Thanks to an interesting coincidence, a new CD recording of The Merchant of Venice has appeared on the Naxos Audiobooks label. I finished listening to it on the very day that I watched an episode of John Barton’s marvelous ‘Playing Shakespeare’ master class on DVD, in which Patrick Stewart and David Suchet switched Shylocks in some of that character’s famous moments.
Not only were their readings radically different, but their very bodies and facial expressions added to the masterful – but different – characterizations. I labor the obvious, because it is difficult to judge a performance accurately from an audio medium rather than from a visual one. I am sure that this Naxos version was based on the much-celebrated performance of Antony Sher as Shylock. I found it hard to get a good idea of how he might have looked on stage, but he came across vocally as a man who has kept his dignity at the expense of great suffering all these years, and is then driven into madness by his daughter running off with a good deal of his riches.
The question of the play’s possible anti-Semitism is best avoided here; but a lot depends on Shylock to treat the subtext one way or the other.
The fact that the rest of the cast is just as greedy for money as Shylock is well handled, such as laughter at the money lender. Although his role is fairly small, Roger Allam creates a noble Antonio, while Emma Fielding (Portia) and Cathy Sara (Nerissa) handle their first scene with good pacing and humor. It is not clear if Portia knows in the trial scene exactly how she is going to beat Shylock, or if she is winging it, but any director would be hard put to ‘show’ that on a CD.
I like that the Prince of Aragon (Sam Dastor) and Prince of Morocco (Ray Fearon) are not played as pantomime fools, but instead show just enough arrogance to get what they deserve in choosing the wrong caskets. Good grades go to director John Tydeman.
Older recordings I have heard feature Tony Church, Hugh Griffith and Trevor Peacock as Shylock. This new set surpasses them all.