When Love Speaks

When Love Speaks is a compilation album that features interpretations of William Shakespeare's sonnets – some spoken, some set to music – and excerpts from his plays by famous actors and musicians, released under EMI Classics in April 2002. The original idea came from Joy Gelardi (now Joy Beresford Frye) who proposed the album as a fund raiser for Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. When that plan fell through, Joy and Michael Kamen, together with Alan Rickman, co-produced it in support of RADA. Alan chose the title, which alludes to a speech in Love's Labour's Lost – "And when love speaks, the voice of all the gods make heaven drowsy with the harmony." – which is, however, not on the album.

Alan Rickman proposed the idea for a benefit album for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art – where most of the featured actors on this album had studied – and together with Richard Attenborough and Michael Kamen backed it and recruited artists to participate. The launch took place at The Old Vic.

Track listing

 * 1) "Be not afeard, the isle is full of noises" (from The Tempest – Act III, Scene II), performed by Joseph Fiennes
 * 2) "Live With Me and Be My Love" (from The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, Christopher Marlowe), set to music and sung by Annie Lennox
 * 3) "As an unperfect actor on the stage" ("Sonnet 23"), performed by John Gielgud
 * 4) "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" ("Sonnet 130"), performed by Alan Rickman
 * 5) "Why is my verse so barren of new pride" ("Sonnet 76"), performed by Diana Rigg
 * 6) "Who will believe my verse in time to come" ("Sonnet 17"), performed by Richard Attenborough
 * 7) "That you were once unkind befriends me now" ("Sonnet 120"), performed by Paul Rhys
 * 8) "How oft, when thou, my music" ("Sonnet 128"), performed by Juliet Stevenson
 * 9) "When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes" ("Sonnet 29"), set to music and sung by Rufus Wainwright
 * 10) "Being your slave, what should I do but tend" ("Sonnet 57"), performed by Janet McTeer
 * 11) "Tired with all these, for restful death I cry" ("Sonnet 66"), performed by Alan Bates
 * 12) "When I consider everything that grows" ("Sonnet 15"), performed by Marianne Jean-Baptiste
 * 13) "Let those who are in favour with their stars" ("Sonnet 25"), performed by David Warner
 * 14) "They that have power to hurt and will do none" ("Sonnet 94"), performed by Siân Phillips
 * 15) "Those lips that Love's own hand did make" ("Sonnet 145"), performed by John Hurt
 * 16) "Come again, sweet love doth now invite" (John Dowland) sung by John Potter
 * 17) "Th'expense of spirit in a waste of shame" ("Sonnet 129"), performed by Ralph Fiennes
 * 18) "Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me" ("Sonnet 132"), performed by Matthew Rhys
 * 19) "I never saw that you did painting need" ("Sonnet 83"), performed by Imelda Staunton
 * 20) "When to the sessions of sweet silent thought" ("Sonnet 30"), performed by Kenneth Branagh
 * 21) "Is it thy will thy image should keep open" ("Sonnet 61"), performed by Fiona Shaw
 * 22) "Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war" ("Sonnet 46"), performed by Henry Goodman
 * 23) "No more be grieved at that which thou hast done" ("Sonnet 35"), set to music and sung by Keb' Mo'
 * 24) "O never say that I was false of heart" ("Sonnet 109"), performed by Susannah York
 * 25) "Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest" ("Sonnet 3"), performed by Timothy Spall
 * 26) "Some glory in their birth, some in their skill" ("Sonnet 91"), performed by Peter Barkworth
 * 27) "How heavy do I journey on the way" ("Sonnet 50"), performed by Gemma Jones
 * 28) "Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea" ("Sonnet 65"), performed by Jonathan Pryce
 * 29) "Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore" ("Sonnet 60"), performed by Richard Wilson
 * 30) "The quality of mercy is not strained" (from The Merchant of Venice – Act IV, Scene I), set to music and sung by Des'ree
 * 31) "Sweet love, renew thy force; be it not said" ("Sonnet 56"), performed by Tom Courtenay
 * 32) "Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind" ("Sonnet 113"), performed by Zoe Waites
 * 33) "Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press" ("Sonnet 140"), performed by Edward Fox
 * 34) "Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye" ("Sonnet 9"), performed by Trevor Eve
 * 35) "So it is not with me as with that Muse" ("Sonnet 21"), performed by Imogen Stubbs
 * 36) "Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws" ("Sonnet 19"), performed by David Harewood
 * 37) "The Willow Song" (from Othello – Act IV, Scene III), sung by Barbara Bonney
 * 38) "When my love swears that she is made of truth" ("Sonnet 138"), performed by Richard Johnson
 * 39) "When I do count the clock that tells the time" ("Sonnet 12"), performed by Martin Jarvis
 * 40) "What potions have I drunk of siren tears" ("Sonnet 119"), performed by Roger Hammond
 * 41) "Not marble nor the gilded monuments" ("Sonnet 55"), performed by Richard Briers
 * 42) "Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye" ("Sonnet 62"), performed by John Sessions
 * 43) "Let me not to the marriage of true minds" ("Sonnet 116"), performed by Thelma Holt
 * 44) "Music to hear, why hearst thou music sadly" ("Sonnet 8"), set to music by Joseph Shabalala and sung by Ladysmith Black Mambazo
 * 45) "When forty winters shall besiege thy brow" ("Sonnet 2"), performed by Caroline Blakiston
 * 46) "No longer mourn for me when I am dead" ("Sonnet 71"), performed by Peter Bowles
 * 47) "In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes" ("Sonnet 141"), performed by Sylvia Syms
 * 48) "Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day" ("Sonnet 34"), performed by Robert Lindsay
 * 49) "Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck" ("Sonnet 14"), performed by Ioan Gruffudd
 * 50) "My love is as a fever, longing still" ("Sonnet 147"), performed by John Hurt
 * 51) "The little Love-God lying once asleep" ("Sonnet 154"), performed by Bohdan Poraj
 * 52) "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day" ("Sonnet 18"), sung by Bryan Ferry
 * 53) "Our revels are now ended" (from The Tempest – Act IV, Scene I), performed by Joseph Fiennes

