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Rating: 
Summary: Arkangel recording makes Coriolanus quite moving
Review: An older recording of <Coriolanus> is an elegant reading with the magic of Richard Burton's Welsh tones in the title role. As with much of the Shakespeare Recording Society productions, all of which will soon be available again on Harper Audio, much of the lines are delivered in the old style that I feel is really essential to doing justice to the poetry inherent therein. On the other hand, the recent recording in the Arkangel Complete Shakespeare series is certainly much more dramatic and seems to move a little faster, although the timings are pretty much the same. (And it is on two tapes, contrasted with the 3 used by Harper.) Paul Jesson might sound a little old for the role--it is hard to forget Burton--but he throws himself into things, building a character that to modern tastes is not all as admirable as Shakespeare's audience might have found him. But being available as it has in an election year, it is good to have a play about a candidate who will not degrade himself or tells lies before the voters! Margorie Yates makes an impressive Volumnia. The Menenius of Ewan Hooper strikes just that right tone as a man who can sway a mob with a well-wrought anecdote based on an analogy that really does not match the social crisis at hand but sounds as if it does. Again, more political pre-echoes of today's urban problems. The character of Aufidius leaves a lot to the director or actor to build upon. Just how happy is he at first to receive his greatest foe as an ally; just how much does he agree at first with Coriolanus' decision to spare Rome; just how "struck with sorrow" is he at the very end? I suppose in a stage performance, a lot of body motion can resolve the ambiguity. On this recording, it is very hard to tell what this pivotal character really feels. But all in all, this is a superior recording--and while it will not replace the older set, it certainly deserves a worthy place beside it.
Rating:
Summary: Arkangel recording makes Coriolanus quite moving
Review: An older recording of is an elegant reading with the magic of Richard Burton's Welsh tones in the title role. As with much of the Shakespeare Recording Society productions, all of which will soon be available again on Harper Audio, much of the lines are delivered in the old style that I feel is really essential to doing justice to the poetry inherent therein. On the other hand, the recent recording in the Arkangel Complete Shakespeare series is certainly much more dramatic and seems to move a little faster, although the timings are pretty much the same. (And it is on two tapes, contrasted with the 3 used by Harper.) Paul Jesson might sound a little old for the role--it is hard to forget Burton--but he throws himself into things, building a character that to modern tastes is not all as admirable as Shakespeare's audience might have found him. But being available as it has in an election year, it is good to have a play about a candidate who will not degrade himself or tells lies before the voters! Margorie Yates makes an impressive Volumnia. The Menenius of Ewan Hooper strikes just that right tone as a man who can sway a mob with a well-wrought anecdote based on an analogy that really does not match the social crisis at hand but sounds as if it does. Again, more political pre-echoes of today's urban problems. The character of Aufidius leaves a lot to the director or actor to build upon. Just how happy is he at first to receive his greatest foe as an ally; just how much does he agree at first with Coriolanus' decision to spare Rome; just how "struck with sorrow" is he at the very end? I suppose in a stage performance, a lot of body motion can resolve the ambiguity. On this recording, it is very hard to tell what this pivotal character really feels. But all in all, this is a superior recording--and while it will not replace the older set, it certainly deserves a worthy place beside it.
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