THE CLASSIC FILM SCORES OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
By Scott Bettencourt
In honor of Silva's new recording of Nino Rota's Romeo and Juliet
score, and because I needed to fill up a 4th of July column, here is a
partial list of scores for films inspired (with varying degrees of fidelity)
by the plays of William Shakespeare, including a few stage and concert
works by film composers.
THE TRAGEDY OF KING RICHARD III
1911 - THE LIFE AND DEATH OF RICHARD III - Ennio Morricone
1997 score for silent film, on Sony Classical
1946 - THE TRAGEDY OF KING RICHARD III (STAGE) - Alex North
2:07 of music composed for a stage production; conducted by Cliff Eidelman
on the Varese Sarabande CD Romeo and Juliet
1954 - RICHARD III - William Walton
43:53 on the Chandos CD Sir William Walton's Film Music vol. 4,
rerecording conducted by Neville Marriner, spoken passages by John Gielgud
1995 - RICHARD III - Trevor Jones
Score Album on London Records
1996 - LOOKING FOR RICHARD - Howard Shore
Score Album on Angel Records
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS
1940 - THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE - Richard Rodgers, Charles Previn
1983 - THE COMEDY OF ERRORS (TV) - Richard Holmes
THE TRAGEDY OF TITUS ANDRONICUS
1985 - TITUS ANDRONICUS (TV) - Dudley Simpson
1999 - TITUS - Elliot Goldenthal
Score Album on Sony Classical
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW
1953 - KISS ME KATE - Cole Porter, Andre Previn
1967 - THE TAMING OF THE SHREW - Nino Rota
Score Album released by DRG
1980 - THE TAMING OF THE SHREW (TV) - Stephen Oliver
1999 - 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU - Richard Gibbs
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST
1985 - LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST (TV) - Stephen Oliver
2000 - LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST - Patrick Doyle
Score Album on Sony Classical
THE TRAGEDY OF ROMEO AND JULIET
1936 - ROMEO AND JULIET - Herbert Stothart
1954 - ROMEO AND JULIET - Roman Vlad
1961 - WEST SIDE STORY - Leonard Bernstein
1968 - ROMEO AND JULIET - Nino Rota
New digital rerecording available on Silva
1978 - ROMEO AND JULIET (TV) - James Tyler
1996 - WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S ROMEO + JULIET - Nellee Hooper, Craig
Armstrong, Marcus DeVries
Score Available on the Capitol CD William Shakespeare's Romeo +
Juliet Volume 2
A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM
1935 - A MUDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM - Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Rerecording on CPO Records, conducted by Gerd Albrecht
1968 - A MIDSUMMER NIGHT' S DREAM - Guy Woolfenden
1981 - A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (TV) - Stephen Oliver
1996 - A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM - Howard Blake
Score Album on SLC (Japan)
1999 - WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM - Simon Boswell
Score Album on Decca
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE
1980 - THE MERCHANT OF VENICE (TV) - Carl Davis
THE FIRST PART OF KING HENRY IV
THE SECOND PART OF KING HENRY IV
1965 - CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT - Angelo Francesco Lavagnino
Score Album on CAM Records, under the film's European title Falstaff
THE LIFE OF KING HENRY V
1945 - HENRY V - William Walton
61:12 on the Chandos CD Sir William Walton Film Music Vol. 3,
rerecording conducted by Neville Marriner, narration by Christopher Plummer
1989 - HENRY V - Patrick Doyle
Score Album on EMI Angel
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
1984 - MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (TV) - Simon Rogers
1993 - MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING - Patrick Doyle
Score Album on Epic Soundtrax/Sony Music
THE TRAGEDY OF JULIUS CAESAR
1953 - JULIUS CAESAR - Miklos Rozsa
Rerecording conducted by Bruce Broughton on Intrada
1970 - JULIUS CAESAR - Michael J. Lewis
10:57 of music on the composer's album Michael J. Lewis: Orchestral
Film Music
AS YOU LIKE IT
1936 - AS YOU LIKE IT - William Walton
14:18 on the EMI CD The Battle of Britain Suite, rerecording
conducted by Carl Davis
1978 - AS YOU LIKE IT (TV) - Geoffrey Burgon
