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Brush Up Your Shakespeare: A Week of Bard-Inspired Music on Classic 107
All week long at 1 p.m., Classic 107 is diving headfirst into the world of iambic pentameter, mistaken identities, star-crossed lovers, and dramatic monologues… through music!
Why? Because Shakespeare in the Ruins kicks off its 2025 season this Thursday, June 5 with a Shakespeare's Macbeth, staged under the open skies at Winnipeg’s Trappist Monastery Provincial Heritage Park. And what better way to celebrate the Bard’s lasting influence than with a lineup of orchestral masterpieces inspired by his timeless works?
Here’s what’s in store:
Monday, June 2
🎭 Tchaikovsky – Fantasy Overture after Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Performed by the Russian National Orchestra, conducted by Mikhail Pletnev
Tchaikovsky had a soft spot for Shakespeare—he tackled The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet, and this brooding overture inspired by Hamlet. First composed in 1888, the piece captures the play’s psychological drama, with sombre themes for the troubled Danish prince and sweeping, tragic tones that echo the weight of fate and death. Drama? Check. Existential dread? Double check.
Tuesday, June 3
💔 Leonard Bernstein – West Side Story Suite
Performed by the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Leonard Bernstein
From 16th-century Verona to 1950s New York, Bernstein’s West Side Story reimagines Romeo and Juliet as a musical showdown between rival street gangs. The suite distills some of the show’s most iconic moments—“Maria,” “Tonight,” and “Mambo!”—into a thrilling orchestral experience. It’s Romeo and Juliet with jazz, Latin rhythms, and finger snaps. What’s not to love?
Wednesday, June 4
🌙 Mendelssohn – Incidental Music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Complete)
Performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Seiji Ozawa
Shakespeare text read by Dame Judi Dench
Mendelssohn was only 17 when he wrote the famous overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but he returned to the score years later to add full incidental music for a production of the play. It’s all here: fairy magic, love potions, donkey transformations, and that glorious “Wedding March.” Dame Judi Dench lends her voice to the festivities—because if anyone knows their Shakespeare, it’s her.
Thursday, June 5 a
🌿 Dvořák – Othello Overture (from the “Nature, Life and Love” trilogy)
Performed by the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Kurt Masur
Originally part of a trio of overtures, Othello explores the dark, emotional landscape of jealousy and betrayal that defines Shakespeare’s tragedy. Dvořák paints Desdemona’s innocence in tender melodies and contrasts it with Othello’s inner torment. The result? A lush, romantic, and ultimately tragic portrait of love gone fatally wrong.
Friday, June 6
🩸 Richard Strauss – Macbeth, Op. 23 (Tone Poem)
Performed by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, conducted by Andris Nelsons
Before Salome and Elektra, Strauss dabbled in Shakespeare. His 1886 tone poem Macbeth is a gripping symphonic depiction of the Scottish general’s descent into ambition-fuelled madness. Expect moody orchestration, militaristic marches, and a whole lot of tension as Strauss channels “vaulting ambition” straight into your speakers.
Whether you're drawn to prophecy and power or existential puzzles and poetic absurdity, Shakespeare in the Ruins’ 2025 season promises a profound theatrical experience under the prairie sky. With Macbeth and Waiting for Godot in repertory, audiences are invited to reflect on fate, choice, and the strange beauty of simply being. As Beilfuss suggests, the classics continue to echo across time—not as relics, but as living conversations that challenge, entertain, and unite us.