Imagine reading a series of letters written to one of the most famous characters ever committed to the page and stage. Now imagine those words turned into songs, telling stories of love, joy, betrayal and death. As jotted down by characters old, young, female and male, everything from love poems to suicide notes to junk mail gets a melody.
That's what The Juliet Letters does — and yes, the lady of the title is the same lovesick heroine William Shakespeare wrote about. Back in the '90s, Elvis Costello and the Brodsky Quartet crafted a song cycle inspired by real-life communications sent to the fictional Miss Capulet, as well as the just as genuine responses fashioned by a professor in Verona.
To pay tribute to the timeless album, Dean Stevenson and string quartet the Arco Set will perform their own interpretation of this iconic work. Their take is both powerful modern and classically romantic — and it is the type of thing you won't hear often.
Image via Jonathan Wherett.