For the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, MN Records present two recordings of works by Michael Nyman based on The Tempest, the film score to ‘Prospero’s Books’ and the opera ‘Noises, Sounds & Sweet Airs’.

This double CD set is presented in a six-panel digipack along with a 24-page book including all sung text. The book also includes a new essay written by Nyman in which he reminisces about his longstanding relationship with Shakespeare’s The Tempest and his musical settings of Shakespeare’s texts over the years.

Prospero’s Books, originally released in 1991, was Nyman’s final collaboration with film-maker Peter Greenaway. Nyman/Greenaway was one of the greatest ‘Composer/Director’ relationships in world cinema. Some of Nyman’s most unforgettable ‘Greenaway’ soundtracks are The Draughtsman’s Contract, A Zed and Two Noughts, Drowning by Numbers, and The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover.

Noises, Sounds & Sweet Airs is an opera, written in 1991 but not released on CD until 1995. The work began as an opera-ballet entitled La Princesse de Milan (choreographed by Karine Saporta). The libretto is taken from The Tempest, abridged by the composer. The title of the work is derived from Caliban’s line, “This isle is full of noises, sounds, and sweet airs, which give delight and hurt not.”