This on-going series of ten-minute programmes introduces some of opera’s finest
moments, performed and presented by some of the greatest singers of our day, Dame Joan
Sutherland, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Eva Marton, Marilyn Home, Anne Sofie von Otter, Roberto Alagna,
Philip Langridge, René Kollo and Yuri Marusin among them. Their performances are drawn from
recent live recordings of acclaimed productions of key works in the operatic repertoire and
include such high-spots as Vissi d’arte from Puccini’s Tosca, the Mad Scene from Donizetti’s
Lucia di Lammermoor, Elektra’s murderous confrontation with her mother in Strauss’s Elektra, and
Leonora’s D’amor sull’ali rosee from the final act of Puccini’s Tosca.
Night on a Bare Mountain and Pictures at an Exhibition are firm favourites in the classical repertoire but, like many of Mussorgsky’s famous works, they are rarely performed as he wrote them. This programme, filmed on location in Russia, examines why his genius has been so obscured. It focuses on the detective work undertaken by the Singer Yevgeny Nesterenko, and the British conductor, David Lloyd-Jones, to uncover the details of the life and work of Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881).
Christopher Bruce’s ballet uses an inventive choreographic language to enact the horrors of a brutal interrogation. Two uniformed guards (Matz Skoog and Kevin Richmond) conjure up a terrifying music-hall double act, smiling maliciously as they torture their victim (Koen Onzia) who, in moments of respite, expresses his longing for freedom in passages of lyrical beauty. The piece is set to an original electronic score by Philip Chambon. This production was recorded in studio.
Harry Kupfer’s harrowing realisation of Zimmermann’s radical opera reveals the ful compassion and humanity of the work, and harnesses to maximum effect the vast theatrical and musical resources it requires. It tells the story of the degradation of a young girl in the hands of a corrupt and egotistical military aristocracy, and several courses of dramatic action unfold simultaneously, so that past, present and future merge in tableaux of the monstrous, dehumanising effects of war. The cast includes Nancy Shade, Michael Ebbecke and William Cochran. Bernhard Kontarsky conducts.
In an interview filmed in his native Hungary, one of Europe’s leading directors, Istvan Szabo, talks about his beliefs, his background and his career. His vision is illustrated with extensive clips from his work, from the early award-winning Father to Hanussen. Lighting cameraman Lajos Koltai talks about his collaboration with the film-maker, as does actor Klaus Maria Brandauer, who was critically acclaimed for his performances in Szabo’s Oscar-winning Mephisto and Colonel Redi.
The maverick playwright, director and actor talks about his life and work in the typically graphic language which characterises his radical and controversial plays – theatre which, in his words, “opens the skull and puts on the stage a writhing can of worms”. The programme includes extracts from Berkoff’s Salome, Greek, East, Metamorphosis and Decadence, and features contributions from Roman Polanski, Mikhail Baryshnikov and the late Joe Papp.
Photographer David Bailey made his name in the early 1960s when his pictures, his image and his lifestyle epitomised ‘Swinging London’. More recently he has turned to film-making. In this programme, he talks in interview and is seen behind the camera as well as in front of it. The full range of his work is explored and there are contributions from some of his famous subjects, including Jean Shrimpton, Marie Helvin and Terence Stamp.
Ben Elton is one of Britain’s most prolific purveyors of TV comedy both as a performer and as a writer, with series such as Blackadder and The Young Ones to his credit. In interview, Elton talks about his career, examining the influences and motivations which drive his writing. The programme includes clips from his comedy shows and his to-camera routines, as well as dramatised extracts from his first novel, Stark.
A major exhibition of the lithographs of Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) at London’s Royal Academy is the starting point for a programme on one of the most colourful figures in late nineteenth-century art, famous for his pictures of Parisian dance halls and cabarets. Artists, scholars and admirers are invited to comment on their choice of work from the exhibition.
Sundance is a unique film development unit founded and run by Redford at his ski resort in the Utah mountains, an area he is striving to conserve. Each year, young film-makers are invited to work with professionals in an environment which encourages experiment and is free of the commercial pressures of Hollywood. This programme follows two film-makers during their time at Sundance and shows prime-mover Redford taking part in proceedings as ‘Ordinary Bob’.
