Elizabeth and Essex R3 7.30pm

[ardcarp]

And probably as you never knew them. I'm looking forward to this for many reasons, but partly at least because Korngold is involved.

Elizabeth and Essex is a new play by Robin Brooks, based on the writings of Lytton Strachey, about Elizabeth I and her young favourite, the Earl of Essex. It was recorded live at the Alexandra Palace Theatre, with music by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, drawn from his classic score which Korngold originally composed for the 1939 movie The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, starring Bette Davis as Elizabeth and Errol Flynn as Essex.
Korngold’s music is played by the BBC Concert Orchestra and conducted by Robert Ziegler.

The play stars Simon Russell Beale as both Strachey, leading light of the Bloomsbury Group, and Elizabeth I. It explores the way in which Strachey gradually became absorbed in a rich fantasy life inspired by intrigue at the Tudor court, into which he drew the young man who was then the object of his affections. The two stories, of the Virgin Queen and the ageing writer, play out in parallel, with assistance from other Bloomsbury-group members, Lady Ottoline Morrell and John Maynard Keynes.

Lytton Strachey ..... Simon Russell Beale
Essex / Roger ..... Harry Lloyd
Bacon / Ottoline ..... Nancy Carroll
Cecil / Maynard ..... Julian Harries

With the BBC Concert Orchestra
Conducted by Robert Ziegler

Directed and Produced by Fiona McAlpine and Robin Brooks
An Allegra Production

[eighthobstruction]

....I'm hoping this is going to be interesting and humourous....(something will have gone wrong if it isn't...)

[ardcarp]

Yes; and hopefully pitched at a higher level than Gloomsbury!