Ira Aldridge: Performing Shakespeare in Europe, 1852-1855 (Rochester Studies in African History and the Diaspora) - Hardcover

Lindfors, Bernth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1580464726 ISBN 13: 9781580464727

Publisher: University of Rochester Press, 2013

Synopsis

Ira Aldridge: The Early Years, 1807-1833 chronicles the rise of one of the modern world's first black classical actors, as he ascended from an impoverished childhood in New York City to a career as a celebrated thespian on the British stage. After a successful debut in London in 1825, Aldridge began touring the British provinces, billing himself grandiloquently as the "African Roscius," and attracting crowds with his powerful presence and style. He received accolades not only as a tragedian in classic roles such as Othello and Oroonoko but also as a comic actor in popular farces and musicals. In 1833, when a bill to abolish slavery was being debated in Parliament, he was called back to London to perform at one of the city's most prestigious theaters, where his appearance, now under his own name but also billed as "a native of Senegal," created a great deal of controversy. In dealing with Aldridge's emergence as a professional actor in the United Kingdom, Lindfors here records in detail the ups and downs of his itinerant existence in a world where no theatergoer had ever seen anyone like him on stage before. Aldridge was genuinely a unique phenomenon in Britain at a pivotal point in history. Bernth Lindfors is professor emeritus of English and African literatures, University of Texas at Austin, and editor of Ira Aldridge: The African Roscius (University of Rochester Press, 2007).

About this title

Product Description:

Ira Aldridge: Performing Shakespeare in Europe, 1852-1855, the third volume of Bernth Lindfors's award-winning biography, traces the American-born black classical actor's itinerary on his first Continental tour. Starting in Brussels and following Aldridge up the Rhine to Basel, on to Berlin and Vienna, and cities in Prussia and Hungary, Lindfors recounts the major performances and analyzes audience responses to them. Because European audiences wanted to see this "African" actor in Shakespearean roles rather than in the melodramas and farces that were popular in Britain, Aldridge concentrated almost exclusively on performing as Othello, Shylock, Macbeth, and Richard III. He performed the roles in English even when acting with local companies who spoke in German, Hungarian, or another European language. Aldridge's impressive manner of interpreting these characters won him many honors, awards, and medals, some bestowed by heads of state or by national academies. Drawing on myriad reviews, playbills, and letters, many of which penned by Aldridge himself, Lindfors examines in detail Aldridge's interpretations of these timeless characters and shows why these were Aldridge's glory years.

Review:

Winner of the Theatre Library Association's 2015 George Freedley Award Special Jury Prize

As a meticulously researched study with superb supplementary materials, Lindfor's book is a very valuable historical resource. THEATRE SURVEY

The third volume of Bernth Lindfor's estimable multi-volume biography of Aldridge provides an in-depth, thoroughly researched account of Alridge's 1852-1855 Continental tour. NEW THEATRE QUARTERLY

Recommended. CHOICE

Bernth Lindfors's Aldridge series is a breathtaking and ambitious project of both superlative scholarship and the utmost historical importance, written in a precise, fluent, and charming style that is straightforward and authoritative. In Ira Aldridge: Performing Shakespeare in Europe, 1852-1855, Lindfors provides much new information on topics such as Aldridge's character, acting style, use of gesture and voice, performance strategies, and ideological disposition that will become anchoring reference points for future scholarship. --Colin Chambers, author of Black and Asian Theatre in Britain: A History

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Rochester Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1580464726
• ISBN 13: 9781580464727
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 362