Rufus Wainwright will release his new album Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets on 22nd April 2016.
Marking the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, the album will be released on Deutsche Grammophon. Wainwright has teamed up with producer Marius de Vries for the first time since his Want albums.
Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets features vocalists Florence Welch, Martha Wainwright, Anna Prohaska and, of course, Rufus himself, as well as actors Siân Phillips, Helena Bonham Carter, Carrie Fisher and William Shatner.
‘For me, recording this album has been a marriage made in heaven, as it combines my love of classical music with my love of pop music,’ says Rufus. ‘It’s literally historically fun. And made all the better by working again with Marius.’
The album has been on the cards for years following Rufus’ 2009 collaboration with director Robert Wilson for his Shakespeare’s Sonnets production first staged at the Berliner Ensemble. The San Francisco Symphony subsequently commissioned Rufus to orchestrate five of the sonnets, which they premiered in 2010.
Three of the sonnets on the record first appeared in different versions on Wainwright’s 2010 album Songs For Lulu.
Take a look at the artwork for Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets:
