After many years as a folk singer, Barbara Dickson went on to become one of Britain’s most popular recording and concert artistes. This film shows off the diversity of her vocal talent and she is seen tackling a classical aria for the first time – Gluck’s Che faro senza Euridice from Orfeo ed Euridice.
The Penguin Cafe Orchestra
Under its leader and composer Simon Jeffes, this ensemble has been making its own idiosyncratic brand of music since the mid-1970s, drawing on classical and avant-garde sources, as well as pop, folk and ethnic forms, with instruments ranging from the piano, cello, violin and drums, to the ukelele, electric guitar and penny whistle. A studio recording of performances by the PCO is punctuated with interviews in which they discuss their original and eclectic style.
Missa Glagolitica
In this recording, Janácek’s great choral work, the Glagolitic Mass, is performed by the Czech Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra, conducted by Václav Neumann, with Jan Hora on the organ. The soloists are Gabriela Benackova (soprano), Drahomira Drobkova (contralto), Josef Kundlak (tenor) and Sergej Kopcak (bass).
Gabriela Benackova (soprano), Drahomira Drobkova (contralto), Josef Kundlak (tenor) and Sergej Kopcak (bass).
Gluck: Winds of Change
Gluck had an insatiable appetite for success and its rewards, and also for food and drink. In 1787, he finally gorged himself to death and died while on a carriage ride with his devoted wife. This fatal outing is the starting point of Inger Åby’s stylised dramatisation of Gluck’s life, set to some of his most beautiful music and filmed in historic settings around Stockholm, including the Drottningholm Palace, with its magnificent eighteenth-century theatre.
Jardi Tancat
Nacho Duato’s ballet Jardi Tancat is based on the lyrics of old Catalan folk songs, set to music and sung by María del Mar Bonnet. Its theme is the joy and pain of working the land and it is danced by three couples who continue to sow, plant, reap and thresh in proud defiance of their barren surroundings. In this programme, a performance of Jardi Tancat is preceded by an introduction in which the Spanish dancer/ choreographer talks about his work. There is film of rehearsals for the ballet and Duato is also seen preparing for the lead role in Jiri Kylián’s L’Histoire du soldat.
Fay Godwin
No photographer has captured such a complete portrait of rural Britain in the late twentieth century as Fay Godwin, using a camera rather than a brush to continue a centuries-old British tradition of landscape artistry. This programme travels with her as she charts her personal vision of the British countryside – one that finds beauty not only in the grandeur of mountains and mists but also in the bleak landscape surrounding a nuclear power station.
Anthony Green
A leading member of the Royal Academy, Green is an outstanding painter in the tradition of English individualism. He is noted for his extraordinarily detailed paintings which lovingly tell the story of his life and his marriage. This film on his work shows Green at his London home, where he takes viewers through his work with a lively commentary.
Fyodor Dostojewski
Saul Bellow
In this programme, the Nobel Prize-winning author gives a rare television interview and talks in depth about his novel, The Dean’s December. An attack on the physical and spiritual decline of modern city life, the book was inspired by Bellow’s experience of his native Chicago.
The Al Jolson Story
Little has ever been heard of the true Al Jolson – the extravagant womaniser, who poached material, went in for outrageous contractual manoeuvrings and whose occasional ruthless cruelty left him few real friends among a host of hangers-on. This colourful and candid profile of the legendary singer includes extensive film clips, rare archive and home movie footage, together with a number of interviews with those who knew him well.