Seven Ages of Man

Abstract

This text accompanies an 'a capella' concert performed at the 'Cruzamentos disciplinares em Educação e Humanidades' International Symposium held at the Facultad de Letras, University of Coimbra, Portugal. The concert was inspired by Jaques' soliloquy 'The Seven Ages of Man' from Shakespeare's As You Like It (1599). Jaques depicts the roles of men and women who are “merely players” on the world's stage: they play their parts in infancy and childhood, as lovers, soldiers, and judges, in old age and death. The songs chosen for this concert, sung in five languages in a variety of musical styles, take the listener through seven slightly different stages of life: infancy, childhood, the joys of youth, love, lost love, old age and death.