Many shows in citywide Seattle Celebrates Shakespeare festival mix music and the Bard

The Seattle Times: We don’t know much about William Shakespeare the man, but we know a lot about Shakespeare the writer. And it’s safe to assume that he was a music lover.

Many references to music (some 2,000) glimmer through his works, and his scripts often include lyrics to songs meant to be sung onstage.

Though other Elizabethan playwrights included lyrics in their texts, the Bard of Avon inserted more than usual. And he was innovative in even folding songs into such tragedies as “King Lear.”