Performance Report 1

This performance report is about the “Shakespeare in Song” performance by the UT Dallas chamber singers and directed by Kathryn Evans. The performance entitles different plays with specific acts such as Othello, The Tempest, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, and The Merchant of Venice. This performance was made from three sources which are the authentic songs, the solo songs of Roger Quilter a British composer, and the choral arrangements of the songs of Shakespeare by Juilliard graduate Matthew Harris. (Program notes)

Throughout the music performance there was a mixer of soprano, alto, tenor, and bass singers. Some of the songs sung were art songs which are poems set to music. As far as rhythm goes the songs were brief in clock time and held steady tempos. The piano player produced the beat of the songs as the choir sung along. The director and the piano player, Michael McVay signaled the loudness of the music. In the song “For the rain it rainth everyday” there was a fast pace and sung in different pitches by male and female singers. The texture of the overall performance would be homophony because there was a single piano melody accompanied by harmony of different pitches of voice. The musical instruments played was a piano in which is consider the resonator. The leader of the song in Hamlet looked as if it was hard to produce his notes so he used hand and body movements to produce quality sound. The women in the show sung most of the high pitches. I perceived that in the song entitled, “A winter tale” repetition occurred in the lyrics. Twelfth Night, Act II and scene two was harmonized without the piano player. There were a total of about twenty-five performers and one piano player. The piano player sat up straight on his stool throughout the entire performance and watched the director to see when to come in doing the performance. All of the performers had books with lyrics of there music to keep track while performing. I noticed that one of the singing female performers was blind because her music book was different then everyone else. She followed along using her fingers on this small type writer shaped object. The performers consisted of both male and female performers. All of the performers were dressed in Shakespeare like costumes, even the director and piano player. About six of the male characters had on hats and the females whore there hair down with flower head bands. The ladies also whore dresses or shirts while the males had on long black socks with black shoes and capri pants that stopped at the knee. In this performance the actors/ singers used props such as a beer bottle to bring more expression in to there performance. The performance as a whole an appreciative play with both talking and singing. Throughout the performance all the singers/actors didn’t perform in each scene. When the performance went from act to act the leaders of that song would step down from the staircase set and come to the front of the stage to direct attention to themselves from the audience. In Merchant of Venice: Act III, Scene 2; the girl actor looked down at her lyrics and never looked up at the boy who she was talking to but glanced at the audience a few times. The “Shakespeare in Song” performance was a public event in which I saw mostly UTD students but a few faulty and parents also. The performance was open to outsiders of the music-culture. The people with Shakespeare’ music backgrounds and knowledge are the insiders. People there to just observe for any reason are the outsiders. As a reaction of the performance there was a young lady who I detected slept through the whole performance, but everyone else in the audience looked content as a whole. When a scene was finished the audience would start clapping and the director would bow. After intermission there were a few people to walk out early which were noticeable because there wasn’t a full house. There were giggles and smiles from the audience to the performers. On Friday, March 26, 2010 around eight o’clock I attended the “Shakespeare in Song” performance which was held in the Jonsson Performance Hall. I attend the above event on that day because it was convenient for me as a student. The performance experience of UT-Dallas’ production was fairly energetic with cheers from the audience because it was opening night.

In conclusion, if you were not able to make it to this event I expect that you can now get a sense of the “Shakespeare in Song” performance.

Works Cited: Evans, Kathryn. Program notes. Shakespeare in Song. March 26, 2010. Richardson: Jonsson Performance Hall. (Evans)