Alban Berg (1885-1935) lived in the mainstream of well-to-do Austrian society. His marriage to the beautiful Hélène was thought to be made in heaven. But how can this doyen of Viennese respectability be reconciled with the composer who wrote the dark operas Wozzeck and Lulu? This multi-layered film explores Berg’s double life. Soprano Kristine Ciesinki, who features in specially-staged extracts from Lulu and Wozzeck, travels to Vienna, Prague, the USA and Germany to track down important archive documents and people who can recall the composer’s presence in their lives.
Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller is universally regarded as one of the world’s leading contemporary playwrights, with modern classics including Death of a Salesman and The Crucible to his credit. This interview with Miller was recorded as The Ride Down Mount Morgan opened in London. Written when he was seventy-six, it was his first full-length play in more than a decade. Miller talks about the piece, revealing not only his disenchantment with American theatre and culture, but also his deep concern for the moral and spiritual welfare of his country.
Colin Thubron
This programme follows the celebrated travel writer Colin Thubron into the Muslim republic of Uzbekistan. It gathers impressions of past and present, landscape and buildings, ordinary people and everyday customs. But, above all, it is a portrait of the writer himself, of the passions and hardships of his craft, of the peculiar mixture of robustness and sensitivity required of him.
Noel Coward
Noel Coward (1899-1973) left a legacy of more than fifty plays, four hundred songs, several volumes of prose and verse and twenty film appearances. Appraising the work of this consummate theatrical artist, this portrait includes contributions from friends and colleagues, and specially-staged excerpts from his best plays. Extensive interviews with Coward are featured, recorded at his homes in Jamaica and in England, and material from his private archive illustrates his story.
Anthony Hopkins
Famed for his Oscar-winning portrayal of Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, the charismatic actor Anthony Hopkins talks frankly about his career in this revealing profile. He talks about the sense of isolation he suffered for much of his life, about his alcoholism and the moment he chose to stop drinking his life away. With location filming in his native Wales and in America, the programme traces his formative influences and looks at his career on both sides of the Atlantic.
From the House of the Dead
From the Salzburg Festival 1992
Based on Dostoevsky’s ‘diary’ of his years as a political detainee, Janácek’s singular opera, with ist profoundly disturbing, but ultimately uplifting, message about the human condition, is set in a nineteenth-century Siberian prison camp. This Salzburg Festival production by Klaus-Michael Grüber graphically depicts the grinding tedium of life in this penal colony. A superb cast is headed by the great Bulgarian bass Nicolai Ghiaurov, and Claudio Abbado conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in a performance hailed as a musical triumph. (Sung in the original Czech version)
The Pet Shop Boys
This programme looks at the Pet Shop Boys phenomenon, with Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe revealing the inspiration behind their distinctive brand of pop music. Video clips and film of their spectacular stage shows capture the Pet Shop Boys in action, singing hits such as It’s a Sin, Domino Dancing and Where the Streets Have No Name. Liza Minnelli, with whom they have worked, is a contributor.
The Secret Life of Sir Arnold Bax
The English composer Sir Arnold Bax (1883-1953) wrote intensely picturesque and romantic music. Ken Russell’s film takes up Bax’s story in the late 1940s, when the composer had just written the score for Lean’s film of Oliver Twist. It dramatises an imaginary affair with a cinema usherette-cum-fan-dancer – a composite of the many flirtations Bax indulged in – and concerns the artist’s struggle to maintain his ideals, loyalty and vision. Russell himself plays Bax and his portrait of a sad old man whose music has fallen out of favour is true and moving. The cast also includes Glenda Jackson.
Te Deum
Following his comeback performance at the Vienna State Opera in 1988, this gala concert from the Alte Oper Frankfurt given on September 12, 1992, was one in a series of highly acclaimed performances that marked José Carreras’ return to the concert platform after his battle against leukaemia in 1987/88. Providing the high musical and artistic level of this evening, alongside Carreras are the Vienna Philharmonic – celebrating ist 150th anniversary –, the Vienna State Opera Chorus, the Prague Philharmonic Choir and the Tölzer Boys Choir, all under the baton of conductor Claudio Abbado.
The Parsons Dance Company II
David Parsons is one of the golden boys of American dance, combining great popular appeal with quality and integrity of ideas and execution. As artistic director, choreographer and dancer, he has transferred to his own troupe, The Parsons Dance Company – eight exceptionally polished and energetic dancers – the charm, virtuosity and physical power that made him a star of the Paul Taylor Dance Company. A witty terseness and probing intelligence mark his choreography, which conceals its difficulty behind a silky casualness. Many of his pieces have been absorbed into the repertoires of leading ballet companies including the Paris Opera Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre, and he continues to develop his work, demonstrating a true commitment to real, satisfying, dancing. Parsons’ work is featured in three studio recordings, which demonstrate the diversity of his influences and his mastery of a wide range of styles. Versatility excites him and, with each piece he creates, he explores a new vocabulary of movement, searches for a fresh emotional colour, often working with a different design team. The music he chooses ranges from Mozart and Rossini to Robert Fripp and specially-commissioned scores. Lighting designs by Howell Binkley enhance all the stagings. David Parsons introduces each of the seven pieces presented in these programmes and it is easy to see why his charm, energy and integrity have won him such a considerable following.