LOVE IN IDLENESS

It's vacation time in Tuscany, where Polly and Theo Noble have rented a villa for two weeks, inviting friends and family to join them. There are children to deal with, along with a mother-in-law and, in an allusion to Shakespeare's A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, various men and women who are attracted to each other. A beguiling story can be made more delectable by its reading, but Tara Ward has preselected the voices she delivers to suit her own impression of the author's work, thereby rendering all of the characters unattractive and unsympathetic. She performs foreign accents well but puts an unpleasant spin on each character, not allowing the listeners to make up their own minds. Furthermore, was there no one in the control room listening as she mispronounced so many words? J.P. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/ MAR 05]