WPO: Sounds of Shakespeare

WPO joins forces with professional actors from The Rainbow Shakespeare Company, who come fresh from their annual residency at Worthing’s beautiful Highdown Gardens.

Carefully selected scenes from some of the Bard’s greatest works, directed by Nick Young, are interwoven with some of the most famous music inspired by the plays, in what promises to be a thrilling and captivating afternoon.

Excerpts from Walton’s great film scores to Henry V, Richard III and Hamlet will rub shoulders with passages from Berlioz’s Shakespeare-inspired ‘Dramatic Symphony’ Roméo et Juliette; timeless classic ballet music by Prokofiev based on the same play; opera preludes and overtures from Verdi, Nicolai and Shostakovich; incidental theatre music by Sibelius; and, perhaps the most famous of them all, extracts from Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

“All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts...”

(From ‘As You Like It’, Act II Sc VII)

The programme includes excerpts from:

Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Berlioz: Roméo et Juliette

Walton: Henry V, Hamlet and Richard III

Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet

Sibelius: The Tempest

Nicolai: Merry Wives of Windsor

Verdi: Macbeth

Plus staged scenes with actors from The Rainbow Shakespeare Company.

Nick Young, Stage Director

Dominic Grier, Conductor