Album Notes

The songs of Twelfth Night, composed by Artistic Director Des McAnuff and Michael Roth, will play on thanks to a new CD being released by the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in August.

“Michael and I were so delighted with all of the performances that it seemed too good an opportunity to pass up,” says Mr. McAnuff of the decision to record the music from the show. “We have an incredible group of actors, singers and musicians here at Stratford who have really made this Twelfth Night sing.”

“Audience members have been flocking to our stores asking if a CD of Twelfth Night is available,” says General Director Antoni Cimolino. “I’m pleased that we will now have this wonderful cast recording to send home with them. The Festival has released a select number of recordings in the past and they have had great appeal, as I know Twelfth Night will this season.”

The production, directed by Mr. McAnuff, has been hailed by critics as a thrilling theatrical event, with the original music and electrifying performances at the heart of its appeal. With lyrics by Shakespeare – as well as a poem by Christopher Marlowe and Sir Walter Raleigh – the score pays tribute to the past 60 years of musical history. The exotic land of Illyria is depicted as a place where music and sport reign to create an erratic and disobedient world of mayhem and mischief.

Mr. McAnuff and Mr. Roth, who first met as fellow songwriters, have worked together as director and composer on dozens of productions over 20 years, including Stratford’s 2010 productions of The Tempest and As You Like It (with Justin Ellington), but the score for Twelfth Night is the first they have composed as a team.

“I would describe Twelfth Night as ‘Shakespeare’s other musical’ with As You Like It being the first,” says Mr. McAnuff. “There are seven songs in the script, but we’ve taken that to 10, all of which will be included in the CD.”

The songs are performed by members of the acting company and Festival musicians. Ben Carlson, who plays Feste, acts as lead singer in the production and plays acoustic guitar, electric bass and harmonica. Throughout the production a vast array of instruments can be heard, including keyboards, cello, flute, saxophone, electric guitar, trumpet, mandolin and drums, with musical direction and arrangements by Mr. Roth.

“We use contemporary songs as a kind of foundation for Illyria, this world of music,” says Mr. McAnuff. “Just as Shakespeare would have used his own period’s instruments regardless of the time in which the play was set, we are using the full range of instruments – period and modern – available to us.”

The CD features 11 tracks from the Stratford Shakespeare Festival’s 2011 production of Twelfth Night, along with a bonus track of “The Wind and the Rain” performed by Mr. McAnuff and the Red Dirt Band.