Customer Reviews

Seven Ages: An Anthology of Poetry with Music

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Based on Lord David Owen's book Seven Ages: Poetry for a Lifetime, this Naxos audiobook edition of Seven Ages: An Anthology Of Poetry With Music features outstanding and memorable dramatic readings by forty British actors ranging from Michael Caine and Judi Dench to John Cleese and Glenda Jackson. The poetry is drawn from the works of William Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, Ted Hughes, Dylan Thomas, Oscar Wilde, Rudyard Kipling, W.B. Yeats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, A.E. Housman, Robert Burns, D.H. Lawrence, John Keats, Seamus Heaney, Wilfred Owen, Matthew Arnold, John Dunne, Walt Whitman, Rabindranath Tagge, William Blake, William Wordsworth, Ogden Nash, Christinia Rossetti, and many others. Total Running Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.

collection of poetry with some music thrown in that I could find out there as a Christmas gift. I also had the opportunity to listen to the first quarter of the poems. However, my set was an audio cassette set, very different in appearance from the cassette set currently available from Naxos. Unfortunately, that set seems to have disappeared from the market; what is available is either the full set on CD, or the abridged version on cassette.

Some of the poems are truly marvellous, and well worth buying this set for. The price is great too. Where else can you find some of the greatest names in British theater (and a minor royal) declaiming some of the best poems (as compiled by David Owen) concerning the seven ages of a human being (as listed by William Shakespeare)? While not all the choices appealed to me, it was wonderful to hear the voices of Ian McKellen, David Suchet, Derek Jacobi and others declaim certain lines. The listing of the poems is comprehensive only under popular music (an odd choice, I think). The listing is not available under books (audiobooks), which is a great pity.

The music only introduces each stage. Each of the readers then continues, sans music. Therefore the description of this work as poetry set to music might be a bit misleading.

I think that this volume also might be a bit overwhelming for someone not used to listening to more than a few minutes of poetry. My recommendation is to start out slowly, and then pause for awhile if needed. Gradually, you can build up to listening more. There are almost no pauses in between poems (except for the necessary pause to distinguish one poem and reader from another). A little bit more music in between (every 15 minutes) might have helped. But if you want a lot of poetry and great actors for your money, this little set is a gem.

I rate this about 4.5

Love recorded poetry, and here John Cleese and Michael Caine are great, and selection of poems brought me lots of new stuff I loved. "Bored." The one about the mermaid. Wow. But whoever decided to whisper the speech from Shakespeare needs to be put on the rack. "Stage whisper" means "so the audience can hear." Even with my iPod cranked up all the way, I got zip. It was affected and annoying.

I love the 2 CD set. There are poems which you understand now and some later depending on life experience, I enjoy listening and experiencing these lovely poems by the great poets of all time read by the greatest actors and orators of all time. I really recommend this compilation.

This 2 cd set is based on William Shakespere's "The Seven Ages."
Selected poems are read by well known British actors/actresses with classical music to accompany the readings. Some of my favorites are "The Owl and the Pussycat" read by John Cleese, "A Parental Ode" by Ralph Fiennes, "The Quangle Wangle's Hat" by Connie Booth and "My Heart Leaps Up" by Robert Hardy.
A purchase of this two cd set benefits The Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in memory of Diana, Princess of Wales.

If you are a lover of poetry, you will certainly love this cd set. The speakers do a spectacular job. I highly recommend this product.

I have been playing these 2 cd's over and over in my car. What's not to love about hearing the best of the best British voices reciting excellent poetry? "Flander's Field", very moving. "The Bleedin' Sparrow" read by Michael Caine, laugh-out-loud funny. If you're a fan of Wilfred Owen poetry, you will not be disappointed. Trained voices, such as theirs, open up the beauty of each poem ten-fold.

I was hoping for a musical backdrop to the recitations, but the music only plays for a few moments at the beginning and end of each cd. A shame, because listening to the musical backdrop while Ben Whishaw, as he recited Keats in the movie "Bright Star", added a new dimension to those poems.

P.S. If you do love the poetry of Wilfred Owen, I recommend listening to Benjamin Britten's "War Requiem", as much of the text sung by the English-born tenor, is Owen.

A-List Professional Actors perform exquisitely a broad range of poetic readings, with intermittent music. A beautiful and fun anthology created to support a worthy cause.

This is wonderful and i love listening to it.

Again it would be useful to actually hear segments.

sincerely

marie ryan