Word: orsino
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...unspecified songs, followed by a dance (choreographed by Graciela Daniele) in which the white-masked members of the court all participate. We seem to be watching a traditional Twelfth Night masque. And all this preliminary music gives added point to the play's opening lines, in which Duke Orsino refers to the "excess" of music, to a "dying fall" (which is accurately fitted to a descending cadence), and finally requests a halt...
Redgrave would do well to cut down somewhat on all the donning and doffing and crumpling of her tricorne. Freedman has involved her in one inspired bit of innovative staging: during the singing of "O Mistress Mine" Orsino and Olivia appear in the opposing balconies, each meditatively gazing up into the night sky; Viola silently enters below, and, while listening, looks up at first one and then the other. We thus have a visual triangle to underline the love triangle in which the three characters are involved...
...play is as implausible as ever, but rarely has it been given a production of such marvelously sustained enchantment. Duke Orsino (Stephen Macht) is bewitched by the lovely Countess Olivia (Marti Maraden). She, in turn, falls madly in love with Cesario, who is really the shipwrecked Viola (Kathleen Widdoes) in male disguise. Before the plot is piloted to safe harbor, there are mistaken identities to be resolved, twin brother and sister to be reunited, true love's partners to be mated, and the lowbrow comic shenanigans of that Tweedledum-Tweedledee pair Sir Toby Belch (Leslie Yeo) and Sir Andrew...
Bearded, bare-chested, and languishing on an oyster-shell litter, Larry Carpenter is an acceptable Duke Orsino, more in love with the idea of love than with its object, Countess Olivia. Caroline McWilliams imbues the pretentiously mourning Olivia with graceful warmth and some delectable touches of sarcasm ("We will hear this divinity"). After her impetuous marriage to Sebastian, however, she neglects to wear the wedding ring referred to in the text...
With shipwrecked Viola masquerading as a page for the Duke Orsino--awaiting the proper moment to reveal her true state--the complicated plot of disguises and counterdisguises unfolds against an admirably uncomplicated set. A charming use of music and a minimum of props set the tone for each act, with extravagant costuming and clever staging making the most of the abundant puns and wit in the play...