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Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music.

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Morgan Quaintance

Sarah Connolly

Alison Brackenbury

Vaseem Khan

Testament

Angie Errigo

Matt Wolf

Joseph Middleton

Julian May

Front Row: Mezzo-Soprano Sarah Connolly, Inspire Season Commissions, The Producers at 50

Mezzo-Soprano Sarah Connolly, Inspire Season Commissions, The Producers at 50

03/08/2018

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, Mezzo-Soprano Sarah Connolly, Inspire Season Commissions, The Producers at 50

Opera star Sarah Connolly sings English songs.

Sarah Connolly swaps mighty operatic roles for delicate English songs. And a poet, a crime writer and a rapper - three artists commissioned by Front Row for the Inspire season.

The mezzo-soprano Dame Sarah Connolly is an opera star, singing the big roles at La Scala, The Met, Glyndebourne and the Royal Opera House. Her latest project is much more modest yet very ambitious; 'Come to Me in My Dreams' is a CD of songs and poems, mostly English - Shakespeare, Blake, Housman - set by composers all of whom studied or taught at the Royal School of Music. She talks to Morgan Quaintance about the attraction of simply singing, how she found the material - which includes two settings by Benjamin Britten never before recorded - and what connects these works that span a dozen centuries. Dame Sarah and accompanist Joseph Middleton perform a song from the album for Front Row ahead of a Prom performance on Monday.

As part of Front Row's Inspire season we set three artists, the poet Alison Brackenbury, crime writer Vaseem Khan and rapper and playwright Testament, a challenge: to seek out inspiration, act on it and over the next six weeks create an original piece each, which they will perform live in the programme on 7th September. The three artists talk about their hopes and ideas.

'The Producers', Mel Brooks' classic comedy musical film and Broadway show, whose hit song and dance number 'Springtime for Hitler' features Nazis doing the can-can is 50 years old. Critics Angie Errigo and Matt Wolf consider its virtues, foibles and if, given the political state of the world now, such a film could be made today.

Presenter: Morgan Quaintance
Producer: Julian May.

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