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All the World's a Stage

Texts and music on the theme of theatre and showbusiness, with readings by Henry Goodman and Samantha Bond. With Shakespeare, Hardy, Eliot, plus Puccini, Purcell, Sondheim, Ades.

The lights, the greasepaint, the roar of applause: there's no business like show business and this week's Words and Music turns the spotlight on the theatre and showbiz. Actors have fascinated audiences from ancient Greece through to the groundlings of Shakespeare's Globe, on into modern movie houses; and the theatre has been both celebrated as a grand metaphor for life and denigrated as the the site of moral decay. Henry Goodman and Samantha Bond read from work by Shakespeare, Thomas Hardy, John Dryden, T.S Eliot and Dorothy Parker, accompanied by the music of Puccini, Irving Berlin, Purcell, Sondheim and Thomas Ades.

Producer: Georgia Mann.

1 hour, 15 minutes

Last on

Boxing Day 2011 17:00
ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3

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Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • 00:00

    Alwyn

    Elizabethan Dances, Moderato e ritmico

    Performer: LSO, conducted by Richard Hickox

    • Chandos CHAN8902.
    • 4.

  • Shakespeare

    Henry V, Prologue. Samantha Bond.

  • 00:02

    Alwyn

    Elizabethan Dances, Moderato e ritmico

    Performer: LSO, conducted by Richard Hickox

    • Chandos CHAN8902.
    • 4.

  • T.S Eliot

    Gus the Theatre Cat. Henry Goodman

  • 00:07

    Irving Berlin

    There's No Business Like Show Business

    Performer: Original cast and chorus of Annie Get Your Gun

    • MCA Classics MCAD-10047.
    • 12.
  • 00:10

    Joseph Haydn

    Sonata in G Major, prestissimo Hob. XVI:39

    Performer: Malcolm Bilson

    • Claves 50-2501.
    • 9.

  • Jane Austen

    Mansfield Park. Samantha Bond

  • 00:13

    William Walton

    As You Like It, Prelude

    Performer: The Academy of St Martin in the Fields, conducted by Sir Neville Marriner

    • Chandos CHAN7041.
    • 1.

  • Shakespeare

    As You Like It, act two, scene seven. Henry Goodman.

  • 00:17

    Orlando Gibbons

    What is Our Life

    Performer: The Gesualdo Consort

    • Cantoris CRCD6017.
    • 41.

  • Bertolt Brecht

    Everyday Theatre. Samantha Bond.

  • 00:23

    Kurt Weill

    Mac the Knife

    Performer: Lotte Lenya, orchestra conducted by Roger Bean

    • Sony Classical MHK63222.
    • 10.

  • John Hall Wheelock

    Vaudeville. Henry Goodman.

  • 00:27

    Richard Strauss

    Dance of the Seven Veils from Salome

    Performer: Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by Christoph Von Dohnanyi

    • Decca 444178-2.

  • Gaston Leroux

    Phantom of the Opera. Samantha Bond.

  • 00:34

    Hector Berlioz

    Symphonie Fantastique, Finale

    Performer: LSO, conducted by Pierre Boulez

    • Sony Classical SM3K64103.
    • 8.
  • 00:35

    Henry Purcell

    If love's a sweet passion from The Fairy Queen

    Performer: The Parley of Instruments, directed by Roy Goodman

    • Hyperion CDA67001/3.

  • Shakespeare

    Hamlet. Act two, scene two. Henry Goodman.

  • 00:38

    Dmitry Shostakovich

    Hamlet, Night Watch

    Performer: Rustem Hayroudinoff

    • Chandos CHAN9907.
    • 26.
  • 00:40

    Stephen Sondheim

    Broadway Baby

    Performer: Elaine Stritch, conducted by Rob Bowman

    • DRG 12994.
    • 8.

  • Dorothy Parker

    Actresses: A Hate Song. Samantha Bond.

  • Thomas Hardy

    To An Actress. Henry Goodman.

  • 00:48

    Giacomo Puccini

    Vissi d'arte from Tosca

    Performer: Maria Callas, Orchestre de la SociΓ©tΓ©s Concerts du Conservatoire

    • EMI CMS7699742.

  • W.H Henley

    The Ballade of Dead Actors. Samantha Bond.

  • 00:52

    Aaron Copland

    Quiet City

    Performer: New York Philharmonic, conducted by Leonard Bernstein

    • DG 419170-2.
    • 5.

  • Sara Teasdale

    Broadway. Henry Goodman.

  • Ella Wheeler Wilcox

    The Old Stage Queen. Samantha Bond.

  • 00:59

    Stephen Sondheim

    Send in the Clowns from A Little Night Music

    Performer: Judi Dench, Orchestra of The Royal National Theatre, conducted by Jo Stewart

    • Tring TRING001.
    • 18.

  • Oscar Wilde

    The Picture of Dorian Gray. Henry Goodman.

  • 01:06

    Ruggero Leoncavallo

    Vesti la giuba from Pagliacci

    Performer: Placido Domingo, Orchestra of La Scala Milan conducted by Georges PrΓͺtre

    • Phlips 411484-2.
    • 16.
  • 01:08

    Claude Debussy

    Syrinx

    Performer: Philippa Davies

    • Virgin Classics VC791148-2.

  • Shakespeare

    The Tempest. Act four, scene one. Samantha Bond.

  • 01:10

    Ralph Vaughan Williams

    Full fathom five from Three Shakespeare Songs

    Performer: Holst Singers, conducted by Stephen Layton

    • Hyperion CDA66777.
    • 2.

Broadcasts

  • Sun 8 May 2011 22:15
    ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3
  • Boxing Day 2011 17:00
    ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3

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