Main content

New Shakespeare Songbook

"If music be the food of love, play on"... Shakespeare does Eurovision as artists from across Europe re-imagine his plays and poetry.

  • Hamlet the Bucks Fizz fan? Take a look at our Bard-themed Eurovision tribute.

Ane Brun (Norway)

"If music be the food of love, play on."

- William Shakespeare: Twelfth Night, Act 1 scene 1.

...a source of inspiration for composers, lyricists and performers for four centuries

Shakespeare is a great songwriter; songs permeate the tragedies, comedies and histories and have provided a source of inspiration for composers, lyricists and performers for four centuries. On the 400 anniversary of his death, the 大象传媒 and Austrian broadcaster ORF - with the support of the European Broadcasting Union - have decided to commission a New Shakespeare Songbook, offering today’s composers and musicians across Europe, the chance to respond afresh to these timeless texts.

But this isn’t just music to be heard, it’s meant to be seen as well. Composers and performers worked with film-makers and directors to produce new songs which were also conceived as films. The teams were free to use any Shakespeare text from his plays and sonnets and to set them in English, or in their native tongue. There was no restriction in terms of musical genre. The British songs were co-commissioned by and .

We hope you enjoy the imaginative, diverse and poetic results – welcome to the New Shakespeare Songbook!

Peter Maniura, 大象传媒 Shakespeare Lives

Image from Sonnet 91 (France)
Matthew Herbert, composer (UK)
Rahel Debebe-Dessalegne (UK)
Gustav (Austria)

The New Shakespeare Songbook Collection

  • Gustav performs Liebe, Ach! (O, love) - Shakespeare's Sonnet 23

  • Omxo Puccino performs Shakespeare's Sonnets 91 & 94

  • Ane Brun performs Shakespeare's Sonnet 138

  • Trio R锚verie perform Ne, ona nima 啪ametnih o膷i (My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun) - Shakespeare's Sonnet 130

  • Anah矛 Traversi performs Povera Anima (Poor Soul) - Shakespeare's Sonnet 146

  • Rahel Debebe-Dessalegne performs Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow from Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5)

  • Mezzo-Soprano Kathryn Rudge performs Roxanna Panufnik's setting of Love Sought - from Twelfth Night