Theatro: Play, Music! Songs from Shakespeare's Plays
Avie

Play, Music! is a tremendous accomplishment on multiple grounds. In having been recorded over four years and involving more than twenty musicians and singers across the globe, the seventy-minute album's creation posed logistical challenges that the early-music-meets-early-theatre group Theatro and its Artistic Director Brian Kay successfully overcame. Production of the release was complicated by COVID-19 lockdowns and necessitated collaboration using remote means. That the performances sound so much like live in-person takes testifies to the talents of performers and production crew alike. Kay's contention that the release speaks to “the resilience and creativity of artists coming together to build something truly beautiful in the face of adversity” is borne out by the result.

As laudable is the project's concept, which celebrates William Shakespeare (1564–1616) in presenting musical material by John Dowland, King Henry VIII, John Playford, Richard Tarleton, and even the Bard himself from plays such as All's Well that Ends Well, As You Like It, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest, Taming of the Shrew, and Twelfth Night. Thirty-three pieces in total are performed by Kay, who complements his distinctive tenor with lute, guitar, orpharion, and other instruments, and Theatro's six other members, Ashlee Foreman (soprano), Anna O'Connell (soprano, harp), Peter Walker (bass), Tina Bergmann (hammered dulcimer), Ryan Tyndall (colascione), and René Schiffer (cello, cello da spalla, viola da gamba). Guests contribute too, among them Ronn McFarlane (lute), Damian Wilson (tenor), Tina Chancey (Renaissance violin, violas da gamba), Daphna More (recorders), and Gesine Bänfer (recorders, shawms, crumhorns). The abundant vocal and instrumental resources are used to maximum effect to create the theatrical world associated with the Shakespearean era.

Among other things, Play, Music! reminds us that a Shakespeare play is not only about text and stage action but music too, and inextricably so. In the presentation of his plays, popular songs were included to make the theatrical tapestry full and rich, and it was not uncommon for a group of six or seven musicians to be part of the production. The vocal side of the project is superbly accounted for by Kay, Wilson, Walker, Foreman, and O'Connell, and instrumentally the album is as successful, that aspect boosted considerably by the inclusion of so many different timbres. A satisfying balance between vocal and non-vocal songs is achieved, with the former slightly larger in number than the latter, and the material ranges from ballads and spoken word to jigs and minuets.

There are too many highlights to list, so a sampling will have to suffice. Certainly an early one is the rendition of “Ah Robin” (Twelfth Night), which features terrific singing by Wilson, Kay, and Walker and a haunting chorus you'll probably be singing long after the recording's done. Memorable too is the rendition of “I cannot come ev'ry day to woo” (Taming of the Shrew) by Wilson and Foreman plus Wilson's commanding turn in “Willow song” (Othello). Alternating their vocal parts, Kay and Foreman attack the texts of the rousing “Please one and please all” with passion (hear him tear into “drink they ale or drink they beer”) before doing the same in “Pastime with good company” (Henry VIII). Foreman's as effective when featured alone, as shown by the tender ballad “Green grow'th the holly” (Henry VIII), as is Kay, who accompanies his voice with lute on the laments “Come away,death” (Twelfth Night) and “O death, rock me asleep” (Henry IV).

The instrumentals impress too. Accompanied by the ensemble, viola da gamba player Robert Eisenstein distinguishes “Woodycock” with his presence, while lutist Kay does the same in his solo treatment of Dowland's “My lord chamberlain, his galliard.” Tickling the ear, Kay pairs his theorbo with Tina Bergmann's hammered dulcimer on “Lady Carey's dance” and then distinguishes Dowland's “The King of Denmark's galliard” (Hamlet), “Tarleton's riserrectione” (Hamlet), and “Lighte of love” (Two Gentlemen of Verona) with solo lute performances. Another memorable solo moment is Chancey's Renaissance violin rendition of Playford's “Jig divided twelve ways.”

September 2025