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Shakespeare in Music?

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We are all familiar with the famous Shakespeare in music settings. Tchaikovsky's, Prokofiev's, Berlioz's and Gounod's very different re-tellings of Romeo and Juliet all come to mind. To these well known four I can add a ballet by Constant Lambert and incidental music by Edward German and another overture, by the German Joachim Raff. Tchaikovsky also wrote a symphonic poem based on Hamlet and Ambroise Thomas an opera. Berlioz essayed an overture on King Lear and Smetana one on Richard III. A Midsummer Night's Dream gives us Mendelssohn's Incidental Music and Britten's opera. Berlioz weighs in yet again with Beatrice and Benedict based on Much Ado. Verdi was another prolific Shakespeare 'miner' with Macbeth, Otello and Falstaff. The fat knight seems to have inspired several composers with a Falstaff by Salieri and Sir John in Love by Vaughan Williams and not forgetting Nicholai's .Merry Wives' to which we hear but the overture nowadays.

On this count Romeo and Juliet comes in as the favourite Shakespeare play for composers to adapt. However, I may be wrong, and the list of examples of settings I've listed is, I'm sure, far from complete. What other composers have been inspired to use Shakespeare as a leaping off point or to set to music?

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  1. William Walton in Henry V.


  2. Has anyone mentioned Reimann's opera 'Lear' from the 1970s? Also, lots of songs by Sullivan, Vaughan Williams, Britten, Finzi, Quilter, Stanford, Howells, Tippett, Madeleine Dring, Geoffrey Bush and Elizabeth Maconchy etc. etc.(some written for use within the relevant play, others song cycles/sets).

    What about Arthur Bliss - he wrote some incidental music to 'As You Like It' and a 'Homage to Shakespeare' for brass.

    Also, Samuel Barber's 'Anthony and Cleopatra'; 'Macbeth' by Bloch; Wagner's 'Measure for Measure' opera called 'Das Liebersverbot'; Cole Porter's 'Kiss me Kate'...

    I heard about an opera a while back which concerned Shakespeare and Marlowe as lovers! Just looked it up, it's by a Swedish composer called Tommy Andersson, and it's entitled 'William'.....

    Sorry if any duplication above..........and to Snide..I think it's 'The Merry Wives of Windsor' which has been set most often?

    I'm also foolish enough to be in the midst of writing my own opera based on my favourite play: 'Hamlet', so this was a subject close to my heart and I had to answer!


  3. Of course Bernstein's 'West Side Story' is based on 'Romeo and Juliet' and there is some rather nice 'Romeo and Juliet' incidental music by Kabalevsky. Don't forget Elgar's splendid symphonic study 'Falstaff' or Dvořák's 'Otello' overture.

    I might pop back later with some more as they come to me.

    Edits:

    Arthur Sullivan wrote an early opera 'The Tempest' and incidental music to 'The Merchant of Venice', 'The Merry Wives of Windsor' and 'Macbeth'

    Adolphe Adam, Antonio Salieri and Michael William Balfe all wrote a 'Falstaff' opera

    Boris Blacher wrote an opera 'Romeo and Juliet'

    Bellini wrote an opera 'I Capuletti e i Montecchi', based on 'Romeo and Juliet', while Delius wrote his 'A Village Romeo and Juliet'

    Don't forget Shostakovich's 'Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk', as well as two separate scores for film versions of 'Hamlet' in 1932 and 1964.

    William Walton wrote his marvellous score to Laurence Olivier's film 'Henry V'

    I almost forget Beethoven's 'Coriolanus' overture

    Sir Arthur Bliss wrote incidental music for 'The Tempest'

    Liszt wrote a 'Hamlet' symphonic poem

  4.      Well, might as well put in my 2 cents worth; though I doubt it will impress anyone.

         Knowing me - those that do, fairly well - can guess who the composer of my listing was: Richard Wagner.

         "Das Liebesverbot"(The Ban on Love), modeled after Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure".  Wagner wrote the libretto, as he did with all of his operas.  

         Only two productions of it were attempted during the composer's lifetime: both, were fiascoes.

    Wikipedia: "The first fully staged American production occurred July 19, 2008 at the "Glimmerglass" opera, in a production by Nicholas Muni."

         Has anyone ever heard of the "Glimmerglass" opera? I haven't.

                                                Alberich

    P.S.-"snide762": can't wait for you to reveal which play was the most often adapted to music.

          

  5. Snide - is the answer "A Midsummer Night's Dream?" Henry Purcell's masque "The Fairy Queen" (1692) was an adaptation of this play...

    Hafwen x

  6. A number of composers have also set various Shakespeare poems (some of which appear as songs in his plays) to music.  Just off the top of my head, Ralph Vaughan Williams set "O Mistress Mine" in a madrigal style.  John Rutter, in "Icicles" (a set of Christmas Songs) set "Winter" ("When icicles hang by the wall...") and "Blow, blow thou winter wind."  

  7. There's the Tempest as well which inspired works from Tchaikovsky again and also Sibelius who composed incidental music for it.

  8. I took a graduate seminar called "Shakespeare and Music", There were three units: Music in Shakespeare's time, Shakespeare's use of music, and later settings of Shakespeare.

    I did my paper on Thomas' Hamlet. Question for you: What Shakespeare play has been set as an opera most often? It is NOT Romeo and Juliet!

  9. Arnold Schering claimed to know of literary inspiration for the Beethoven piano sonatas.  Many of them are from Shakespeare.

    Schering's best-known claim is that regarding the "Tempest" Sonata (op. 31 no. 2).

    The others include op. 27 no. 1 ("The Merchant of Venice"), op. 31 no. 1 ("The Tamingof the Shrew"), op. 54 ("Much Ado About Nothing"), and op. 111 ("Henry VIII").

    If Shering had his way, op. 13, the "Pathetique" Sonata, would be renamed the "Hero and Leander" Sonata.  op. 27 no. 2, the "Moonlight" Sonata, would be renamed the "King Lear" Sonata.  op. 28, the "Pastorale" Sonata," would be renamed "The Winter's Tale" Sonata.  op. 31 no. 3, the "La Chasse" Sonata, would be renamed the "As You Like It" Sonata, and op. 57, the "Appassionata" Sonata, would be renamed the "Macbeth" Sonata.

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