Shakespeare's Original Pronunciation: Speeches and Scenes Performed as Shakespeare Would Have Heard Them

Description

How did Shakespeare sound to the audiences of his day? For the first time this disc offers listeners the chance to hear England's greatest playwright performed by a company of actors using the pronunciation of his time. Under the guidance of Ben Crystal, actor, author of Shakespeare on Toast and an expert in original Shakespearian pronunciation, the company performs some of Shakespeare's best-known poems, solo speeches and scenes from the plays. Hear new meanings uncovered, new jokes revealed, poetic effects enhanced. The CD is accompanied by an introductory essay by Professor David Crystal. An essential purchase for every student and lover of Shakespeare.

Ben Crystal is a British actor and writer. He studied English Language and Linguistics at Lancaster University before training at Drama Studio London. He has worked in TV, film, and theater, at the reconstructed Shakespeare's Globe, London, and is a narrator for RNIB Talking Books, Channel 4, and the BBC. He co-wrote Shakespeare's Words and The Shakespeare Miscellany and is the author of Shakespeare on Toast: Getting a Taste for the Bard, which was shortlisted for the Educational Writer of the Year Award, 2010. His new series of introductions to Shakespeare's plays--Springboard Shakespeare--was published by Arden Shakespeare in June 2013. In 2011, he played Hamlet in the first Original Pronunciation production of the play for 400 years with the Nevada Repertory Company, and in 2012 he was the curator of the first CD of extracts of Shakespeare recorded by professional actors in Original Pronunciation for the British Library. In July 2014, he brought his ensemble to the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare's Globe, and produced the first reading of Macbeth in OP in Shakespeare's theater for 400 years. In January 2015 he will take his ensemble to Stockholm to present their production of Pericles in OP, which will be live-scored by the Swedish Radio Symphony as part of conductor Daniel Harding's Interplay Festival. He and his ensemble perform and give workshops on Shakespeare around the world.

An enthusiastic bunch of actors demonstrate how the Bard s sonnets, songs and various famous scenes from his plays would have sounded to Elizabethan audiences. Pronounce hour as a 16th-century actor would have, that is, to rhyme with whore, and listen to the double entendres multiply. Eng lit aficionados will love it. --Sue Arnold "Guardian "" "An enthusiastic bunch of actors demonstrate how the Bard's sonnets, songs and various famous scenes from his plays would have sounded to Elizabethan audiences. Pronounce 'hour' as a 16th-century actor would have, that is, to rhyme with 'whore, ' and listen to the double entendres multiply. Eng lit aficionados will love it." --Sue Arnold "Guardian "