3. Adaptations

Available for over a year

Award-winning writer Stephen Wyatt is on a mission. He thinks that the contribution of the librettist to opera and musical theatre is too often under-appreciated or just plain ignored. It’s true that many operas and musicals are derived from existing plays, novels and films. But it would be wrong to assume that our ignored librettists are just hacks and that adapting an existing work is an "easy" option. Far from it. Stephen looks at how librettist Francesco Maria Piave and Giuseppe Verdi radically reworked La Dame aux camélias, a novel and play by Alexandre Dumas fils, to create one of the best-loved operas in the repertoire - La Traviata - and the long and tortuous process by which Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin stories were reimagined as the musical Cabaret. Production Coordinator: Nina Semple Sound: Sean Kerwin Producer: Torquil MacLeod Executive Producer: Peter Hoare A Pier production for BBC Radio 4