Main content

The Moderate Soprano, Mark Wigglesworth, Stravinsky

Tom Service is joined by Mark Wigglesworth, ENO's new music director. Plus a new book on Stravinsky and Felicity Palmer reviewing David Hare's new play The Moderate Soprano.

Tom Service talks to Mark Wigglesworth, the new Music Director of ENO, about starting his tenure amidst turbulent times for the company, and the mezzo Dame Felicity Palmer and critic Michael Billington review a new play by David Hare, 'The Moderate Soprano', which dramatises John Christie's ambitious plan to construct an Opera House on his Sussex estate in 1934.

Available now

45 minutes

Last on

Mon 2 Nov 2015 22:00

The Moderate Soprano

The Moderate Soprano

In 1934, John Christie and his wife, opera singer Audrey Mildmay, founded the annual Glyndebourne Festival Opera, along with Carl Ebert, Fritz Busch and Rudolf Bing.

David Hare’s new play, now on at the Hampstead Theatre, tells the story of the festival’s unlikely beginnings, with Roger Allam in the role of John Christie and Nancy Carroll as the titular moderate soprano.

Theatre critic Michael Billington and mezzo-soprano Dame Felicity Palmer review the new play, dramatizing John Christie’s ambitious plan to construct an Opera House on his Sussex estate.

More information:

Mark Wigglesworth

Mark Wigglesworth

Tom meets the new music director of English National Opera, as he prepares for the opening of a new production of Verdi’s The Force of Destiny. He starts his tenure amidst turbulent times for the company, and he tells Tom about challenges of funding at ENO, and how every opera house should be thinking of a Ring Cycle.

More information:

Critical Lives: Igor Stravinsky

Critical Lives: Igor Stravinsky

The Critical Lives books series presents the work of leading cultural figures of the modern period. In this new volume, musicologist Jonathan Cross gives an overview of Stravinsky’s life and work in the context of the turbulent twentieth century.

Tom Service talks to Jonathan about the many facets of Stravinsky the man and his music, and reviews the book with the musicologist Morag Grant. 

More information:

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Tom Service
Interviewed Guest Mark Wigglesworth
Interviewed Guest Felicity Palmer
Interviewed Guest Michael Billington

Broadcasts

  • Sat 31 Oct 2015 12:15
  • Mon 2 Nov 2015 22:00

Knock on wood – six stunning wooden concert halls around the world

Steel and concrete can't beat good old wood to produce the best sounds for music.

The evolution of video game music

Tom Service traces the rise of an exciting new genre, from bleeps to responsive scores.

Why music can literally make us lose track of time

Try our psychoacoustic experiment to see how tempo can affect your timekeeping abilities.

Podcast