Times of India reports that Mona May, Clueless costume designer, is doing Sonam Kapoor’s wardrobe for Ayesha.
People take my quiz…for reals! (Part Deux)
Catherine of “La Culture se Partage” has given the Jane Austen Heroines Quiz a lovely review! She’s an Elinor Dashwood. Merci beaucoup, Catherine!
Historic Fashion Blogger?
David Joseph Designs is looking for an historic fashion blogger! If you’re interested, get in touch with David Joseph via his website.
A part-time blogger is currently needed to write about historic fashion for David Joseph Designs, a growing atelier featuring unique fashion design and couture clothing with vintage appeal. This will be a great opportunity for fashionistas and history buffs seeking to stretch their imagination and find captivating topics to discuss on the site. The writer must speak and write fluent English and possess experience in the fashion industry and/or a willingness to learn. The topics must reflect the designer’s passion for historic fashion, its cultural relevance to the period and its lingering affects on modern style. The writer must be willing to conduct online research, when necessary, and provide appealing visual graphics to accompany each and every post. Interested parties should contact the designer with a brief explanation of their field of interest, prior experience and the compensation you expect. The writer should expect to start within the same day of hire.
“Monetizing Emma”
Last night, Google yielded information about another play loosely based on Emma. This one deals with the alarmingly dystopic concept of investing not in conventional securities, but in…teenagers?
Anyway, the eponymous heroine is apparently a huge Austen fan:
“Emma Dorfman’s one of the chosen elite. A shy 15-year-old who most days shuttles between bullies at school, a pushy mom and a fantasy life inspired by Jane Austen, she’s not exactly sure she wants to be “monetized.†But Thackeray Walsh has special plans for her and Emma may be forced to trade her split reality for something doubly scary…and far more adult.”
Performances begin June 17.
Emma in Iowa…
A bit late on the uptake, but I recently read about a stage adaptation of Emma performed last week in Cedar Rapids…
On Saturday and May 10, the Ushers Ferry Historical Society of Cedar Rapids’ Parlour Theater Company will perform a theatrical version of the 1815 novel Emma. The show will begin at 7 p.m. both days at the Old Capitol Senate Chamber. Admission is free.
“[Emma] was a great choice because it is a fun story,†said society education coordinator Darrin Crow. “It is a fairly familiar piece of Jane Austen but not quite so well known as, say, Pride and Prejudice.â€
I thought I’d already posted this…
…but I’d actually posted the CASTING press release instead. So, for the sake of completeness, the official BBC Emma 4 press release!
Juliet Stevenson Reads Austen…
The gals at Jane Austen Today provide an excellent feature on Emma 2‘s Juliet Stevenson, my favorite Mrs. Elton and the voice of several Austen audiobooks presented by Naxos. Naturally, one of them is Emma!
Emma 2 Soundtrack Notes
I’ve been paying a lot of attention to the Emma Adaptations Pages recently, which means I’ve rediscovered quite a bit of content. After over twelve years, there’s a ton of stuff about which I’ve entirely forgotten. Worse, much of it is sorely in need of revision. My perspective has changed a TON since 1997; seriously, a lot of the crap I wrote back then screams “21 and dumb” – you know, kinda like Emma herself. Or maybe just clueless, which is also apropos.
Anyway, here’s my little review of the Emma 2 soundtrack, circa 1997 with additions circa 2007. You can read the full article, which includes soundclips, here.
The Emma2 score (runs Runs 42’53”) – composed, orchestrated, and produced by Rachel Portman – is a breathtaking example of musical storytelling.
The main theme is a romantic, bittersweet, and haunting motive, airy and distant, which takes us back to a time and place when life was quiet and cheerful, if not completely happy. It at once encompasses the universality of Austen’s work and themes in its broad, sweeping strings, while at the same time capturing the intimate essence of snug, country community in its gentle woodwinds, harp, and quartet components. “Three or four families in a country village is the very thing to work on,” Austen once wrote.
Other themes, most notably the forbodingly driving horns and strings of the “Elton’s Rejection” and “Emma Insults Miss Bates” themes, bring home the very pressing and real horror of Emma’s blind mistakes in contrast to the gentle propriety of the main theme. Paired with the melancholy variation of the Main motive which follows it in “Miss Bates” and “Mr. Knightley Returns,” this “Blunder” Theme comes to signify both her anxious revelations and their wretched aftermath.
“The Dance” also perfectly parallels the emotions played out on-screen. As Mr. Knightley rescues the partnerless Harriet, the small sound of the dancehall ensemble is magnified into a glorious, fully-symphonic triumph.
You can buy this soundtrack through Amazon.com. If you order through this link, we will get a portion of the proceeds. You can get the piano sheet music for the End Titles and Frank Churchill Arrives in a collection of Austen film music (Emma2,S&S, P&P2, and Persuasion). It’s available from Faber Music for about five bucks a set. ISBN 0 571 51793 5.
A fun note – The End Titles track is included in the queue area music loop for the Soarin’ attraction at Walt Disney World’s Epcot park. The piece is not, however, included in the Condor Flats or Soarin’ Over California queue area loops at Disney’s California Adventure at the Disneyland Resort.