When Love Speaks
When Love Speaks | |
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Compilation album by Various artists | |
Released | 23 April 2002 |
Label | EMI Classics |
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
When Love Speaks is a compilation album that features interpretations of William Shakespeare's sonnets – some spoken, some set to music – and excerpts from his plays by famous actors and musicians, released under EMI Classics in April 2002.[1][2][3] The original idea came from Joy Gelardi (now Joy Beresford Frye) who proposed the album as a fund raiser for Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. When that plan fell through, Joy and Michael Kamen, together with Alan Rickman, co-produced it in support of RADA. Alan chose the title, which alludes to a speech in Love's Labour's Lost – "And when love speaks, the voice of all the gods make heaven drowsy with the harmony."[4] – which is, however, not on the album.
Alan Rickman proposed the idea for a benefit album for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art – where most of the featured actors on this album had studied[1] – and together with Richard Attenborough and Michael Kamen backed it and recruited artists to participate. The launch took place at The Old Vic.[5]
Track listing
[edit]- "Be not afeard, the isle is full of noises" (from The Tempest – Act III, Scene II), performed by Joseph Fiennes
- "Live With Me and Be My Love" (from The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, Christopher Marlowe), set to music and sung by Annie Lennox
- "As an unperfect actor on the stage" ("Sonnet 23"), performed by John Gielgud
- "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" ("Sonnet 130"), performed by Alan Rickman
- "Why is my verse so barren of new pride" ("Sonnet 76"), performed by Diana Rigg
- "Who will believe my verse in time to come" ("Sonnet 17"), performed by Richard Attenborough
- "That you were once unkind befriends me now" ("Sonnet 120"), performed by Paul Rhys
- "How oft, when thou, my music" ("Sonnet 128"), performed by Juliet Stevenson
- "When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes" ("Sonnet 29"), set to music and sung by Rufus Wainwright
- "Being your slave, what should I do but tend" ("Sonnet 57"), performed by Janet McTeer
- "Tired with all these, for restful death I cry" ("Sonnet 66"), performed by Alan Bates
- "When I consider everything that grows" ("Sonnet 15"), performed by Marianne Jean-Baptiste
- "Let those who are in favour with their stars" ("Sonnet 25"), performed by David Warner
- "They that have power to hurt and will do none" ("Sonnet 94"), performed by Siân Phillips
- "Those lips that Love's own hand did make" ("Sonnet 145"), performed by John Hurt
- "Come again, sweet love doth now invite" (John Dowland) sung by John Potter
- "Th'expense of spirit in a waste of shame" ("Sonnet 129"), performed by Ralph Fiennes
- "Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me" ("Sonnet 132"), performed by Matthew Rhys
- "I never saw that you did painting need" ("Sonnet 83"), performed by Imelda Staunton
- "When to the sessions of sweet silent thought" ("Sonnet 30"), performed by Kenneth Branagh
- "Is it thy will thy image should keep open" ("Sonnet 61"), performed by Fiona Shaw
- "Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war" ("Sonnet 46"), performed by Henry Goodman
- "No more be grieved at that which thou hast done" ("Sonnet 35"), set to music and sung by Keb' Mo'
- "O never say that I was false of heart" ("Sonnet 109"), performed by Susannah York
- "Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest" ("Sonnet 3"), performed by Timothy Spall
- "Some glory in their birth, some in their skill" ("Sonnet 91"), performed by Peter Barkworth
- "How heavy do I journey on the way" ("Sonnet 50"), performed by Gemma Jones
- "Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea" ("Sonnet 65"), performed by Jonathan Pryce
- "Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore" ("Sonnet 60"), performed by Richard Wilson
- "The quality of mercy is not strained" (from The Merchant of Venice – Act IV, Scene I), set to music and sung by Des'ree
- "Sweet love, renew thy force; be it not said" ("Sonnet 56"), performed by Tom Courtenay
