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The Eternal City

Texts and music about everyday life in ancient Rome, with readings by Sian Phillips and Peter Marinker. Includes Pliny, Juvenal and Dickens, plus Wagner, Orff, Rota and Respighi.

Sian Phillips and Peter Marinker with words and music about everyday life in Ancient Rome including texts by Pliny, Juvenal, Dickens, Henry James, Mark Twain, W.H Auden & Kipling. And music by Wagner, Carl Orff, Nino Rota, Stephen Sondheim, John Williams, Respighi, Allegri, Berlioz, Britten and Puccini.

1 hour, 15 minutes

Last on

Tue 30 Dec 2014 16:30
大象传媒 Radio 3

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Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • Joachim du Bellay, trans. Edmund Spenser

    Who List the Roman Greatness Forth to Figure (Ruins of Rome No 26), reader Sian Phillips

  • 00:00

    Richard Wagner - Overture from 'Rienzi'

    Performer: London Classical Players, Roger Norrington (conductor)

  • 00:02

    Luigi Rossi

    Passacaille del seigneur Luigi

    Performer: Andrew Lawrence-King (double harp)

    • Das Alte Werk.
    • 2564-694555 Tr4.

  • Pliny, trans. John B. Firth

    The Letters of Pliny the Younger Series 1/Vol 1/Letter XV/To Septicius Clarus, reader Peter Marinker

  • 00:05

    Carl Orff

    Catulli Carmina (excerpt)

    Performer: Lothar Odinius (tenor), Linz Mozart Choir, Munich Radio Orchestra, Franz Welser-M枚st (conductor)

    • EMI.
    • CDC 5-55517-2 Tr2.

  • Edgar Saltus

    Imperial Purple from Conjectural Rome (excerpt), reader Sian Phillips

  • 00:08

    Richard Wagner, arr. Henk De Vlieger

    Valhalla from 'The Ring - An Orchestral Adventure'

    Performer: Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Edo De Waart (conductor)

    • Challenge Classics.
    • CC-72338 Tr 4.

  • Juvenal, trans. George Gilbert Ramsay

    Satire 4 (excerpt), reader Peter Marinker

  • 00:13

    Nino Rota

    La Dolce Vita (Finale)

    Performer: Prague City Philharmonic Orchestra, Kenneth Alwyn (conductor)

    • Silva Screen.
    • Film CD 180 Tr 10.
  • 00:13

    Nino Rota

    La Dolce Vita (Finale)

    Performer: Prague City Philharmonic Orchestra, Kenneth Alwyn (conductor)

    • Silva Screen.
    • Film CD 180 Tr 10.
  • 00:16

    Nino Rota

    La Dolce Vita (Finale)

    Performer: Prague City Philharmonic Orchestra, Kenneth Alwyn (conductor)

    • Silva Screen.
    • Film CD 180 Tr 10.
  • 00:17

    Stephen Sondheim

    A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

    Performer: Frankie Howerd, Isla Blair, John Rye (vocals), Studio Orchestra, Alyn Ainsworth (conductor)

    • EMI.
    • 7 89060 2 Tr 7.

  • Baroness Orczy

    Unto Caesar (excerpt), reader Sian Phillips

  • 00:22

    Mikl贸s R贸zsa - Parade of the Charioteers from 'Ben-Hur - music for the film'

    Performer: Prague City Philharmonic Orchestra, Kenneth Alwyn (conductor)

  • 00:28

    John Williams

    Jaws - music for the film (excerpt)

    Performer: Prague City Philharmonic Orchestra, Paul Bateman (conductor)

    • Silva Screen.
    • Film CD 180 CD 2 Tr 10.
  • 00:29

    Ottorino Respighi

    Pini presso una catacomba from 'The Pines of Rome' (excerpt)

    Performer: New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Giuseppe Sinopoli (conductor)

    • Deutsche Grammophon.
    • 4375342 Tr 6.

  • Vernon Lee

    The Spirit of Rome: The Catacombs (excerpt), reader Peter Marinker

  • 00:36

    Gregorio Allegri

    Miserere Mei Deus (excerpt)

    Performer: The Sixteen, Harry Christophers (conductor)

    • Coro.
    • Cor-16014 Tr 3.

  • Charles Dickens

    Pictures from Italy (excerpt), reader Sian Phillips

  • 00:41

    Hector Berlioz

    Overture from 'A Roman Carnival'

    Performer: Dresden State Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis (conductor)

    • RCA.
    • 09026 -68790-2 Tr 4.

