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As the summer festival season gets underway, a music special this week on The Arts Hour. A robot designed by Berlin Humboldt University gets the star role in an opera performance at the city’s Komische Oper. As the documentary AMY, about the tragic pop singer Amy Winehouse is released in cinemas, we have exclusive and unheard interviews and session performances with Amy herself. From the US Glam Rock scene, Gene Simmons, founder of KISS, shares his passion for classic rock, which he credits Britain with inventing. Two songs by the rock group Led Zeppelin, recorded with Bollywood session musicians in the early 1970s, get a release for the first time, and guitarist Jimmy Page shares his memories. Ludwig Van Beethoven is one of the best known classical composers in the world. A collective of musicologists and musicians are hoping to prove some surprising elements by releasing fresh insights into his background. We find out more from the Beethoven was African project. South Africa’s Ladysmith Black Mambazo perform songs from their Zulu ballet collaboration with dancers in The Royal Ballet which just started a UK tour. And American singer-songwriter James Taylor is back with a new studio album and plays live for us.

(Photo shows: Amy Winehouse (c) Bruno Vincent/Getty, James Taylor (c) Cindy Ord/Getty, Gene Simmons (c) Jason Merritt/Getty)