Throughout his career, Anthony Burgess was fascinated by the writing and life of William Shakespeare. His novel Nothing Like The Sun is a lively, experimental fictionalisation of Shakespeare’s life; he wrote articles about Shakespeare’s language and reviewed books about Shakespeare for the Independent and the Observer; he wrote a speculative biography with lavish illustrations; he wrote a ballet suite, again based on Shakespeare’s life; and he wrote a TV series on the same subject, and a musical (both of which projects were not produced). The recordings here include the earliest in our collection, Burgess speaking for the Book Society about Shakespeare in 1964, music from the ballet Mr WS and the TV series The Bawdy Bard, his setting of a sonnet by Shakespeare for voice and piano, and the first of 17 lectures given by Burgess about Shakespeare in 1972 at City College, New York.

Anthony Burgess on Shakespeare for the Book Society (1964)

Overture from Mr WS (1979)

Sonnet (Shaksper) for voice and piano

Anthony Burgess on Shakespeare at City College, New York, part 1 (1973)

Quick links: On A Clockwork Orange | On his novels | On Shakespeare | On the airwaves | At the podium | On his early life in Manchester | Anthony, Liana and Andrew Burgess at home | Musical writing | And popular music | Stage musicals | At the piano | Back to the Anthony Burgess On Tape home page

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