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Episode details

Radio 4,03 Jun 2011,30 mins

Rolando Villazón, Kaiser Chiefs, Grey Gardens

Front Row

Available for over a year

With Kirsty Lang Tenor Rolando Villazón has just performed an acclaimed Werther at the Royal Opera House, is releasing a crossover album of Songs From The Movies and is about to appear in a second series of the TV show Popstar to Operastar. Villazon discusses juggling his populist ventures with the demands of his operatic career, and the risky surgery he underwent which could have led to him losing his voice forever. Kaiser Chiefs' new album The Future is Medieval provides twenty tracks on a website and asks listeners to make their own selection of ten tracks. Ricky Wilson and Simon Rix discuss why they've adopted this approach. The Tony awards will be held at the end of next week and once again this year British theatre which has transferred to Broadway has several nominations. Tom Morris, Artistic Director at the Bristol Old Vic, who is up for best director for his production of War Horse, and David Babani, Artistic Director of the Menier Chocolate Factory, who is proud of their non-subsidy status, discuss the pros and cons of public subsidy in the theatre. One of the big events of this year's Sheffield Documentary Festival is an outdoor screening of Grey Gardens, the 1975 'non-fiction feature' about the reclusive aunt and cousin of Jackie Onassis who lived in squalor in their dilapidated East Hampton home. Documentary film-maker Jane Treays reassesses the Maysles Brothers' film 35 years on. Producer Jerome Weatherald.

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