[From the press release.  Linked for the unusual reference — “a musical reverance to Will Kempe”???] A reviewer called it "the most lasting impression" of this year’s Brass Festival of the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester: Bramwell Tovey’s "Nine Daies Wonder", performed by the Canadian violinist Mark Fewer and the Foden’s Brass Band. The piece is a musical reverence to the Shakespearean actor Will Kempe, who in 1600 Morris danced from London to Norwich. Soloist Mark Fewer won the hearts of the Manchester audience not only by his virtuoso violin playing, but even more by reciting Shakespeare lines, singing, and finally fiddling a jig that made everyone’s feet stomp.
If you missed the concert, you now get a second chance to listen to it: BBC Radio 3 broadcasts the live recording of "Nine Daies Wonder" in its "Afternoon on 3" show upcoming Friday, March 6, 2009, at 4:30 pm Greenwich time (11:30 EST). The show will also be available as a concert on demand for some days thereafter on www.bbc.co.uk/radio3.
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Further information:
Mark Fewer: http://www.latitude45arts.com/en/artist.php?artist_id=83
BBC Radio 3: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/
Reviews of the Manchester concert:
http://www.4barsrest.com/articles/2009/art954.asp
http://www.4barsrest.com/reviews/concerts/con545d.asp

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mandrake/4903759/David-Tennants-curtailed-Hamlet-will-rise-from-the-grave.html People went frickin bananas for Dr. Who as Hamlet.  Personally I’ve never been a Dr. Who fan and don’t know much about Tennant, so I can’t really offer an opinion either way. But if it comes to DVD, then I can watch it at will.  Much like how I’m in the middle of Sir Ian’s King Lear, I think this idea of getting the “superstar” stage performances of today on film is a huge step forward in bringing theatre to a world that wouldn’t normally see it.

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/sos-review/Sir-Ian-McKellen-and-.5025256.jp Of course, we know them as Sir Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart.  I love the opening, how it contrasts their role as enemies (see title) with just how similar the rest of their careers, particularly the Shakespeare bits, have been.  Now they’re doing Waiting For Godot.  I think I’d like to see that.  I remember a long time ago hearing about a similar “celebrity” production starring Robin Williams and Steve Martin.  I expect this one will be…different.

http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2009/03/01/new-words/#more-1686 No real Shakespeare content other than the “Shakespeare invented 1700 words” thing.  Linked because I like the word “gleng.” 🙂

http://www.imdb.com/news/ni0555846/ I hadn’t heard this story, and I don’t really believe it, but it’s funny.  It seems that  Mr.Plummer, ahem, “injured” himself during some sort of one-night stand, and couldn’t go on to perform in Henry V.  This left the spot open for his understudy, Captain Kirk himself.  “I knew then that the SOB was going to be a ‘star.’” This is particularly amusing, if true, in the context of Star Trek VI where Plummer plays a Shakespeare-spouting enemy Klingon.