had the sounds of Elizabethan English resonating in my ears; everything else sounded prosaic. Mark Rylance as Olivia was particularly remarkable and convincing as a woman in love; I don't know how he does it.
The second sublime Shakespearian experience was the Met's new production of Verdi's Falstaff, conducted by James Levine. The opera itself is unique; a comedy by Verdi that moves with great speed and agility through the libretto by Boito, adapted from Shakespeare. It is practically aria-free; to my warped ears it sounded more like the vocal music of Eliot Carter in its mercurial sensibility and intricate ensembles. The cast was superb, and, needless to say, the Met orchestra under James Levine was continually entrancing.
