Shakespeare's Songs

“Shakespeare’s Songs”: An afternoon of art songs by the Bard re-imagined for the music parlor by Schubert, Quilter, Coleridge-Taylor, Finzi and Stanford. Jack DesBois ‘15.5, bass, and Mal Chase, piano, present a delightful program of songs from Shakespeare’s plays. The Bard of Avon knew the dramatic power of music and wielded it skilfully throughout his works. However, very few scores or indications of his songs’ settings survive, leaving posterity to guess at the tunes he intended for his words - or to write new tunes altogether. Actor, singer, and Shakespeare enthusiast Jack DesBois offers some of his favorite songs from the plays in their conjectured original settings alongside reworkings of the same texts by the masters of 19th and 20th century art song. Free and open to the public.