St John the drip

Celia Walden in The Telegraph illustrates her rather cliche-ish comment about women's wishes with a Jane Eyre mention:

This isn't because "larger women" don't exist, but because women are aspirational creatures, favouring dreams over reality. If that weren't the case, (...) Jane Eyre would have "learned to love" St John the drip, and Lady Chatterley would have bought The Joys of Tantric Sex and been done with it.

It seems that Jerry Williams & Patricia York's musical setting of Jane Eyre (which was premiered in 2000 at the Hale Centre Theatre, West Valley, Utah) which is now to be performed at the FCLO Music Theatre in Fullerton (California) (October 15-31) has a powerful godfather... no other than Larry King according to the Orange County Register:

But as we say, it can be hard. Register theater critic Paul Hodgins was just sitting at his desk the other day, shirtsleeves rolled up, cigar in mouth, minding his own business and probably cranking out yet another brilliant feuilleton, when the blower (that’s what journalists call the phone) rang. He wasn’t expecting a call. Who could that be?, he wondered, midway between a clever lead and cogent nut graph.
It was Larry King. That Larry King. Kind of makes us shiver all over just thinking about it. Hodgins himself dropped the cigar in his lap.
Seems that the talkmeister was on a mission and nothing was going to stop him. He has a friend, composer Jerry Williams, who’s got a new show in town, “Jane Eyre” at FCLO Music Theatre in Fullerton, and he wanted to put in a good word.
“I know Jerry Williams through my in laws,” King said in his inimitable growl and suspenders.
“He asked me if I could contact you to tell you about how really wonderful this show is. I’ve heard the music but I haven’t seen the play. The score, I’ve got to tell you, it’s terrific. This guy’s been in the business for a long time and he knows what he’s doing.”
So, we guess Hodgins is going to go. It’s a world premiere and Larry King says he should. (Timothy Mangan)

Not a world premiere, though.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reviews the Pittsburgh Opera's resident artists opening concert (September 25) when a fragment of Bernard Herrmann's Wuthering Heights was performed:

Most impressive among the newcomers was Adam Fry, a booming bass who started with a rarity from Bernard Herrmann’s “Wuthering Heights": a sermon on good living from a servant who quotes biblical platitudes. (Andrew Duckenbrod)

The Arts Desk uses a very graphic Jane Eyre simile to review Oneguin by the Royal Ballet (Royal Opera House):

Her initial bookish encounter with Onegin in Act One, alternating shy duetting with his bold, self-advertising solo, clarifies in a few minutes a change in each: she is suddenly in love with him, while he, having felt the urge to display himself to her, shuts up like a clam on realising that this girl is dull little Jane Eyre, not gorgeous Blanche Ingram. (Ismene Brown)

The Swampscott Reporter talks about the Salem Athenaeum:

 By 181l, the first catalogue listed 2,700 works in the collection, and by the end of the 19th century, the collection had reached 21,500 titles. These included early editions of notable writers ranging from the Bronte sisters and Edgar Allan Poe to Ralph Waldo Emerson and Mark Twain. (Sue Schopf)

Not the first time that British politician Shirley Williams (baroness, academic and daughter of Vera Brittain and George Catlin) is heedless to the Brontë origins of her name. Her unBrontëiteness is a bit tiring. In The Independent:

Which fictional character most resembles you?

I don't have an answer to that, but my parents did. They named me after Charlotte Brontë's 'Shirley' – although I find her rather self-righteous and tedious! (Boyd Tonkin)

TCM's broadcast yesterday of Wuthering Heights 1939 was announced in several newspapers. Catherine and Heathcliff are 'spurned lovers' for the Hatford Courant; the Omaha World-Herald is more explicit:

Class up your TV a little with this take on the classic Emily Brontë novel. Laurence Olivier stars as Heathcliff, the forbidden love of Cathy (Merle Oberon). Class prejudices and circumstance stand in the way of their true happiness — along with Cathy's other love interest, Edgar. (Laura King)

Or the Dover-New Philadelphia Times Reporter:

First on the bill is ”Wuthering Heights,” the  1939 film adaptation of Emily Brontë’s gothic novel about young Cathy Earnshaw (Merle Oberon), who loves a stableboy, Heathcliff (Laurence Olivier) but marries squire Edgar (David Niven). It’s all very romantic and tragic and as good today as it was in 1939. (Rex Huffman)

STV dubious screening policies appear again in The Times:

STV is contesting a claim of £38 million in unpaid network programme contributions after it refused to screen shows such as The Bill and Wuthering Heights [2009].

Very good reviews of Libby Sternberg's Sloane Hall (with giveaway included) and Clare B. Dunkle's (who is also interviewed on Rebecca's Book Blog) The House of Dead Maids appear on Book Binge, SparkLife and Cousins Read respectively; Pennyworth Books and Searching for Secret Grail post about Wuthering Heights; Shanna Swendson has read Villette; Owls-go-hoot publishes some nice pictures of the Penguin Waterstones's exclusive edition of Wuthering Heights; books i done read compares Jane Eyre and Michael Faber's The Crimson Petal; Anyway reviews Jane Eyre in Spanish. Finally, Marina Lenz posts some pictures of her (specially commissioned) Cathy doll.

Categories: Books, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, Opera, References, Sequels, Theatre, Wuthering Heights