Royal & Derngate Theatres and Atlantic Screen Music have today released two new electronic music singles inspired by Shakespeare’s work from their charity compilation album INCIDENTAL: Music For The Stage which is now available to pre-order on CD or digitally and will be available to stream from Friday 24th September.
2020 Ivor Novello Award winner Renell Shaw’s exclusive release is inspired by Othello and features 2020 BAFTA Award winner David Harewood. Bedroom Community’s Valgeir Sigurðsson has scored speeches from The Tempest spoken by Olivier award-winning Giles Terera. Both are now available to listen to here.
Renell Shaw said: “Theatre has always been where the magic lives and Shakespeare’s work reveals the nucleus of human nature. Composing for such a space is deeply inspiring, the music practically writes itself.”
Valgeir Sigurðsson said: “Shakespeare’s magical verse comes alive in Caliban’s dream speech, which captures the hypnotic, enchanting and surreal qualities that I was drawn to in The Tempest perfectly.”
The full charity compilation album will contain original music from stage productions by composers such as White Lies, Anne Dudley, These New Puritans, Rachel Portman, Valgeir Sigurðsson, Isobel Waller-Bridge, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Renell Shaw alongside spoken performances from actors including Judi Dench, Amanda Seyfried, David Harewood, Felicity Jones, Giles Terera, Patricia Routledge, James Norton, Sharon D Clarke, Iain Glen, Lesley Sharp, Stephen Fry, Indira Varma, Maxine Peake, Roger Allam, Anton Lesser and Simon Russell Beale.
It raises vital funds to support Northampton Royal & Derngate Theatres’ reopening, helping the venue to recover from the devastating impact of the pandemic and to continue to produce their award winning Made in Northampton productions. The album is available to pre-order at incidentalmusicforthestage.com or pre-save on Spotify, Bandcamp, iTunes, Deezer and Tidal here.
Rachel Portman’s prologue to A Tale of Two Cities featuring Judi Dench and White Lies’ prologue to Cat on a Hot Tin Roof featuring Amanda Seyfried were released last month and are available to listen to here and to download here.
Over the past decade, Royal & Derngate’s Artistic Director James Dacre has commissioned 12 of the most influential composers working today to write original music for his stage productions – including Number 1 selling musicians White Lies, Guy Chambers and These New Puritans; Oscar and Grammy award winning film composers Rachel Portman and Anne Dudley; leading opera composer Orlando Gough, British Bhangra pioneer Kuljit Bhamra, ground-breaking classical and electronic composers Isobel Waller-Bridge and Valgeir Sigurðsson, pioneering rock musicians James Johnston and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and 2020 Ivor Novello Award winner Renell Shaw.
This album features their compositions for the stage accompanied by narration and monologues from the plays and novels which inspired them, directed by Dacre and read by some of the world’s most celebrated stage actors, with accompanying sound design to give a sense of the original staged work.
The full alphabetical list of actors who appear on the album includes: Roger Allam, Simon Russell Beale, Bertie Carvel, Sharon D Clarke, Denis Conway, Judi Dench, Simon Dormandy, Charlotte Emmerson, Stephen Fry, Nicholas Gleaves, Iain Glen, David Harewood, John Heffernan, Michael Henry, Douglas Hodge, Felicity Jones, Asif Khan, Anton Lesser, Emma Lowndes, Joseph Marcell, Taz Munya, James Norton, Maxine Peake, Patricia Routledge, Amanda Seyfried, Lesley Sharp, Jamie Sives, Giles Terera, Joseph Timms, Indira Varma, Jessica Walker, Sophie Ward, Finty Williams and Nicholas Woodeson.
The album is directed by James Dacre, creatively produced by Jim Barne, produced by Rupert Hollier (Filmtrax), James Vella (Phantom Limb) and Rosie Townshend (Royal & Derngate). Sound Design is by David Gregory, Adrienne Quartly and Claire Windsor. The mastering engineer is Dietrich Schoenemann.
Leading contemporary artist Rhona Bitner has created artwork for the album cover with graphic design by Rebecca Pitt, animation design by Phil Bearman and website design by Jono Renton.
Incidental: Music For The Stage will be available to stream on Spotify, iTunes, Deezer, Amazon from Friday 24th September, pre-save here. To pre-order a physical copy please go to incidentalmusicforthestage.com.
