Spotify As Stage: Shakespeare Plays and Poems on Recordings

This playlist features recorded performances and dramatized readings of Shakespeare's plays; recordings of the sonnets and other poems; as well as selected overtures and incidental music for the plays.

Sir John Gilbert's 1849 painting: The Plays of Shakespeare

The rightly legendary Arkangel Shakespeare is not on Spotify yet, but many other great recordings make up for that: Sir John Gielgud's Old Vic performance of Hamlet with a one-hour introduction and his famous reading of the sonnets; Orson Welles' radio show of the same play; Dylan Thomas reads King Lear, to name just a few. Many performances from The Marlowe Society are highly listenable too. The plays are arranged chronologically (roughly), followed by the sonnets and other poems.

The playlist opens with a prologue from Celebrating Shakespeare: This World's Globe, played on period instruments from the playwright's time, and ends with the ending theme from the soundtrack of Shakespeare in Love. Some famous overtures, symphonic poems and suites, and incidental music are included, put along side of the plays. For more Shakespeare-inspired music, see this previous playlist.

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist here: Shakespeare Plays and Poems on Recordings (365 tracks, total time: 70 hours) Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view.