Shakespeares Sonette: Sonnet 29

"Shakespeares Sonette" by Robert Wilson and Rufus Wainwright at the Berliner Ensemble, 2009

Sonnet 29

When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state
And trouble deal heaven with my bootless cries
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• william
• Shakespeare
• bob
• wilson
• rufus
• wainwright
• sonnet
• sonett
• 29
• elizabethan
• berlin
• ensemble
• 2009

[destroyevil]

MrThistleFlower - your 'friend' sounds like a moron. this is the opposite of failure, but you have to have a human heart+soul to 'get it'

[jacksontronixx]

Jeder der die Chance hat, sollte sich unbedingt dieses Stück ansehen. Es ist einfach wunderschön. Vollkommen anders! Es war ein Erlebnis!

[auteuricon]

Interestingly, the image of Sheryl Sutton stabbing the boy was based on an actual newspaper account of a 19th century African-American woman who murdered her two children with a knife after giving them milk to drink before putting them to bed. Wilson came across this account as he was creating the original version of DG and he culled the image from that original 19th century news account.

[auteuricon]

@noelephantitis yes, you're correct- it's from the prologue of "Deafman Glance" which was both performed live and adapted for video. The "Deafman" of the title was Raymond Andrews, the African-American child in the video, who was actually deaf and whose way of perceiving and interpreting the world around him was the inspiration for "Deafman Glance".

[MrThistleFlower]

As my friend says, "The music doesn't fit the text and I hate clown faces." I have to agree. I think it's a Rufus & Robert failure.

[Orbelain92]

@Frouwke not in this video ^^

[Frouwke]

So Rufus sings himself?

[noelephantitis]

@KingMinosxxvi Also, I don't know if this helps, but what you're seeing on the screen is a video piece of Wilson's from the 1970s, which itself is adapted from a couple of Wilson's live shows--the image of actress Sheryl Sutton in 19th century dress slowly walking toward and stabbing a young boy. He's obsessed with these images, and they go back very early in his life. But I think AllmuthAndorsch's interpretation sounds very good.

[crackprods]

It's the video of an early Robert Wilson piece - "Deafman Glance" if memory serves - from 1970 or so

[katprof]

I believe that video is actually work of Wilson's from many years ago, now juxtaposed here. Can any one confirm that, or remember the name of the original video work?