蜜芽传媒

Award-winning writer Stephen Wyatt is on a mission. He thinks that the contribution of the librettist to opera and musical theatre is too often under-appreciated or just plain ignored. It鈥檚 true that many operas and musicals are derived from existing plays, novels and films. But it would be wrong to assume that our ignored librettists are just hacks and that adapting an existing work is an "easy" option. Far from it. Stephen looks at how librettist Francesco Maria Piave and Giuseppe Verdi radically reworked La Dame aux cam茅lias, a novel and play by Alexandre Dumas fils, to create one of the best-loved operas in the repertoire - La Traviata - and the long and tortuous process by which Christopher Isherwood鈥檚 Berlin stories were reimagined as the musical Cabaret.

Production Coordinator: Nina Semple
Sound: Sean Kerwin

Producer: Torquil MacLeod
Executive Producer: Peter Hoare

A Pier production for 蜜芽传媒 Radio 4