Programme Details

Michael Billington reviews a new production of Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes at the Royal Opera House, and how the deadly virus smallpox changed the course of world.

Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes is one of the most successful of 20 th century operas, a morally ambiguous story about a fisherman who is investigated after the death of his young apprentice. The critic Michael Billington assesses a new production at the Royal Opera House with Ben Heppner in the title role.

The smallpox virus has changed the course of history, helped create empires and wiped out indigenous people - and although it was the first disease to be officially eradicated, it threatens to escape the lab it has been contained in for at least 25 years. Night Waves tells the story of the life and death of smallpox.

It's 50 years since Elvis Presley recorded That's All Right (Mama) at the Sun Studios, a moment which many consider to be the birth of rock and roll. Music writer Patrick Humphries pays his own tribute to the song.

And the theatre and film director Roger Michell talks to Paul Allen about his production of Harold Pinter's darkly erotic drama Old Times at the Donmar Warehouse in London .

PRODUCTION DETAILS


Peter Grimes at the Royal Opera House opens on Saturday July 3rd and runs until July 16 th 2004

The Life and Death of Smallpox by Ian and Jenifer Glynn is published by Profile Books on 22 nd July 2004 , price £17.99

That's All Right (Mama) , recorded on 5 th July 1954 , is being released for the first time in the UK on Monday by BMG Records

Old Times by Harold Pinter, directed by Roger Michell, opens at the Donmar Warehouse in London on 8 th July