About

You are invited to a musical and theatrical maze in which Shakespeare's characters wander a boundless dream, sharing their itinerant faiths. Juliet encounters Lady Macbeth, Ariel serves Oberon, Desdemona joins Ophelia in eternal sleep. Sleep is a metaphor for death, but so it is for joy and blessing. These dreamers encounter the unpredictable, the unexpected, enacting their monologues, quarrels and secret love meetings. Sorrow, love, grief and laughter coexist in a world made of words and music.

"We are such stuff/As dreams are made on, and our little life/Is rounded with a sleep." (The Tempest 1623)

Sounding Shakespeare is a pastiche of operatic scenes, art songs and musical scenes exploring dreams in Shakespeare. Dreams are the strangest thing. They look as perfect as they feel odd. The most impossible combination of people, objects and places can occur without arousing the slightest suspicion.

Dreams encompass irrational fears, hidden desires, otherwise inconceivable thoughts. Dreams are central in Shakespeare's texts, used to push dreamers' imagination to its limits, transform belief, even provide a moment of extraordinary self-awareness.