Ralph Vaughan Williams - The Wasps by Aristophanes (1909)

[stonemanrichard]

There was an hilarious BBC presentation of the Wasps broadcast on the radio around the mid sixties. I recorded it on a tape recorder and listened to it again and again.

That period was a great time for greek plays on the radio - class actors of the day ( the sixties, not circa 400BC) acted out the timeless dramas of Sophocles, as well as those of Euripedes, Aeschylus, and of course, the comedies of Aristophanes.

These productions were top-notch. Does you know if they are archived anywhere ?

[HiImAWolf]

We played this in my high school. Awesome piece of music. Very fun.

[DickRichardson1]

Thank you. Fascinating. I am using this central theme for the Manifesto of the Waspp. Manifesto for the World Amalgamated Social Political Party. Also a Cockney writer of Metaphysics and Politics, and a great fan of RVW. RWR

[Trimbler00]

This is awesome!!!!

[slothropgr]

I am impressed out of my mind. Where did you find this?? The Wasps Suite has always been one of my fave V-Ws. Always wondered what it was the "suite" of, and like a lot of such arrangements much of the best music was left behind. The chorus makes a huge difference, and I LOVE the cockney protagonist. Surprisingly bawdy, too, I can almost heare RVW chuckling as he wrote. And then there's the text as well! And as the capper: all in one file! Awesome. One of the best I've found on Y-T.