  • Henry James

    Italian Hours: A Roman Holiday (excerpt), reader Peter Marinker

  • Mark Twain

    The Innocents Abroad (excerpt), reader Sian Phillips

  • 00:53

    Benjamin Britten

    Veggio co'bei vostri occhi un dolce lume from '7 Sonnets of Michelangelo'

    Performer: Benjamin Britten (piano), Peter Pears (tenor)

    • Decca.
    • 425 996-2 Tr 11.
  • 00:56

    Giacomo Puccini

    Act 3 Prelude from 'Tosca'

    Performer: Walter Baratti (treble), National Philharmonic Orchestra, Nicola Rescigno (conductor)

    • Decca.
    • 414-036-2 CD 2 Tr 13.

  • Fernando Pessoa

    Antinous (excerpt), reader Peter Marinker

  • 01:06

    Nino Rota

    La tromba di Polydor from 'La Dolce Vita - music for the film'

    Performer: La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra, Riccardo Muti (conductor)

    • Sony.
    • 63359 Tr 10.

  • W. H. Auden

    Roman Wall Blues, reader Sian Phillips

  • Rudyard Kipling

    The Roman Centurion's Song, reader Peter Marinker

  • 01:08

    Ottorino Respighi

    I pini della Via Appia from 'The Pines of Rome'

    Performer: New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Giuseppe Sinopoli (conductor)

    • Deutsche Grammophon.
    • 4375342 Tr 8.

Producer Note

This programme aims to conjure up everyday life in ancient Rome through the eyes of authors both ancient and modern. Below I have sketched in some of the reasons for my music choices.

Bellay鈥檚 poem describes the heroic grandeur of Rome. And no one does heroic grandeur better than Wagner whose first operatic success, Rienzi, was set in Rome.

Our first ancient Roman author, Pliny, is known for his colourful and gossipy letters which give us a vivid account of everyday life in the capital. Here he berates a friend for standing him up for supper and proceeds to list the opulent dishes that he would have been served.

Catullus wrote some of the most erotic and sensual poetry in Latin or any other language. The Carl Orff extract starts with a famous 2 line poem that encapsulates the agony and ecstasy of love 鈥� and has never been improved upon:

Odi et amo. quare id faciam, fortasse requiris?

nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior.

聽(I hate and I love. Why do I do it, perhaps you might ask?

I don't know, but I feel it happening to me and I'm burning up.)

The American Edgar Saltus wrote highly refined prose in the style of Oscar Wilde. Here he conjures up a late Romantic vision of Roman luxury and decadence. Cue Wagner again, whose vision of a flawed and meretricious Valhalla could also describe the Rome of Augustus.

The final Latin poet in this section is the scabrous Juvenal whose Satires pull no punches. The misogynistic 4th Satire is a larger-than-life take on Roman womanhood.

Nina Rota鈥檚 score to Fellini鈥檚 film, La Dolce Vita, captures the self-indulgent, glittery world of Rome in the 1950s, and seems to fit the sleazy tone of the Juvenal.

Stephen Sondheim and Frankie Howerd satirize this outdated male view of women in the musical, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

The Baroness Orczy is another period piece. She made her name with historical fiction that is both racy and melodramatic. In this extract she describes the gruesome scene where Caligula鈥檚 pet panther is let lose on a couple of Christians in the amphitheatre. She paces the action with a cinematic technique that cries out for the Technicolor pageantry of Miklos Rosza (Ben-Hur) and the blood-chilling double-basses of John Williams (Jaws).

After the kill, we descend into the catacombs where Vernon Lee describes the emptiness and desolation he feels contemplating the remains of Rome鈥檚 early Christians.

A brief diversion into tourist mode. First up, Dickens who is distinctly underwhelmed by St Peter鈥檚 but curiously moved by the ruins of the Coliseum.

Henry James is disappointed that Roman Carnivals just aren鈥檛 what they used to be. And Mark Twain has had it up to here with Michelangelo.

For me the piece of music that conjures up Rome more than any other comes in the brief orchestral Prelude to Act 3 of Puccini鈥檚 Tosca. As dawn breaks over Castel Sant鈥橝ngelo (aka the Mausoleum of Hadrian) a shepherd boy sings of love as the bells of Rome ring for matins. Puccini is very particular in the score about the different sizes of off-stage bells to be used at various points in the music. And this famous Decca recording captures it perfectly.

The melancholy mood of the Puccini leads us into the rain-sodden meditation of the Emperor Hadrian as he weeps over the corpse of his lover the impossibly handsome and epicene Antinous.

Hadrian leads to thoughts of 鈥淩ome鈥� being a political concept that extends well beyond modern Italy. At Hadrian鈥檚 Wall, Auden鈥檚 soldier makes the familiar complaint about British weather. By contrast, Kipling鈥檚 centurion is sad to be called back to Rome.

The programme ends with Respighi鈥檚 epic soundscape in which he describes the Roman legions marching back to Rome along the Appian Way.

Producer: Clive Portbury

Broadcasts

  • Sun 21 Aug 2011 22:15
    大象传媒 Radio 3
  • Tue 30 Dec 2014 16:30
    大象传媒 Radio 3

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