Singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright presents his Shakespeare Sonnets, a collection of his own compositions on beloved texts by the most performed playwright in the world – William Shakespeare – who died 400 years ago on 23 April, and who will be celebrated across the globe for ‘Shakespeare Year’ in 2016.

Wainwright is joined on this album by Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine on ‘When in Disgrace’, and teams up with sister Martha Wainwright on ‘An Unperfect Actor’. Always fascinated by the operatic voice, Rufus has enlisted soprano Anna Prohaska for a number of classically inspired tracks together with the BBC Symphony Orchestra – and of course performs a number of solo tracks of his own!

In celebration of this Shakespeare Year, Wainwright has collaborated with some of the most revered actors of our time to record spoken word versions of each of the Sonnets, including Helena Bonham Carter, Siân Philips, Peter Eyre, Carrie Fisher and William Shatner.

In a delightful reference to the Berliner Ensemble, where the original Robert Wilson ‘Shakespeare Sonnets’ production originated and still plays to sold-out houses, members of the famed Bertolt Brecht company feature on one German-language track (‘All dessen müd’).

Track listing:

1. Sonnet 43
Recitation: Siân Phillips

2. When Most I Wink (Sonnet 43)
Vocals: Anna Prohaska

3. Take All My Loves (Sonnet 40)
Vocals: Rufus Wainwright
Recitation: Marius de Vries

4. Sonnet 20
Recitation: Frally Hynes

5. A Woman’s Face (Sonnet 20)
Vocals: Anna Prohaska

6. For Shame (Sonnet 10)
Vocals: Anna Prohaska

7. Sonnet 10
Recitation: Peter Eyre

8. Unperfect Actor (Sonnet 23)
Recitation: Helena Bonham Carter
Vocals:  Rufus Wainwright · Martha Wainwright · Fiora Cutler

9. Sonnet 29
Recitation: Carrie Fisher

10. When in Disgrace with Fortune and Men’s Eyes (Sonnet 29)
Vocals: Florence Welch
Backing Vocals: Rufus Wainwright · Ben de Vries

11. Sonnet 129
Recitation: William Shatner

12. Th’Expense of Spirit in a Waste of Shame (Sonnet 129)
Vocals: Anna Prohaska

13. All dessen müd (Sonnet 66)
Vocals: Christopher Nell · Jürgen Holtz · Rufus Wainwright

14. A Woman’s Face – Reprise (Sonnet 20)
Vocals: Rufus Wainwright

15. Sonnet 87
Recitation: Inge Keller

16. Farewell (Sonnet 87)
Vocals: Anna Prohaska