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Romeo and Juliet

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Romeo and Juliet

By: William Shakespeare
Narrated by: Claire Bloom, Albert Finney
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About this listen

A pair of star-cross'd lovers -Prologue

Romeo and Juliet was Shakespeare's first great tragedy, a richly lyrical love story that has long been one of the author's most popular plays for performer and audience alike. Romeo and Juliet is a simple but dramatic cautionary tale about the blindness that both love and hate can engender. As performed by Claire Bloom and Albert Finney, this lively production captures the youthful exuberance and poetic passion that characterize all of Shakespeare's early work and makes Romeo and Juliet in particular the greatest romantic creation in English Literature.

This unabridged, full-cast recording is a wonderful way to experience and listen to Shakespeare out-loud.

 Drama & Plays European Shakespeare World Literature Shakespeare Dramatised
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By modern standards this sounds outdated and very 'hammy'. It is slow, reverential and the actors 'sing' the lines rather too lovingly- Not even the nurse is prepared to loose an ounce of her dignity. In short it is hot on the poetry but rather slow on the drama.

Claire Bloom does have her moments as Juliet- indeed she does the more hysterical passages very well. But the Romeo seems to believe that he is playing Hamlet- and he sounds much too old to boot.

In short this is a good 'reference', but better unabridged versions are available- Naxos, for instance.

Outdated and rather precious

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