Voice in Shakespeare's plays

Dans l’œuvre dramatique de Shakespeare, la voix a le pouvoir de séduire et de faire naître le désir, d’atteindre l’âme comme les émotions et d’y insuffler un mouvement, d’ordonner et d’harmoniser les rapports entre les hommes, ou encore d’agresser, de blesser, de maudire, voire de tuer. La belle acoustique du Théâtre, du Globe ou des Blackfriars, permettait à la voix de résonner en se mêlant à des effets musicaux et à des bruits pour former des paysages sonores qu’il s’agit d’entendre et de déchiffrer.In Shakespeare’s plays, the voice is an agent of seduction and desire as well as a source of inspiration which animates the soul, moves the heart and arouses emotions. It has the power to civilize men and form harmonious bonds between them, but it may also be a weapon used to curse and kill. At theatres such as the Globe and the Blackfriars which were designed to produce the best acoustic conditions, the actor’s voice resounded and blended with a multiplicity of musical effects and noises to compose soundscapes that the audience was meant to hear and decipher

La voix de Sirène dans Othello

From Homer to Ovid, not forgetting Plato, the myth of the Siren is about fabulous monsters whose harmonious voices are gifted with the power to attract and deceive men, seducing them to kill them all the better. This myth finds an echo in Shakespeare’s plays, as the dramatist endows many of his characters with the ability to enchant others through their voices, be it Luciana, Nestor, or even Othello. Indeed, the Moor appears to have all the attributes of the Siren, delighting his listeners’ ears with his rhetorical, poetic and musical voice, the sensuality and ambiguity of which invite the spectator to enter a new acoustic and semantic space. Yet, if Othello’s voice charms its audience, Iago proves to be the real Siren of the play, using his poisonous voice to abuse the Moor’s ear, and thus leading the latter and Desdemona to death.Folest Estelle. La voix de Sirène dans Othello. In: Anglophonia/Caliban, n°13, 2003. Mythe et Littérature. Shakespeare et ses contemporains. pp. 137-154

Shakespeare et la voix

In Shakespeare's plays, the voice is an agent of seduction and desire as well as a source of inspiration which animates the soul, moves the heart and arouses emotions. It has the power to civilize men and form harmonious bonds between them, but it may also be a weapon used to curse and kill. At theatres such as the Globe and the Blackfriars which were designed to produce the best acoustic conditions, the actor's voice resounded and blended with a multiplicity of musical effects and noises to compose soundscapes that the audience was meant to hear and decipher.Dans l'oeuvre dramatique de Shakespeare, la voix a le pouvoir de séduire et de faire naître le désir, d'atteindre l'âme comme les émotions et d'y insuffler un mouvement, d'ordonner et d'harmoniser les rapports entre les hommes, ou encore d'agresser, de blesser, de maudire, voire de tuer. La belle acoustique du Théâtre, du Globe ou des Blackfriars, permettait à la voix de résonner en se mêlant à des effets musicaux et à des bruits pour former des paysages sonores qu'il s'agit d'entendre et de déchiffrer