Mark the Music.(Glimmerglass Opera)

William Shakespeare felt a certain ambivalence toward music as an art, if his words are any guide to his thoughts. The plays overflow with merry songs, sweet airs, and other healthy-minded sounds, but they also contain many instances of music causing mischief, telling lies, or casting shadows. In "Measure for Measure," the Duke says of a song, " 'Tis good," but adds, "Music oft hath such a charm / To make bad good, and good provoke to harm." The opening line of "Twelfth Night"--"If music be the food of love, play on"--has been quoted and needlepointed ad nauseam, but the lines that follow are usually omitted, on account of their sardonic cast: "Give me excess of it; that ...