Music during Shylocks speech-- what's the affect?

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGXUGhIYW-4&feature=related

2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4klB1zTuHM&feature=fvw


As you can see, I’ve posted two videos from The Merchant of Venice. The Merchant of Venice was by far my favorite play we read this semester. I’m really drawn to Shakespeare’s comedies—even the more serious ones like The Merchant of Venice. Both of these clips show the same speech given by Shylock in act three, scene 1, lines around forty-five through sixty. The production we see a Michael Radford’s adaptation. The first video is right from this adaptation of The Merchant of Venice. In the second video I’m really only concerned with the first two minutes. We see the same production in the second video, but, who ever created this clip added music by Vangelis to the scene. The music added is a little dark and dreary and to me seems to have a significant affect on the speech Shylock is giving about the lack of differences between the Jewish and Christian people. I feel like the music added to this speech really makes the audience feel more sympathetic for Shylock.


The question I would like to ask to our class or anyone who has watched these two clips is how does the music added affect how they feel about Shylock? Does it make them feel more sympathy for him, or does it not really have an affect at all?