The Moderate Soprano, Mark Wigglesworth, Stravinsky

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:
The Moderate Soprano at the Hampstead Theatre
The history of Glyndebourne

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.

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Mark Wigglesworth
ENO The Force of Destiny

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:
Jonathan Cross – Igor Stravinsky