Williamovy Sonety

FROM PROKOFIEV TO RAP: BRNO CITY THEATRE CELEBRATED SHAKESPEARE WITH AN UNTRADITIONAL EVENING

(…) A varied evening commemorating the anniversary of the death of the greatest dramatist of all time, suitably entitled William’s Sonnets, was opened by the actor Zdeněk Junák and A letter from Jan Werich to William Shakespeare. Junák’s deeply felt reading set a celebratory tone that was continued by a selection from three symphonic suites from Sergei Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. These were accompanied by the projection of photographs from all of Brno City Theatre’s “Shakespeare productions”. (…) During the evening there were several recitations of the artist’s sonnets, the most impressive reader being the actor Petr Štěpán due to his precise delivery. The sonnets alternated with songs from the musical Midsummer Nights’ Dreams, which were sung by members of the musical ensemble accompanied by the Brno City Theatre orchestra. The always perfect Viktória Matušovová moved the audience with the song Mother and Aleš Slanina captivated listeners with his interpretation of the song Rose. Just as with those two songs, soloists performed the duet Můj světe, jak jsi ohromný (My world, how amazing you are) with the participation of the excellent Ars Brunensis Chorus. Actor and musician Lukáš Janota contributed his own songs with texts taken from Shakespeare’s sonnets, which he called simply Music and Love. Janota sang the musically-interesting songs himself. (…) The rather serious atmosphere was lightened up by Michal Isteník, who appeared with a “Shakespearean” anecdote that was well-received by the audience. The dramatic climax of the evening was the balcony scene, which actors performed in all Czech translations and with a variety of interpretations. They started with a fairly traditional version featuring the youngest members of the ensemble, continuing with the same scene but with a pregnant Julia, and finishing off with the oldest pair, where Julia was actually played by a man. (…) The whole evening was topped off by the premiere performance of a crossover musical arrangement of Shakespeare’s sonnets by Zdeněk Merta. The author himself presented the composition, entitled Shakespeare´s RAPsody, and gave a short explanation of how it originated.