MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

Because setting and action are explicit in the dialogue, MUCH ADO, like most of Shakespeare's plays, adapts wonderfully to audio. Even so, this vintage CBC production could have benefited from a richer soundscape. Director Gerald Newman uses period music to advantage but forgoes other production values. Actors from the Stratford Festival bring out the beauty of the language but project verve and character unevenly. Newman directs too laconically for my taste, subverting tension in the melodramatic passages and almost all of the humor. The romantic scenes are the most successful. Since the publishers digitally remastered the original tapes, they could have left off the Dolby noise reduction, which darkens the tonal color and further undercuts the impression of energy. Y.R. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 96]