ROH premiere of 1984
Tuesday 3 May 2005 21:30-22:15 (Radio 3)
Robert Lepage makes his Royal Opera House directorial debut with the world premiere of 1984. Based on George Orwell's novel, the production stars Simon Keenlyside and Nancy Gustafson.
Programme Details
BBC2 has great claims for its new series on the history and meaning of Art. How Art Made The World tells the story of how the images that we surround ourselves with today cannot be divorced from history and from the ways in which humans made art and images thousands of years ago. In Night Waves Robert Hanks talks to the series presenter - archaeologist, art historian and classicist Dr Nigel Spivey - about the far-reaching impact that ancient art has on our contemporary scene. And, if it's images of the human body that dominate our contemporary world, then has it always been the case? And were the bodies of old as idealised and often as unrealistic as those portrayed today?
Grave warnings are emerging from the Royal Opera House about the threat an intolerant and impersonal society poses to our basic humanity. This comes in the form of Lorin Maazel's setting of George Orwell's 1984 which has its world premiere at the Opera House tonight directed by the Canadian theatre and film director Robert Lepage. Anthony Holden offers an instant review on tonight's performance.
Also on the programme, the poet Helen Farish talks about her new collection Intimates - which offers a series of highly personal and passionate observations on love and loss - and describes her experiences as writer-in-residence at the Wordsworth Trust at Grasmere. And Jose Arroyo reviews Machuca, a new film from Chile which examines life there in the early 1970's and the last days of the Pinochet regime as seen through the eyes of two eleven year old boys.
Night Waves, live at 9.30pm here on BBC Radio 3.
Presenter: Robert Hanks
Producer: Anthony Denselow
Additional Information:
1) How Art Made The World begins on BBC2 on May 9 at 9pm.
2) Machuca opens at selected cinemas around the country on Friday - Cert 15
3) Helen Farish's first poetry collection, Intimates, is published by Cape Poetry.
4) 1984 opens tonight at the Opera House, Covent Garden, in London.
