Soul Music

"La Boheme is a work of genius, for me it's the perfect opera. There's not a bar or a word or anything you'd want to alter. It just gets to you"

- Opera Director John Copley CBE.

Soul Music ventures back into the Parisian winter of Puccini's beloved 'La Boheme' where legendary Opera Director John Copley CBE reflects on his 40 years of bringing this tale of friendship, love and loss to the stage of London's Royal Opera House.

Alongside his memories of sharing pasta with a young Pavarotti we hear the stories from those whose lives have been touched by - and often reflect - the essence of this most popular of operas.

From the romantic gesture of a probationary constable serenading his soon to be bus conductress wife in 1950's Torquay to the moment that a devoted husband passed away - La Boheme has touched the lives of opera lovers around the world.

Featuring interviews with:

* Author Mavis Cheek

Producer: Nicola Humphries

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2014.

'There Is A Light That Never Goes Out' by The Smiths is explored through personal stories.

Released in 1986 on 'The Queen Is Dead' album, it's become an anthem of hope, loss and love.

As a teenager, Andy listened to it with his father, as he drove him to work. They had a moment of connection, and when his father died suddenly a few weeks later, the song took on huge significance.

When her young son was ill, Sharon Woolley drew strength from this music as she sat by his bedside in the small hours of the morning.

For comic artist Lucy Knisley, the song got her through a bad break-up with her long-term boyfriend - and it's meaning changed for her when unexpected events unfolded.

Also featuring:

Mike Garry

Producer: Sara Conkey

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2014.

Gracias A La Vida - thank you to life - is a song that means a lot to many people around the world.

Recorded by artists as diverse as Joan Baez and the magnificent Mercedes Sosa, it reflects the bittersweet nature of life's joys and sadnesses.

To the people of Chile where it was written in 1966 by Violetta Parra, it has become an anthem that brings people together in times of trouble.

One man tortured and imprisoned under the Pinochet regime in 1973 recalls how playing the song on guitar in prison for other inmates helped keep their spirits and hopes alive under the most brutal circumstances.

Australian writer and actor Ailsa Piper recalls being gifted the words to Gracias A La Vida by a fellow walker along one of the holy routes in Spain, and how the song has become a poignant reminder of the fragility of life.

Producer: Maggie Ayre

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2014.

Marianne Faithfull recalls the classical French Love song which went on to inspire a 1960s hit record by Elvis Presley.

'Plaisir d'Amour' somehow found its way through 18th century orchestration (Hector Berlioz) and 1960's folk revival, to an unexpected re-invention as Elvis’s 'I Can't' Help Falling in Love with You'.

Written in 1784 by Jean-Paul-Égide Martini, the song muses on the pleasures and pains of love and was inspired by a poem in Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian's novel 'Célestine'.

For 17 year old Marianne Faithfull, it was a song of innocence, recorded in a tiny booth in London’s old Decca studios whilst happily pregnant with her first child.

Meanwhile, author Julia Donaldson and husband Malcolm busked it on the streets of Paris. This was in the summer of 1969 and police hid in alleyways, still fearful of students following the 1968 riots.

Inspired by Elvis, West Point Military Academy Freshman Andrew Scott learnt to pick the tune on guitar – helping him win the heart of his wife.

For Henry and Christine Wallace, it summed everything up "It was what I was looking for, someone to share my life and the words 'take my whole life too was in tune with what I wanted'.

Producer: Nicola Humphries

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2014.

"Into my heart an air that kills

So wrote the poet AE Housman lamenting the loss of his brother in the Boer war in his epic poem A Shropshire Lad.

It harks back to a simple idyllic rural way of life that is forever changed at the end of the 19th century as hundreds of country boys go off to fight and never return. George Butterworth adapted his words to music in 1913 just before the outbreak of the Great War.

We hear from those whose lives continue to be touched by the loss of so many young men between 1914 and 1918. Broadcaster Sybil Ruscoe recalls visiting her Great Uncle's grave in a military cemetery in France with Butterworth's Rhapsody as the soundtrack to her journey.

A concert at Bromsgrove School in Worcestershire where Housman was a pupil remembers the former schoolboys killed in action, and singer Steve Knightley discusses and performs his adaptation of The Lads In Their Hundreds.

The Bishop of Woolwich connects his love of the countryside and Butterworth's music with his father's battered copy of Housman's poems which comforted him while held captive in Singapore during the Second World War.

