8 Lust Songs: I Sonetti Lussuriosi

design by Russell Mills and Michael Webster

8 Lust Songs: I Sonetti Lussuriosi is a setting by Michael Nyman of 8 pieces of a collection of erotic poetry from Pietro Aretino's I Sonetti Lussuriosi. The songs depict a man and woman's sexual desires for one another in varying contexts. Marie Angel premiered the piece, voicing both the male and female characters, including a voyeuristic old woman, with the Orchestra di Santa Cecilia, conducted by the composer, on 4 October 2007 at the Arsenale in Venice, Italy, on a commission from Venice Biennale. A studio recording with the Michael Nyman Band was released on compact disc 29 July 2008. It is Nyman's 59th album, and the twelfth on his own label.

In a concert on 8 May 2008, the printed programs for a performance of the work at Cadogan Hall were withdrawn on the grounds that they contained obscene content. The U.S. release of the album has a very large Parental Advisory Explicit Content sticker directly on the jewel case, an extreme rarity in classical music (shared with John Moran's The Manson Family, which was quickly withdrawn and became a collectible).