Philip Glass, Between Worlds, English Touring Opera, Inside Song

Acknowledged as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century, Philip Glass's new memoir 'Words without Music' follows his story from his childhood in Baltimore, via the Juilliard school of music, studying under Nadia Boulanger in Paris to worldwide recognition. Sara Mohr-Pietsch asks Glass about how he approached writing the book and some of the many encounters inside it. Sara reviews the book with Mark Swed, the classical music critics of the Los Angeles Times.

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Philip Glass - Words Without Music - A memoir

Philip Glass

Composer Tansy Davies's first opera 'Between Worlds' opens at the Barbican Theatre in London on Saturday 11th April. Co-commissioned by English National Opera and the Barbican, it’s inspired by the events of 9/11. Sara meets Tansy along with the opera’s librettist Nick Drake and director Deborah Warner to find out more about this highly anticipated piece and why they felt the time was right to address the events of 9/11 on the opera stage.

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Between Worlds - 11th-25th April at the Barbican Theatre, London

BBC Radio 3 broadcast of Between Worlds - Saturday 2nd May - 1015pm

English Touring Opera play in more venues than any other English opera company. Sara takes a trip to Norwich to explore life on the road with ETO who were at the city’s Theatre Royal to perform Puccini's La Boheme and two rare Donizetti operas. She talks to members of the company and Artistic Director James Conway about the challenges and joys of a touring opera company.

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English Touring Opera

The next instalment in the occasional series for Music Matters in which Professor Cliff Eisen goes 'Inside Song,' forensically examining the music and lyrics of some of the greatest songs in musical history, and telling the stories behind the melodies.

Today it’s the turn of Francis Poulenc’s “C”, a setting of Louis Aragon’s 1942 poem of the same name. It is a lament for the destruction of the bridges spanning the Loire river in France during the Second World War – and indeed the possible destruction of the whole French way of life. It ends however with a ray of hope, something much needed when Poulenc composed this song in 1943.

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Listen to Inside Song: Cole Porter's Miss Otis Regrets

Listen to Inside Song: Schubert's Der Zwerg