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Tom Service visits the installation Bigger and Closer at Lightroom in London, a journey into the creative mind of David Hockney, with images of his work projected on huge walls with a score especially written to accompany it by the American composer Nico Muhly, who explains how he devised music for such a project. Also Tom is taken through the installation by Lightroom's Chief Executive, Richard Slaney.
Tom takes a look at 'A Thousand Splendid Suns', an opera which receives its world premiere in Seattle this week, based on Khaled Hosseini's novel spanning a generation about two women going through political and social changes in Afghanistan, including the first Taliban rule, amid a tale of despair and sacrifice. He talks to Hosseini, to the composer Sheila Silver, to the opera director, the film-maker Roya Sadat and to the opera's cultural consultant, Humaira Ghilzai.
Also, the book 'Troubled Inheritances: Memory, Music and Aging' featuring research in different parts of the world looking into how music accompanies us, both individually and collectively, changing and shaping our memories as we age. With contributions by two of the editors of this collection of essays, Sara Cohen, who's done research with older people in Liverpool, and Line Grenier, who's worked with deaf communities in Montreal.
Also, another new opera, The Emperor’s New Waltz, by 18-year-old Alma Deutscher, commissioned by Salzburg State Theatre, to be premiered on March 4th. Tom talks to Alma about the piece, a romantic story about two young lovers, which she sees as leading a revolution bringing 'beautiful melodies' back to the present.