We're currently in Vienna, where my time is split between two activities: sheltering from the wind in the city's magnificent museums, and pursuing my Shakespeare Balancing Challenge. The two are indeed combined: a performance at the Albertina or the Belvedere is followed, as I wander round the exhibition, by the learning of the next poem.
I manage this combination fairly well. Half a minute memorising a quatrain, then I mentally rehearse it as I contemplate Egon Schiele or Breughel. Admittedly, for the time it takes to recite the lines, I'm not fully concentrating on the picture, but it only takes a few seconds, and by the time we leave the museum, the sonnet is learnt. By which I mean I can, at that moment, recite all 14 lines of it - but that in itself is no guarantee that a couple of hours later I can do the same. In the 24 hours between that first learning and the performance, there's ample time to forget it, so many more rehearsals are needed to have any degree of confidence. And even then, I've often recited it without hesitation one minute, only for my mind to go blank when I switch on the camera the next.
But no matter. The wind in Vienna is bitterly cold but the museums are warm, and each new sonnet is a painting in words. Breughel and the Bard are good companions.
Have you considered performing the sonnet in or just in front of one of Vienna’s museums?
Both. But when inside the museum it’s been in a quiet corner that doesn’t disrupt people’s viewing. So far there have been very few spectators.
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