The CD includes a selection of sonnets and excerpts from "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "Romeo and Juliet," and "Macbeth." Shakespearean pronunciation expert Ben Crystal oversaw the recording, chose the actors, and curated and directed their speeches.
"For the first time in centuries, we have 75 recorded minutes of sonnets, speeches, and scenes recorded as we hope Shakespeare heard them," Crystal told The Telegraph. "It is, in short, Shakespeare as you've never heard him before."
The recordings are intended to make more sense of the written words' complex rhymes, antiquated jokes and puns, and unusual rhythms by presenting the plays in an accent as Shakespeare himself would have heard it.
"When we hear original pronunciation used in relation to Shakespeare, we enter a new auditory world," linguist and phonetics professor David Crystal wrote in an essay accompanying the recording. "Original pronunciation suggests fresh contrasts in speech style, such as between young and old, court and commoners, or literate and illiterate; and it motivates unexpected possibilities of character interpretation."
The CD was released on March 14 by the British Library. A special event to celebrate the project will be held on May 4, 2012, featuring live performances from Ben Crystal and the company of actors who participated in the recording.
Listen to audio samples from "Macbeth," "Romeo and Juliet," and "Sonnet 16" from the British Library.
