Radio 3 presents a special day of programmes celebrating the life and work of William Shakespeare on his birthday.
12.00 Shakespeare Masterclass 1
Cicely Berry conducts the first of the day's three masterclasses on rehearsing Shakespeare, working with a small group of actors on excerpts from Hamlet, Henry V and A Midsummer Night's Dream. The classes were given last month in front of an audience at the Central School of Speech and Drama. The actors contributing are Susan Brown, Paul Bhattacharjee, Tom George, Clare Cathcart and Antony Ryding.
12.15 Shakespeare's London
Writer Iain Sinclair walks the streets of London in the company of historians, scholars and archaeologists, seeking out echoes of Shakespeare's city in the London of today. As he visits the court, the river, the sites of Elizabethan playhouses and the reconstructed Globe theatre, he discovers how the city was reflected in Shakespeare's plays and reveals the life Shakespeare led in London 400 years ago.
1.00 Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert: Shakespeare at Middle Temple
A recital from Middle Temple, London, where Shakespeare himself performed Twelfth Night. Actors Emma Fielding and Simon Russell-Beale are joined by Lisa Milne (soprano), Christopher Maltman (baritone), the BBC Singers and Iain Burnside (piano) to perform excerpts from Shakespeare's plays alongside musical settings by Purcell, Vaughan Williams, Tippett, Schubert, Poulenc and others.
2.30 Nutmegs and Ginger
Instrumental pieces from Shakespeare's day, including the popular melody from a street crier's song.
2.45 A Midsummer Night's Dream
Humphrey Carpenter introduces an Opera North production of Britten's operatic version of Shakespeare's comedy, given earlier this year in the Grand Theatre, Leeds.
Opera North Chorus, English Northern Philharmonia, conductor Steven Sloane
Acts 1 and 2
4.25 Shakespeare Masterclass 2
Fiona Shaw works with a small group of actors on excerpts from Macbeth and Much Ado about Nothing.
4.45 Act 3
5.45 Sunday Feature: All the World His Stage
Jonathan Bate examines Shakespeare's international impact with speakers from Moscow, Barbados, Berlin and New York. He explores how Shakespeare's plays have been interpreted across continents and generations and asks whether the advantages of the British Empire and the English language account for Shakespeare's standing in so many countries.
6.30 Private Passions
(Rptd from yesterday 12 noon)
7.30 Sunday Play: As You Like It
Shakespeare's forest of Arden liberates those banished from the repressive formality of the court to discover their true selves in the dark of the woodland.
With Katy Murphy, Janice Asquah and Tim Treloar
BBC Radio Shakespeare cassettes and CDs of As You Like It, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice, Richard II and Henry IV, Parts One and Two are available now
9.30 Choirworks
Paul Guinery introduces a performance of Purcell's The Fairy Queen, based on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. And guest Roger Savage reveals the extent to which the Bard's play was adapted to suit Restoration tastes.
Soloists, Schutz Choir of London, London Classical Players/Roger Norrington
11.45 Shakespeare Masterclass 3
Mike Alfred works with actor Antony Ryding on Bottom's awakening speech from A Midsummer Night's Dream.
(See also Opera on 3 tomorrow 4pm)
(Programme of the Week: page 127)
12.00 Blue Skies
Georgina Ferry explores scientific developments in a cultural context.
4: Restoration and Reconstruction.
