- Frederic Reynolds
Frederic Reynolds (
November 1 ,1764 –April 16 ,1841 ) was a British playwright and theatrical producer in the later eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.He was educated at
Westminster School and entered theMiddle Temple to study law; but he left the law for drama and show business. He was highly prolific as a playwright, authoring over 100 comedies and tragedies during his long career. His evocatively-titled comedy "The Dramatist, or Stop Him Who Can!" was acted at Covent Garden in May 1789; his adaptation ofAugust von Kotzebue 's play "The Virgin of the Sun," with music by SirHenry Bishop , was on stage in early 1812.He is now best remembered by theatre historians for his Shakespearean adaptations staged at Covent Garden. [
F. E. Halliday , "A Shakespeare Companion 1564-1964," Baltimore, Penguin, 1964; p. 410.] In the period from 1816 to 1828 he staged "operatic" or "operatized" productions based on the plays ofWilliam Shakespeare , with texts adapted by himself, and usually with music composed by Bishop. (The term "opera" is used here in a loose sense, just as it is for many of Bishop's works.) "Reynolds...laced his adaptations with a cornucopia of crowd-pleasing ploys: low comedy, disguise, spectacular entrances, musical numbers, pageants and flying...," plus "processions, tableaux, and highly spectacular act endings...." [Trevor R. Griffiths, ed., "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1996; p. 18]As was common with Shakespearean adaptations of the era, Reynolds mixed and matched bits and pieces of different literary works and different musical compositions. His version of "
The Comedy of Errors " incorporated the songs "Come, thou monarch of the vine" from "Antony and Cleopatra ," II,vii,113-18 and "When icicles hang by the wall" from "Love's Labor's Lost ," V,ii,912-29; Bishop's music was supplemented with Mozart and Arne. Reynolds placed themasque from "The Tempest" into "Twelfth Night."The Shakespearean "Operas"
*"
A Midsummer Night's Dream ," 1816
*"The Comedy of Errors ," 1819
*"Twelfth Night ," 1820
*"The Two Gentlemen of Verona ," 1821
*"The Tempest ," 1821
*"As You Like It ," 1824
*"The Merry Wives of Windsor ," 1824
*"The Taming of the Shrew ," 1828References
External links
* [http://www.letrs.indiana.edu/cgi-bin/eprosed/eprosed-idx?type=boolean;layer=2;rgn1=period;q1=LEC&size=100&slice=4 22 Reynolds Plays Online]
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