The Royal Shakespeare Company is to publish music and speeches from its latest production of Richard II on CD and as an iTunes download.
The recording will be the first in a series capturing some of the live and specially commissioned music composed for RSC productions of all Shakespeare’s plays.
The RSC often commissions music but when the production is over the score is consigned to the archives and rarely heard again.
RSC artistic director Gregory Doran says of the project, “Our ambition is to try to capture at least some of the specially created music which is always performed live for our productions, along with speeches that give a flavour of the performance.
“We also want to include archive recordings of some of the most talented composers of the 20th century that we have commissioned to score our productions.
“Our archive includes not only Ralph Vaughan Williams but also many exciting talents from Lennox Berkeley and Django Bates to Laura Marling.”
He adds, “I hope this will be a great asset to add to the archive of British theatre and the RSC’s work and will provide an echo of what we’re creating on our stages.”
The CD contains music from the 1913 production by Ralph Vaughan Williams which has not been heard since the production.
Also included are key speeches from the play by David Tennant, Jane Lapotaire as the Duchess of York and Michael Pennington as John of Gaunt.
The next albums will capture music from Gregory Doran’s forthcoming productions of Henry IV Parts I and II and The Two Gentlemen of Verona which will be directed by Simon Godwin. They will all play in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in repertoire in 2014.
The album will be released on CD and can be downloaded from 18 October. Copies of the CD, price £5, are available to pre-order from the RSC.