SOURCE: Schmidgall, Gary. “Worlds of Sound.” In Shakespeare and Opera, pp. 17-25. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.

In the following essay, Schmidgall compares Shakespearean play texts to musical scores. Schmidgall argues that, like operas, Shakespeare's plays are designed to appeal to audiences more attuned to listening than viewing.

Behavioral psychologists, especially those concerned with learning processes, have in recent years developed categories to describe an individual's dominant mode of sensual response. Thus, one might venture that a ballet audience will contain a high proportion of “kinaesthetic mode” dominants, an art gallery will be populated by “visual mode” dominants, and a symphony concert will largely attract “aural mode” dominants. These modes not only affect powers of appreciation but are thought to play an important part in the emergence of creative and executive talent. Applying and refining this theory in his study, Performing Power, Wesley Balk has amusingly suggested that...