4 episodes
| Episode | Title | First Broadcast | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Romeo And Juliet | 19970814 | In the first programme, Peter Conrad sets out the Shakespearean framework by introducing stage versions of `Romeo and Juliet' by, among others, Berlioz, Bellini, Gounod, Prokofiev and Leonard Bernstein |
| 02 | A Midsummer Night | 19970821 | In the second programme, Peter Conrad introduces versions of `A Midsummer Night's Dream' by Purcell, Lampe, Britten and Mendelssohn, `Measure for Measure' by Wagner, `The Taming of the Shrew' by Hermann Goetz and Cole Porter, `The Comedy of Errors' by Isa Krejci and Rodgers and Hart, and `Much Ado about Nothing' by Stanford and Berlioz. |
| 03 | Comedy | 19970828 | Peter Conrad goes in search of Shakespearean comedy and introduces versions of the Falstaff story as found in the Henry plays and `The Merry Wives of Windsor' by Salieri, Nicolai, Verdi, Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Holst. |
| 04 LAST | The Tragedies | 19970904 | `Macbeth', `Othello', `Hamlet' and `King Lear' - and finds versions by Verdi, Rossini, Ambroise Thomas, Strauss, Wolfgang Rihm, Aribert Reimann and Shostakovich. |