Actors

 * Peter Barkworth
 * Alan Bates
 * Kenneth Branagh
 * Tom Courtenay
 * Trevor Eve
 * Joseph Fiennes
 * Ralph Fiennes
 * Edward Fox
 * Sir John Gielgud
 * Henry Goodman
 * John Hurt
 * Bohdan Poraj
 * Jonathan Pryce
 * Alan Rickman
 * Diana Rigg
 * Imelda Staunton
 * Juliet Stevenson
 * Richard Wilson
 * Zoe Waites
 * David Warner

Musicians

 * Barbara Bonney – soprano
 * Caroline Dale – cello
 * Des'ree – voice
 * Bryan Ferry – voice
 * Charles Green – clarinet
 * Barry Guy – double bass
 * Maya Homburger – baroque violin
 * Michael Kamen – piano, arranger, composer, conductor, producer, liner notes, executive producer, string arrangements
 * Keb' Mo' – voice
 * Ladysmith Black Mambazo – voice
 * Annie Lennox – voice
 * Anna McGarrigle – accordion
 * Kate McGarrigle – banjo
 * Michel Pépin – bass, guitar, producer, engineer, mixing
 * John Potter – voice
 * John Surman – tenor saxophone
 * Stephen Stubbs – lute
 * Gillian Tingay – harp
 * Matthew Wadsworth – lute
 * Rufus Wainwright – piano, vocals, composer, producer
 * Joel Zifkin – violin

Production

 * Tony Bridge – mastering
 * Tim Atack – mixing
 * James Brett – producer, engineer, mixing
 * Joseph Shabalala – arranger, producer
 * Geoff Foster – engineer
 * Martin Jarvis – engineer
 * Anthony (Tony) Fisher – engineer
 * Brian Tench – engineer
 * Ned Douglas – engineer
 * Robert Lindsay – engineer
 * Don Murnaghan – engineer, mixing
 * Iain Roberton – engineer, mixing
 * Mark Johnson – engineer, mixing
 * Stephen McLaughlin – engineer, mixing
 * Ash Howes – mixing
 * Ricky Graham – mixing
 * Peter Cobbin – pre-mastering

Producers


 * Richard Attenborough – liner notes
 * Nicholas Barter – liner notes
 * Andrew Brown
 * Des'ree
 * Manfred Eicher
 * Bryan Ferry
 * Annie Lennox
 * Robin Trower
 * Alan Rickman
 * Prince Sampson