TWELFTH NIGHT; OR, WHAT YOU WILL
1980 - TWELFTH NIGHT (TV) - Joseph Horovitz
1996 - TWELFTH NIGHT - Shaun Davey
Score Album on Silva Screen Records
THE TRAGEDY OF HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK
1948 - HAMLET - William Walton
39:10 of music on the Chandos CD Sir William Walton's Film Music
vol. 1, conducted by Neville Marriner, narrated by John Gielgud
1964 - HAMLET - Dimitri Shostakovich
30:07 of music on the BMG CD Shostakovich: Film Music From Hamlet,
King Lear, Five Days and Five Nights; rerecording conducted by Jose
Serebrier
1969 - HAMLET - Patrick Gowers
1970 - HAMLET (TV) - John Addison
1980 - HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK (TV) - Dudley Simpson
1983 - STRANGE BREW - Charles Fox
1990 - ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD - Stanley Myers
1990 - HAMLET - Ennio Morricone
Score Album on Virgin Movie Music
1996 - HAMLET - Patrick Doyle
Score Album on Sony Classical
2000 - HAMLET - Carter Burwell
Score Album on Varese Sarabande
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA
1981 - TROILUS AND CRESSIDA (TV) - Stephen Oliver
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL
1980 - ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL (TV) - Stephen Oliver
MEASURE FOR MEASURE
1979 - MEASURE FOR MEASURE (TV) - James Tyler
THE TRAGEDY OF OTHELO, THE MOOR OF VENICE
1952 - OTHELLO - Angelo Francesco Lavagnino, Alberto Barberis
Rerecording on Varese Sarabande
1965 - OTHELLO - Richard Hampton
1981 - OTHELLO (TV) - Stephen Oliver
1995 - OTHELLO - Charlie Mole
Score Album on Varese Sarabande
1998 - OTHELLO (BALLET) - Elliot Goldenthal
Suite from the ballet on Varese Sarabande, conducted by Emil De Cou
2001 - O - Jeff Danna
Score Album on Varese Sarabande
THE TRAGEDY OF KING LEAR
1969 - KING LEAR - Dimitri Shostakovich
24:02 of music on the Koch CD Dimitri Shostakovich Suites: The Gadfly,
King Lear, Hamlet; rerecording conducted by Vakhtang Jordania
1984 - KING LEAR (TV) - Gordon Cross
1985 - RAN - Toru Takemitsu
Score Album on Milan Records; expanded version due in Japanese import
boxed set CD The Complete Kurosawa vol. 3
1996 - A THOUSAND ACRES - Richard Hartley
Score Album on Varese Sarabande
2002 - KING OF TEXAS (TV) - John Altman
THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH
1948 - MACBETH - Jacques Ibert
30:06 on the Marco Polo CD Ibert: Macbeth, Golgotha, Don Quichotte,
rerecording conducted by Adriano
1955 - JOE MACBETH - Richard Taylor
1957 - THE THRONE OF BLOOD - Masaru Satoh
Score available on the Japanese import boxed-set The Complete Kurosawa
vol. 2
1971 - MACBETH - Third Ear Band
Score Album released on CD, but extremely difficult to find
1983 - MACBETH (TV) - Carl Davis
1991 - MEN OF RESPECT - Misha Segal
2002 - SCOTLAND, PA - Anton Sanko
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
1973 - ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA - John Scott
Re-recording available on JOS Records
1981 - ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA (TV) - Stephen Oliver
THE TRAGEDY OF CORIOLANUS
1947 - THE TRAGEDY OF CORIOLANUS (STAGE) - Alex North
2:27 of music composed for a stage production; conducted by Cliff Eidelman
on the Varese Sarabande CD Romeo and Juliet
1984 - THE TRAGEDY OF CORIOLANUS (TV) - Stephen Oliver
THE LIFE OF TIMON OF ATHENS
1981 - TIMON OF ATHENS (TV) - Stephen Oliver
PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE
1984 - PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE (TV) - Martin Best
CYMBELINE
1983 - CYMBELINE (TV) - Stephen Oliver
THE WINTER'S TALE
1981 - THE WINTER'S TALE (TV) - Dudley Simpson
THE TEMPEST
1956 - FORBIDDEN PLANET - Louis & Bebe Barron
Score Album on GNP Crescendo/Small Planet
1980 - THE TEMPEST (TV) - Joseph Horovitz
1982 - TEMPEST - Stomu Yomashta
Score Album released on LP on Casablanca; unreleased on CD
1991 - PROSPERO'S BOOKS - Michael Nyman
Score Album on London Records
1996 - THE TEMPEST (CONCERT) - Cliff Eidelman
A three-movement tone poem (16:34) composed and conducted by Eidelman
for the Varese Sarabande CD Romeo and Juliet
and, of course
1998 - SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE - Stephen Warbeck
Score Album on Sony Classical
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