Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A theatre designer who pioneered conceptual, metaphorical sets for British stage, opera, ballet and musicals.
On the island
Eight records
Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26: II. AdagioFavourite
I'm very, very, very partial to the violin. It's my favorite instrument. And of all of that, the Bruch violin concerto, number one, and in this particular instance played by Kyung Wa Chung, is my very, very favorite.
Werther: Pourquoi me réveiller
I chose it because it was one of the first experiences that I had in designing opera. I was given my start by the very famous English soprano Joan Cross, oh, in the fifties, who ran an opera school together with a lady called Anne Wood. And Verter I designed for that little company at Dartington Hall.
Samson et Dalila: Amour! viens aider ma faiblesse
At the time when I did it, it was in I think 1954. There was no complete recording of Samson and Delilah that existed or that I could find. But I had this 10-inch 78 record with this particular aria on one side and Softly Awakes My Heart on the other side. And I designed all three acts of Sampson and Delilah by listening first to one side of this 10-inch and then on the other side.
Alberto Remedios and Rita Hunter
is particularly significant for me because we see quite a major piece of work, Wagner's Ring Cycle for English National Opera, which I was commissioned to do by Stephen Arlen, who was the predecessor to George Lord Harwood.
because I just love her singing, that's all.
Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny: Meine Herren, meine Mutter prägte
there's one particular section that she sang in the nineteen twenty eight production of Mahagoni, which I've chosen for us to listen to now.
is another singer, really not all that unrelated musically to Edith Piev, whose whose whose songs and whose voice I absolutely love, and trying to find the right song for this particular programme, well, I think the audience by now will have got the hang of me.
La Traviata: Addio, del passato
another rather wonderfully romantic area. Um Violetta saying farewell, act three. Auverdis La Traviata, which in fact is one of the operas I directed. And here the aria is being sung by none other than Maria Callas.
In conversation
Presenter asks
11:38Was [attending a Jewish school in Berlin in the 1930s] particularly uncomfortable then?
Oh no, it was not it in fact was the very opposite, it was very comfortable. But the atmosphere of Berlin at the time. Oh, the atmosphere of Berlin, well, one took it in one's stride, that's how it was.
Presenter asks
15:33Had there been anything at all in your background and in this kind of dislocated upbringing that might have pointed towards your theatrical talent, your artistic talent, your design talent?
No, absolutely nothing at all. And the fact that I took up what I did take up was total chance. I joined my mother at a convalescent home in Epsom, where I became a gardener growing vegetables for the war effort. I wasn't particularly good at it or particularly interested at it, but there was an art school in Epsom, Epsom art school. And I joined this in evening classes because it it came about that there was a notice on the building of the convalescent home which said entrance with an arrow. And I thought it was so very badly painted and the lettering was so awful. I thought surely one can do this a bit better than that.
Presenter asks
17:43What was your job [in Nuremberg as part of the intelligence unit]?
The keepsakes
The book
I think I might take um a dictionary with me so that I could try and improve my foreign language. It's probably the French dictionary I'd take with me so that I could improve my French in the hope that I'm going to get rescued.
I was a reference librarian of German law to the British le delegation. Of course I knew absolutely nothing about German law, um but I was given an office in the courthouse in Nuremberg, and I made myself a library.
Presenter asks
18:09Why did you find [Goering] so impressive?
Well, the the fact was that some the not all of them were were stupid. I mean um s the the leaders of the Third Reich they weren't all idiots, some of them were... But when Goering uh was cross-examined, he actually made mincemeat of the leading American prosecutor called Robert Jackson because, you see, the prosecution had been lulled into a sort of false sense of security because the prisoners weren't allowed to talk for about three months while the indictments were being read. And then when they were allowed to talk, it suddenly one discovered they weren't, as I say, they weren't all that stupid.
Presenter asks
29:35Why do you think [designers are often made to feel always like the T-boy]?
Well, I think this is a particular British characteristic. By nature the British I really find the visual art somewhat suspect, and we are very much concerned with the spoken word. And so one tends to consider that directors as sort of people chosen by God to descend upon this earth to be superior to everybody else. And so designers are pushed a bit.
“I like to I enjoy having the concept for the production, and I've tended to work with directors who actually wait for me to have an idea so that I can that that can be motivated to work within that.”
“All m practically all my work happens by accident and I believe that I'm sort of convinced that most of my best work happens by accident and whatever talent I have is recognizing the accident when it happens.”
“I'm concerned with conveying what the piece is about, not where it takes place.”
“I try and have some sort of immediacy because after all the mo the audiences, the audience today is the audience of today, and they are motivated by and and involved in in today's society which thinks in a particular way at a given moment.”