Michael Nyman - Michael Nyman And "The Tempest" (2016)

For the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, MN Records present two recordings of works by Michael Nyman based on The Tempest, the film score to ‘Prospero’s Books’ and the opera ‘Noises, Sounds & Sweet Airs’.

The book also includes a new essay written by Nyman in which he reminisces about his longstanding relationship with Shakespeare’s The Tempest and his musical settings of Shakespeare’s texts over the years.

Prospero’s Books, originally released in 1991, was Nyman’s final collaboration with film-maker Peter Greenaway. Nyman/Greenaway was one of the greatest ‘Composer/Director’ relationships in world cinema. Some of Nyman’s most unforgettable ‘Greenaway’ soundtracks are The Draughtsman’s Contract, A Zed and Two Noughts, Drowning by Numbers, and The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover.

Noises, Sounds & Sweet Airs is an opera, written in 1991 but not released on CD until 1995. The work began as an opera-ballet entitled La Princesse de Milan (choreographed by Karine Saporta). The libretto is taken from The Tempest, abridged by the composer. The title of the work is derived from Caliban’s line, “This isle is full of noises, sounds, and sweet airs, which give delight and hurt not.”

TRACKLIST

CD1
01. If by Your Art, My Dearest Father [04:03]
02. Alas, Poor Milan [03:31]
03. Be't to Fly, to Swim [03:40]
04. This Damned Witch Scyorax [04:38]
05. The Fringed Curtains of Thine Eye [04:36]
06. There's Nothing Ill Can Dwell [02:47]
07. How Lush and Lusty the Grass [03:13]
08. Riches, Poverty, and Use of Service [02:21]
09. Sometime Like Apes [02:50]
10. Full Many a Lady I Have Eyed [04:35]
11. ‘Tis a Custom in the Afternoon [05:37]
12. I Have Made You Mad [04:16]
13. You Do Look, My Son, in a Moved Sort [03:41]
14. At Last I Left Them [01:31]
15. At This Hour Lie at My Mercy [01:49]
16. Ye Elves [06:57]
17. Behold, Sir King [02:05]
18. Sir, She Is Mortal [01:43]
19. My Tricksy Spirit [03:04]
20. Coragio, Bully-Monster [05:51]

CD2
01. Full Fathom Five [01:59]
02. Prospero's Curse [02:38]
03. While You Here Do Snoring Lie [01:07]
04. Prospero's Magic [05:11]
05. Miranda [03:55]
06. Twelve Years Since [02:45]
07. Come Unto These Yellow Sands [03:44]
08. History of Sycorax [03:27]
09. Come and Go [01:17]
10. Cornfield [06:28]
11. Where the Bee Sucks [04:48]
12. Caliban's Pit [02:58]
13. Reconciliation [02:33]
14. The Masque [12:13]