The programme was indeed interesting and I read it from cover to cover when I got home ... but I certainly did not want to bury my head in it during the performance ... I didn't even have my reading glasses with me!
Having read the ballads, I realise that there is a lot more to them than 'another euphemism for sex' which is about all we were offered by way of explanation. With clearer annunciation of the words (we need to hear consonants as well as vowels) and greater expression, I think I would have been able to deduce that for myself anyway.
My daughter, who has studied the language of the songs, followed the words in the programme during the second half and noted that in the Faustus song, Richard chose to pronounce the word 'heare' as
hear rather than
hair, when it was clear from the context it meant hair. Authentic Old English pronunciation maybe or just a slip?
Clive, I think you are probably right about the sound system not reaching the first few rows and I agree with Bex that a smaller venue might be a better setting.
