| When Love Speaks | |
|---|---|
![]()  | |
| Compilation album by  Various artists  | |
| Released | 23 April 2002 | 
| Label | EMI Classics | 
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| 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
- "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
Actors
Musicians
- 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
- 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
- 1 2 3 Heather Phares. When Love Speaks at AllMusic
 - ↑ "Rufus Wainwright Discography – When Love Speaks". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 1 February 2009.
 - ↑ 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."
 
