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Twelfth Night: (Shaun Davey) The mid-1990's were an
era for a rediscovery of William Shakespeare on the big screen, thanks
mostly to Kenneth Branagh behind and in front of the camera. Whereas the
early 1990's seemed obsessed with Jane Austen, Hollywood would be
deluged with interpretations of
Othello,
Richard III,
Looking for Richard,
Twelfth Night,
Romeo and
Juliet, and Branagh's own massive
Hamlet within a one-year
span in 1995-1996. One of the things that
Twelfth Night had going
for it at the time was the fact that few well known adaptations had been
made of the 1601 Shakespeare text on film. Famed British stage director
Trevor Nunn (better recognized for
Cats perhaps than his twenty
years with the Royal Shakespeare Company) would tackle
Twelfth
Night in 1996, shifting the setting of the plot from 1600 to 1800,
taking advantage of the Cornish countryside, and, more interestingly,
adapting a very faithful interpretation of the play into an environment
in which he could bring many of the gay and lesbian issues in the story
out of the closet. That story is a typical Shakespearian comedy, with
confused identities, love triangles, and flighty assumptions all
building up over the course of two hours until the usual grand finale in
which all identities are revealed, all love interests are settled, and
the world is a happy place. Add to the equation several auxiliary
characters that serve as comedic departures, and
Twelfth Night is
a delightful story. Nunn's film, in an effort to remain faithful,
however, does have pacing issues, and the running time of the film,
teamed with poor publicity (the studio decided to market the film based
on the cross-dressing aspect of the story), defied a generally positive
critical response and caused the project to blow through the theatres
without much success. The big screen adaptations of the Bard were
dominated musically by Patrick Doyle in the early 1990's, and though his
resume was filled with Shakespearian projects from stage and screen, so
was composer Shaun Davey's, who, like Nunn, was a veteran of the Royal
Shakespeare Company.
Davey's writing for
Twelfth Night would follow
the film's lead in being reluctant to cut production corners.
Performances by the Irish National Film Orchestra are appropriately
vibrant and exuberant, taking grand melodic stances and doing their best
to propel the pace of the film with constant rhythmic movement. It's
unclear whether or not Nunn intended Davey to mirror Patrick Doyle's
popular writing for the genre, but what Davey has done here is present
essentially an extension of Doyle's trademark sound from
Much Ado
About Nothing, with a touch off Doyle's somewhat appropriate
Shipwrecked score into the mix. Woodwinds flutter like flowers in
springtime while violins chop effortlessly in high ranges and bouncing
rhythms carry both along a pleasant, sunny journey from one crescendo to
another. These crescendos accompany (or, more accurately, follow) the
grandest lines of each portion of the play, though this interpretation
of
Twelfth Night does show more action that is simply implied in
the original story. Scenes such as the shipwreck at the opening of the
film necessitate a more forceful motif, and for this, Davey pulls out a
rolling rhythm of menacing stature. Sharing many characteristics with
his domineering rhythms in
The Tailor of Panama, these forceful
cues (including "Antonio's Chase") are equally rich with cymbal-crashing
percussion and deep woodwind performances. Low range piano is also
similar here, though Davey allows the instrument some romantic solos
under dense dialogue. Like any good Doyle score for the genre, Davey
hauls off with a triumphant, full-ensemble announcement of his fluffy
title theme in the "Twins' Reunion" cue. Some additional spark is added
to the film with ensemble songs, including some low key performances by
Ben Kingsley himself, until the sexy beast (or Gandhi, however you
prefer him) launches into a strangely enjoyable and energetic song ("The
Wind and the Rain") with Davey's percussive, Irish tilt on his original
score serving as an end title piece. Even in this final piece, Davey
maintains a strong identity in his score, a trait that has proven to be
among his strongest in his career.
Twelfth Night is thus an easy
listening experience loyal to the flighty nature of Shakespeare's
story.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
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The insert includes notes about Shaun Davey's career and a synopsis of the story.
