William Shakespeare Venus And Adonis

SANWAL

(3.5 stars; 4 reviews)

William Shakespeare Venus and Adonis To mark the anniversary of Shakespeare's birth 440 years ago, a new production of his exquisite retelling of a classical myth about desire and loss. Director Sara Benaim
 CAST: Narrator:…………Nicholas Bourton Venus:………..Claire Skinner Adonis:…………Chris Moran Drama on 3: Venus and Adonis Sun 25th Apr 2004, 18:30 on BBC Radio 3 MUSIC LIVE With Venus and Adonis, Shakespeare launched his career as a poet. The poem is a minor epic, a genre that many poets in the 1590s chose for their first efforts. Characters in a minor epic usually come from the periphery of myth or legend; its interest is in eroticism, sophistication, and wit. Within this genre, Venus and Adonis was so successful that it was Shakespeare's most popular published work throughout his lifetime. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the boy hunter Adonis is the willing lover of Venus, the goddess of love, and dies accidentally. Shakespeare has Adonis reject Venus—an ironic and comic development for early readers. Venus endlessly argues for making love, with Adonis uttering petulant protests. Although minor epics fell out of fashion long ago, Venus and Adonis commands appreciation for its dazzling verbal surface, as a piece of fine baroque art. It also lets us see the young Shakespeare exploring love in a way that later yielded his romantic comedies. [folger.edu]

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.