Stradella strides the stage on Radio 4

[ardcarp]

Tomorrow (Sat 9th Jan) the afternoon play is about "the scandalous, chaotic and violent real-life antics of 17th century Italian composer Alessandro Stradella".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06vf1x6

Hope it comes up to expectation!

[jean]

No idea how historically accurate it was - I'm pretty sure Stradella wasn't Welsh, but it seems like a reasonable metaphor for the perennial outsider.

But why did the nuns (or whoever it was) sing the Easter sequence Victimae Paschali laudes over and over again, and little else?

[doversoul1]

It may be too much to ask a radio drama to create a sense of time in which the drama is set but without it (to me) the play did not feel quite affective (not sure if this is the right word).

[ardcarp]

It took me a while to get used to a Welsh Stradella too! And my expectations of "the scandalous, chaotic and violent real-life antics" were not quite fulfilled. Not in the same league as Caravaggio, I fancy. It would be interesting to know to what extent FC-B based his play on historical events. Full marks to him for having the idea though.