Here — on 4 CDs — are the Stories of 15 Favorite Shakespeare plays as adapted from Lambs’ Tales from Shakespeare by Jane McCulloch. Have you ever sat down to watch a performance of a Shakespeare play and experienced a terrible sinking feeling? All those characters! Well, you are not alone. Even those of us who work with Shakespeare experience these feelings. The Bard’s plots are so fiendishly complicated! But take courage – help is at hand! Two of our greatest Shakespearean actors, Jane Lapotaire and Derek Jacobi, guide you through the Delos selection of Shakespeare Stories.
–Jane McCulloch.
DISC ONE — The Stories: Prologue (2:55), As You Like It (15:01), Cymbeline (15:53), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (15:41), and Pericles (18:19). The Music: JOHN DOWLAND: The most sacred Queen Elizabeth, her Galliard; JOHN DOWLAND: Fancy; JOHN DOWLAND: Can she excuse; LAURENCINI: Praeludium; JOHN DOWLAND: The Right Honourable Ferdinando Earl of Derby, His Galliard.
DISC TWO — The Stories: Much Ado About Nothing (12:07), Hamlet (16:11), The Taming of the Shrew (15:01), and The Winter’s Tale (14:18). The Music: JOHN DOWLAND: The most sacred Queen Elizabeth, her Galliard; ANTHONY HOLBORNE: Last Will and Testament; JOHN DOWLAND: Lady Hunsdon’s Puffe; JOHN DOWLAND: The Right Honourable The Lady Clifton’s Spirit.
DISC THREE — The Stories: Romeo and Juliet (23:04), Twelfth Night (20:54), and Othello (20:55). The Music: JOHN DOWLAND: Lachrimae; JOHN DOWLAND: The Right Honourable Lady Rich, Her Galliard; LAURENCINI: Fantasie.
DISC FOUR — The Stories: The Merchant of Venice (18:54), Macbeth (18:44), King Lear (20:20), and The Tempest (14:27). The Music: JOHN DOWLAND: Sir John Smith, His Almain; ANONYMOUS: Scot’s Tune; JOHN DOWLAND: Praeludium; JOHN DOWLAND: Tarlenton’s Riserrectione.
