Sonnets is a setting of Shakespeare's sonnets which forms part of the larger theatrical work This Holy Fire of Love by Rima Te Wiata, Kristian Lavercombe and Gareth Farr. While Sonnets does not follow the same dramatic narrative as This Holy Fire of Love, it features ten of the 154 sonnets: 26, 24, 144, 56, 113, 114, 130, 80, 18 and 116.
The poetic beat of the sonnets led me in an exciting musical direction. Shakespeare built irregularity into the sonnets, and so it was impossible to get stuck in a de-dum de-dum rhythm. I was free to set the words in an ever-unfolding melody.
