After Albee play, Schubert's song "Who is Sylvia?" seems lovelier than ever
Last Sunday, I was on double duty as music and theater critic, taking in a Beethoven recital in the afternoon and a play at night, both at Howard Community College, as it happened.
The theatrical portion of the day was devoted to the superb Rep State production of Edward Albee's "The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?" (My review is online now; it will be in print Friday.) Needless to say, Albee entered some very touchy territory with this 2002 play, asking audiences to consider a most unsettling connotation of the phrase "animal lover."
Since the performance, I couldn't stop thinking about the Schubert song based on the same bit of Shakespeare that Albee alludes to in the title of his work: "Who is Sylvia?" I was a little worried that I couldn't listen again to the sweetly flowing strains of that song without any goat-ly images popping up in my head, so I figured I should put myself to the test. I think I'm OK now, thanks to the loveliness of such performances as these:
