Dinsdale Landen in Hector's Fixed Idea
(The Absurd Life and Times of Hector Berlioz) by BRUCE STEWART with Elizabeth Bell as Harriet Smithson
Peter Woodthorpe as Rossini and Clive Swift as Liszt
I suppose I've got to tell you the truth: but under protest. It's like this. My sweetheart in Paris wrote to me saying she intended to marry her elderly admirer. I thought I should return and shoot her for her faithlessness, and the admirer because - well, he really is very elderly; it seemed to me it might be a kindness to him. I dressed as a woman because I hoped in that way to look less like an avenging lover thirsty for blood.
Directed by JOHN THEOCHARIS (Repeated: Monday 3.5 pm)
(Berlioz's Romeo and Juliet, Live from the Royal Festival Hall, tomorrow, R3, 7.30 pm)