Contributors:

James McKelvey

Series about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2014.

Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor, is one of the most popular and moving pieces of music.

But, as academic and composer Andrew Gant explains, it wasn't written by Albinoni and is now attributed to 20th century Italian composer, Giazotto.

Award-winning veteran BBC foreign correspondent, Malcolm Brabant recalls the ' cellist of Sarajevo', Vedran Smailovic, playing it everyday for weeks amidst the wreckage of the beautiful city, as Serbian gunfire raged around.

Actress Virginia McKenna explains its importance to her and her late husband, actor Bill Travers, who died in 1994. The piece was played at the beginning and end of his memorial service.

And TV producer, Gareth Gwenlan reveals why it was chosen as the theme for the character played by Wendy Craig, in the BBC’s 1970s TV sitcom, Butterflies.

Producer: Lucy Lunt

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2014.

The hauntingly beautiful Welsh song Myfanwy 'is in the air in Wales' according to singer Cerys Matthews.

She along with others discuss what the melodic tale of unrequited love means to them.

They include a Welsh woman living in Sicily for whom the song represents 'hiraeth', a longing or homesickness for Wales and another who believes it expresses the 'wounded soul of the Welsh'.

A man remembers how his late brother and he used to sing it in pubs in North Wales and how the song symbolises the unrequited love he felt for him.

The Ynysowen choir was started after the Aberfan mining disaster as a way of dealing with the emotion. Choir members talk about the song's power, and an ex-soldier recalls digging for survivors with lines from it playing in his head:

"Give me your hand, my sweet Myfanwy".

Series about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact.

Producer: Maggie Ayre

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2014.

Labi Siffre wrote Something Inside So Strong in 1984.

Widely believed to have been inspired by seeing film footage from South Africa, of young blacks being shot at by white policeman, the singer-songwriter now reveals that the lyrics were also informed by the oppression he had experienced as as a gay man.

The song has been taken up by individuals and groups around the world who have suffered from discrimination. The Choir With No Name in Birmingham, made up of homeless singers, always close their concerts with the song. Choir members explain why it's so important to them, giving them a sense of pride and dignity.

American singer Suede, talks about the power she finds in the song while South African singer, Lira talks about making a special recording of it for the birthday of Nelson Mandela, as it was one of his favourite pieces.

Also hear how Celtic football fans sing it as an act of solidarity with their beleaguered manager, Neil Lennon.

In his first interview for over a decade, Siffre explains how he still sings the songs as he tries to put his life back together after the death of his partner, Peter.

Contributors:

Labi Siffre

Series about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact

Producer: Lucy Lunt

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2014.

"It's the kind of music that makes you feel like you're just hurting so good"

People of different ages reflect on why the pop country classic 'Crazy' made famous by Patsy Cline brings out such strong emotions in them.

Featuring a young woman mourning the loss of a father's love after divorce - and broadcaster Fiona Phillips reflects on losing her father to Alzheimer's disease.

87 year old Wayne Rethford met Patsy Cline in 1961 and two years later happened upon the crash site where she died after her plane came down in a heavy storm in Tennessee.

"That music becomes embedded in your soul" he says.

Series about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact

Producer: Maggie Ayre

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2014.

"I'm convinced it's the best thing ever written and recorded in the history of things written and recorded" - Moby.

Rhapsody in Blue was premiered on February 12, 1924, in New York's Aeolian Hall.

Through its use at the opening of Woody Allen's 'Manhattan' it’s become synonymous with the city that inspired its creation.

But for people around the world, George Gershwin's "experiment in modern music" has become imbued with the most personal of memories.

LA based screenwriter Charles Peacock reflects on how this piece has become entwined with his life and how, on an evening at the Hollywood Bowl this music "healed him". When Adela Galasiu was growing up in communist Romania, Rhapsody in Blue represented "life itself, as seen through the eyes of an optimist".

For world speed champion Gina Campbell, the opening of that piece will forever remind her of the roar of the Bluebird's ignition as it flew through the "glass like stillness of the water" and brings back the memories of her father, the legendary Donald Campbell - it was played at his funeral when he was finally laid to rest decades after his fatal record attempt on Coniston Lake.

Featuring interviews with:

Professor of Music, Howard Pollock

Producer: Nicola Humphries

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2014.