- "Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind" ("Sonnet 113"), performed by Zoe Waites
- "Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press" ("Sonnet 140"), performed by Edward Fox
- "Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye" ("Sonnet 9"), performed by Trevor Eve
- "So it is not with me as with that Muse" ("Sonnet 21"), performed by Imogen Stubbs
- "Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws" ("Sonnet 19"), performed by David Harewood
- "The Willow Song" (from Othello – Act IV, Scene III), sung by Barbara Bonney
- "When my love swears that she is made of truth" ("Sonnet 138"), performed by Richard Johnson
- "When I do count the clock that tells the time" ("Sonnet 12"), performed by Martin Jarvis
- "What potions have I drunk of siren tears" ("Sonnet 119"), performed by Roger Hammond
- "Not marble nor the gilded monuments" ("Sonnet 55"), performed by Richard Briers
- "Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye" ("Sonnet 62"), performed by John Sessions
- "Let me not to the marriage of true minds" ("Sonnet 116"), performed by Thelma Holt
- "Music to hear, why hearst thou music sadly" ("Sonnet 8"), set to music by Joseph Shabalala and sung by Ladysmith Black Mambazo
- "When forty winters shall besiege thy brow" ("Sonnet 2"), performed by Caroline Blakiston
- "No longer mourn for me when I am dead" ("Sonnet 71"), performed by Peter Bowles
- "In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes" ("Sonnet 141"), performed by Sylvia Syms
- "Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day" ("Sonnet 34"), performed by Robert Lindsay
- "Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck" ("Sonnet 14"), performed by Ioan Gruffudd
- "My love is as a fever, longing still" ("Sonnet 147"), performed by John Hurt
- "The little Love-God lying once asleep" ("Sonnet 154"), performed by Bohdan Poraj
- "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day" ("Sonnet 18"), sung by Bryan Ferry
- "Our revels are now ended" (from The Tempest – Act IV, Scene I), performed by Joseph Fiennes
Personnel
[edit]Musicians
[edit]- Barbara Bonney – soprano
- Caroline Dale – cello
- Des'ree – voice
- Bryan Ferry – voice
- Charles Green – clarinet
- Barry Guy – double bass
- Maya Homburger – baroque violin
- Michael Kamen – piano, arranger, composer, conductor, producer, liner notes, executive producer, string arrangements
- Keb' Mo' – voice
- Ladysmith Black Mambazo – voice
- Annie Lennox – voice
- Anna McGarrigle – accordion
- Kate McGarrigle – banjo
- Michel Pépin – bass, guitar, producer, engineer, mixing
- John Potter – voice
- John Surman – tenor saxophone
- Stephen Stubbs – lute
- Gillian Tingay – harp
- Matthew Wadsworth – lute
- Rufus Wainwright – piano, vocals, composer, producer[6]
- Joel Zifkin – violin
Production
[edit]- Tony Bridge – mastering
- Tim Atack – mixing
- James Brett – producer, engineer, mixing
- Joseph Shabalala – arranger, producer
- Geoff Foster – engineer
- Martin Jarvis – engineer
- Anthony (Tony) Fisher – engineer
- Brian Tench – engineer
- Ned Douglas – engineer
- Robert Lindsay – engineer
- Don Murnaghan – engineer, mixing
- Iain Roberton – engineer, mixing
- Mark Johnson – engineer, mixing
- Stephen McLaughlin – engineer, mixing
- Ash Howes – mixing
- Ricky Graham – mixing
- Peter Cobbin – pre-mastering
Producers
- Richard Attenborough – liner notes
- Nicholas Barter – liner notes
- Andrew Brown
- Des'ree
- Manfred Eicher
- Bryan Ferry
- Annie Lennox
- Robin Trower
- Alan Rickman
- Prince Sampson
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Heather Phares. When Love Speaks at AllMusic
- ^ "Rufus Wainwright Discography – When Love Speaks". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 1 February 2009.[dead link]
- ^ Koenig, Rhoda (11 February 2002). "First Night: Bard's chart-topping potential unleashed after 400 years; When Love Speaks; The Old Vic, London". The Independent. p. 5. Retrieved 9 July 2018 – via InfoTrac Newsstand.
- ^ Love's Labor's Lost 4.3/338–339, Folger Shakespeare Library
- ^ Jury, Louise (9 February 2002). "Rada stars coming out at night to benefit next generation of actors". The Independent. p. 5.
- ^ Booklet liner notes, p. 42; p. 3: Michael Kamen: "Rufus Wainwright joined us with a lovely sonnet set to his beautiful music."