The Taming of the Shrew steps forward and speaks directly to the audience as herself; "Well, I must own, it wounds me to the Heart/To play, unwomanly, so mean a Part./What – to submit, so tamely – so contented,/Thank Heav'n! I'm not the Thing I represented." Cole Porter's musical "Kiss Me, Kate" is an adaptation of "Taming of the Shrew". The music and lyrics are by Porter and the book is by Samuel and Bella Spewack. It is at least partially based on the 1935/1936 Theatre Guild production of "Taming of the Shrew", which starred husband and wife Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, whose backstage
The Taming of the Shrew (Giannini) composing "The Taming of the Shrew" in 1938 while finishing work on his earlier opera, "The Scarlet Letter". He worked sporadically on the opera over the next 12 years; often interrupted by a variety of other music projects and distractions related to World War II that took his attention away from the project. He completed "The Taming of the Shrew" in 1950. In 1954 the NBC Opera Theater filmed a shortened 90 minute version of the opera for television starring John Raitt as Petruchio and Susan Yager as Katharina under the baton of Peter Herman Adler. It was broadcast nationwide