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

Personnel

Musicians

Production

Producers