Main content

Barbara Trapido on Stravinsky

Novelist Barbara Trapido explores how in Stravinsky’s ‘re-composed’ ballet, Pulcinella - as in her writing – nothing is as it seems.

Annie Proulx wrote, in The Shipping News: "You know, one of the tragedies of real life is that there is no background music". In this series of Radio 3's The Essay authors meditate on a piece of music that has formed the back-drop to their craft. In five intimate radio essays they explore how pieces inspire creativity through mood, narrative or structure, inviting us to step into the music – and the author’s – inner world.

Best-selling novelist Barbara Trapido was so inspired by Stravinsky’s ‘re-composed’ Pulcinella ballet, it sparked not one book, but two. In this short radio essay she explores how in the ballet – as in her writing – nothing is as it seems.

Producer, Miranda Hinkley.
Executive Producer, Peggy Sutton.
A Somethin' Else production for Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 3.

Available now

14 minutes

Last on

Tue 11 Dec 2018 22:45

Broadcast

  • Tue 11 Dec 2018 22:45

Death in Trieste

Death in Trieste

A 1760s murder still informs ideas about aesthetics, a certain sort of sex, and death.

Watch: My Deaf World

Watch: My Deaf World

Five compelling experiences of what it is like to be deaf in 21st-century Britain.

The Book that Changed Me

Five figures from the arts and science introduce books that changed their lives and work.

Download The Essay

Download The Essay

Download all the episodes from the series and listen at your leisure.

Podcast