Nigel Hess starring Dame Judi Dench and Dame Maggie Smith. The music has become popular worldwide, and was performed in the film by violinist Joshua Bell with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. While Hess was House Composer for the Royal Shakespeare Company he contributed twenty scores for RSC productions, and highlights from his Shakespeare scores have been recorded and performed by the RPO in concert as "The Food of Love", hosted by Dame Judi Dench and Sir Patrick Stewart. His most recent RSC scores were for Christopher Luscombe's productions of "Love's Labour's Lost" and "Love's Labour's Won". Hess was awarded the New York
Judi Dench her most notable achievements with the RSC was her performance as Lady Macbeth in 1976. Nunn's acclaimed production of "Macbeth" was first staged with a minimalist design at The Other Place theatre in Stratford. Its small round stage focused attention on the psychological dynamics of the characters, and both Ian McKellen in the title role, and Dench, received exceptionally favourable notices. "If this is not great acting I don't know what is", wrote Michael Billington in "The Guardian". "It will astonish me if the performance is matched by any in this actress's generation", commented J C Trewin in "The Lady".