The Essential Shakespeare Live
Listen to sound clips using Windows Media Player:
Romeo and Juliet
The Comedy of Errors
The British Library and the Royal Shakespeare Company join forces to publish this remarkable treasury of live Shakespeare recordings. Selected from an extensive collection of recordings made by the British Library Sound Archive, this set offers scenes and speeches from some of the most celebrated Shakespeare productions in the history of the Royal Shakespeare Company. All the recordings are being published for the first time.
The twenty extracts have been personally selected by RSC Associate Director Gregory Doran. They cover a period of over four decades of exceptional Shakespeare performances, from Laurence Olivier as Coriolanus in 1959 to Judi Dench in All?s Well that Ends Well in 2002. Here are some of the RSC?s most celebrated productions ? the now legendary Wars of the Roses from 1963, Peter Brook?s King Lear with Paul Scofield and John Barton?s Richard II with Richard Pasco and Ian Richardson.
Track listing
DISC ONE
1. Coriolanus (featuring Laurence Olivier)
2. Wars of the Roses (featuring Peggy Ashcroft)
3. King Lear [1964] (featuring Paul Scofield)
4. Hamlet (featuring David Warner)
5. Twelfth Night (featuring Donald Sinden)
6. Julius Caesar (featuring Patrick Stewart)
7. Antony and Cleopatra (featuring Janet Suzman)
8. Richard II (featuring Richard Pasco & Ian Richardson)
9. Romeo and Juliet (featuring Ian McKellen & Francesca Annis)
DISC TWO
1. Henry V (featuring Emrys James)
2. Henry V (featuring Alan Howard)
3. Comedy of Errors (featuring Roger Rees)
4. The Tempest (featuring Derek Jacobi & Mark Rylance)
5. Richard III (featuring Antony Sher)
6. As You Like It (featuring Alan Rickman)
7. The Merry Wives of Windsor (featuring Janet Dale)
8. Titus Andronicus (featuring Brian Cox)
9. Henry IV Part 1 (featuring Robert Stephens)
10. Henry VI Part 3 (featuring David Oyelowo)
11. All?s Well that Ends Well (featuring Judi Dench)
Reviews
From Peggy Ashcroft?s chilling Queen Margaret, to the gorgeous cadences of Laurence Olivier?s Coriolanus, [these are] some
of the most remarkable performances from the Royal Shakespeare Company?s illustrious history.
The Guardian
The track listings read like a roll-call of acting luminaries.
The Daily Telegraph
Bard addicts can enjoy 136 minutes of pure indulgence?There are riches galore in this selection that many will wish to go
back to time after time.
The British Theatre Guide
An excellent compilation...as a survey of the finest Shakespeare performances of the past half century, these discs offer
many pleasures and much illumination.
Stanley Wells, Chairman of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
