Twelfth Night (Arkangel Complete Shakespeare)

Rating:
Summary: The new standard for the Bard on audio
Review: ...this new Arkangel recording of Twelfth Night, part of a complete Shakespeare project, sets a new standard. The play's melancholy overtones, delicately poised between exhilarating comedy and quiet grief, reverberate in this marvellously fresh and up-to-date version. A Twelfth Night for the nineties and beyond! The compex action is communicated clearly and movingly, the language is spoken sweetly and smoothly; all the emotions come through as clearly as if one were watching a stage production. Thankyou Arkangel!

Rating:
Summary: Great recording
Review: I agree with another reviewer that the Arkangel recording is vastly superior to the Caedmon one. Viola is the key to the whole play, and in the Caedmon recording she *declaims* her lines rather than *speaking* them. It's impossible to fall in love with her; you wonder how Olivia ever did so. Whereas the actress on the Arkangel recording speaks her lines with the requisite naturalness, wit, and passion. The only thing I found annoying about this recording was the incessant bird sound-effects when the scene was set outside. Couldn't the producers have been a bit more inventive?