Last performed in 2007
Photo Gallery |
Behind the Scenes Video* (low resolution) | Program
| Smart Guide
Synopsis
Following a successful military campaign, Don Pedro of Arragon arrives in Messina to visit Leonato, the governor. With him are his base-born brother, Don John, and two young lords who have distinguished themselves in battle, Benedick and Claudio. Benedick resumes a long-standing rivalry in witty skirmishes and scornful repartee with Beatrice, Leonato’s niece. In contrast to their sparring, Claudio fastens his eyes and instant affection upon Hero, Leonato’s daughter. Don Pedro offers to aid the lovesick Claudio: in disguise at a masquerade ball, he will not only woo Hero for Claudio but also win her father’s approval for the match.
That evening at the ball Don John plants in Claudio’s mind the suspicion that Don Pedro is wooing for himself. The suggested betrayal is exposed as a lie when Don Pedro triumphantly brings the compliant Hero and Leonato to Claudio. To occupy the days of preparation for the wedding, Don Pedro proposes an amusing joint venture: tricking Benedick and Beatrice into falling in love with each other. Don John parallels his noble brother’s plotting; but his is a sinister effort to blacken Hero’s reputation and thus prevent her marrying Claudio.
First Benedick and then Beatrice are lured into “overhearing” that beneath the biting words and disdainful spirit of each lies a heart of love. Don John’s scheme, meanwhile, has convinced Claudio and Don Pedro that Hero is impure. Borachio, one of Don John’s henchmen, brags to another of his part in the successful plot against Hero. The two men are overheard by a team of Messina’s bumbling night watchmen, arrested and bound for trial.
Hero’s wedding to Claudio begins as planned, but it soon disintegrates. Because of Don John’s machinations, the groom and Don Pedro hurl accusations at the bride before the whole gathering of wedding guests. Devastated by the charges, the innocent Hero faints, and the two gentlemen leave feeling they have rightly published her shame. Friar Francis counteracts the resulting mayhem. He perceives that Hero is a victim of someone’s conniving. He suggests that Leonato, her heartbroken father, give out a report that Hero died because of the wedding debacle. They will then await developments.
Leonato exchanges sharp words with Claudio and Don Pedro, even suggesting a duel. Dogberry, the officious constable of Messina and his deputy constable, Verges, appear. They report Borachio’s confessed villainy. Stricken by the truth, Claudio and Don Pedro beg Leonato’s forgiveness. He grants it, on condition that Claudio atone by publicly restoring Hero’s reputation. He can do so by marrying—sight unseen—Leonato’s “niece.”
Claudio’s second wedding moves forward without disruption, and he delights to find his lost Hero again. The stratagem to bring Beatrice and Benedick into a similar love relationship seems for a moment to be in jeopardy. But when the plotters produce the pair’s handwritten proclamations of love, armistice comes to the war of wits. From beginning to end of the story and for all those involved there has, indeed, been much ado about nothing.
Janie McCauley
* Requires QuickTime