William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
in an unverified portrait

English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language (baptised 26 April 1564 at Stratford-upon-Avon; d. 23 April 1616 at Stratford-upon-Avon).

Tchaikovsky's Settings of Works by Shakespeare

A number of Tchaikovsky's works were inspired by Shakespeare:

• The overture-fantasia Romeo and Juliet (Ромео и Джульетта) (1869, revised 1870 and 1880) and the composer's later projected opera on the same subject — after Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet (ca. 1594).
• The overture-fantasia Hamlet (Гамлет), Op. 67 (1888) and the incidental music to the play, Op. 67b (1891) — after Shakespeare's play The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, written between 1599 and 1601.
• The fantasia The Tempest (Буря), Op. 18 (1873) — after Shakespeare's drama The Tempest (c. 1611).

During the winter of 1876/77, Tchaikovsky also considered writing an opera Othello to a libretto by Vladimir Stasov based on Shakespeare's play (1605), but nothing came of this project.

Bibliography

• От Берлиоза до Шостаковича. Шекспир в музыке (1933)
• Шекспир в музыке Чайковского (1964)
• Драматургия У. Шекспира в программных симфонических произведениях П. И. Чайковского (1985)

External Links

• Wikipedia