King Lear

by William Shakespeare

Performed by Paul Scofield, with Alec McCowen, Kenneth Branagh, and cast

UNABRIDGED

Produced by Nicolas Soames. Directed by John Tydeman

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The tragedy of King Lear receives an outstanding performance in an all-star cast led by Britain’s senior classical actor, Paul Scofield. He is joined by Alec McCowen as Gloucester, Kenneth Branagh as The Fool, Harriet Walter as Gonerill, Sara Kestelman as Regan and Emilia Fox as Cordelia.

This is the ninth recording of Shakespeare plays undertaken by Naxos AudioBooks in conjunction with Cambridge University Press, and is directed by John Tydeman.

It was released to mark the eightieth birthday of Paul Scofield in January 2002.

Featuring Elizabethan songs and consort music, and specially written music by Nicholas Denney.

See also: Recording Lear – an article on the recording of this title.

Speak the Speech...
In a talk given at the 2008 Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival, David Timson, director of four Naxos AudioBooks Shakespeare recordings and author of Shakespeare Stories, surveys the changing styles of Shakespeare performance through recordings starting with Henry Irving in the 1890s through to Kenneth Branagh in the twenty-first century.

Click on the link below to listen to/download the files. Alternatively, control-click (Mac), or right-click (PC) on a link, and choose ‘Save linked file as...’ to save the file to your computer.

Speak the Speech... (MP3, 58 mins, 20 MB)
Accompanying notes (PDF, 120 KB)

  

3 CDs • Running Time: 4 hours • ISBN: 9-62634-244-7 • Catalogue no: NA324412 • RRP: £13.99