Patsy Rodenburg - Poetry & Voice

Legendary voice coach to the stars of film and stage like Judi Dench and Ralph Fiennes, Patsy Rodenburg will be presenting an evening of poetry in London on Thursday January 19th, reading and discussing poems that have become inextricably linked with key points in her life.

Patsy Rodenburg is Head of Voice at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and Voice Coach at the National Theatre. An OBE recipient in 2003, her bestselling books include Speaking Shakespeare and The Right to Speak. 'She teaches the use of the voice by engaging the heart, mind and body, and poetry is central to all her teaching.'

I went to a Voice & Poetry Workshop run by Patsy Rodenburg back in the late 90s; there were about twelve of us, as I recall, upstairs at the Poetry Society. Mario Petrucci was there too, a new poet I'd only recently met on an Arvon writing course but who is now, of course, very well-known on the poetry scene. Patsy Rodenburg's expertise was awe-inspiring; I imagine she knows everything there is to know about the voice as an instrument. She had us rolling our shoulders, breathing through our noses, memorising Shakespearean sonnets and addressing invisible dots on the far wall, all twelve of us declaiming at once as we wandered about the room. It was noisy and chaotic but astonishingly effective. We went in as rather muted, diffident individuals and strutted out four or five hours later, speaking with deep confident voices that seemed to well right up out of our boots. I got some surprised looks on the train home that night, practising my amazing new voice on everyone I met!

This is one of the Realms of Gold series and will take place at the London Review Bookshop
14 Bury Place, London WC1A 2JL Nearest tube: Holborn
Tickets: £10 / £5 concs, members and LRB subscribers
Box office: 020 7420 9896 or email marketing@poetrysociety.org.uk

So where does the phrase 'Realms of Gold' come from?

On First Looking into Chapman's "Homer" by John Keats (1795-1821)

MUCH have I travell'd in the realms of gold,
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
Round many western islands have I been
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne,
Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold.
—Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes
He stared at the Pacific—and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise—
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
 

'Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold'; even though Keats' poem is about reading a great poet, discovering their work for the first time, this seems to me a clear-cut, very modern description of how stirring it can be to hear a poet's 'voice' and feel something deep within you respond. Performance poets, take note!

If anyone is lucky enough to catch this Realms of Gold event with Patsy Rodenburg, do please drop me an email with your comments so I can post them up on this site.