- 9 months ago
A musical quiz show presented by Joseph Cooper as question-master invites you to match your musical wits against Joyce Grenfell, Robin Ray, Patrick Moore
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Hello everyone, and I hope you're all ready to face the music with Joyce Grenfell.
00:21How do you do?
00:24Robin Ray, don't adjust your sets, he really is that colour.
00:30And Patrick Moore.
00:33Hello.
00:38Now we call our first round tonight Star-Crossed Lovers.
00:42No reference to the sky at night is intended, Patrick.
00:46Here are three pieces of music, all of which are associated with tragic lovers.
00:50Can you identify the music?
00:51First, Robin.
01:00What a horrible one to start with.
01:21I thought of five Star-Crossed Lovers, and that wasn't any of them.
01:26It's, um, I thought it might be, um, no, I won't say what I thought it might be, because that'll be the next one.
01:31But I thought it would be one by Tchaikovsky.
01:34And that sounds like Tchaikovsky to me.
01:36Do you want a hint?
01:37Oh, I would say that I was fairly desperate for a hint, yes.
01:40Right, well, it's a composer that our friend Bernard Levin doesn't care too much for.
01:45Oh, of course.
01:46Ah, yes.
01:47We all know Bernard's little peccadillos, don't we?
01:49He doesn't care for Hector Berlioz.
01:51Right.
01:52And so it must be, um, um, he, um, yes, there are, um, Beard, uh, Beard, uh, did you want to call this?
02:01I have to quote something.
02:04From forth the fatal loins of these two foes, a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life.
02:10Oh, well, now, this is thoroughly shaming.
02:12Yes, I do actually recognise that quotation.
02:14It seems vaguely familiar.
02:15I thought it would be by Tchaikovsky.
02:17It's Romeo and Juliet by Berlioz.
02:18Oh, God.
02:19What a spell.
02:25Now, Joyce, you're star-crossed lovers.
02:33Well, now, it's Russian.
02:50And I think it's...
02:51Stay clear of Tchaikovsky, I say.
02:53Well, it's Tchaikovsky.
02:54It must be Tchaikovsky.
02:54Yes.
02:55Yes.
02:55Well, I suppose it's Romeo and Juliet, isn't it?
02:57Right.
02:57Correct.
02:58Yes.
02:58Lastly, Patrick.
03:05Now, wait a moment.
03:33That's Russian too, isn't it?
03:35And I think it's Mr. Prokofiev.
03:38Correct.
03:42I don't know the plot, Prokofiev.
03:44I'm going to take a wild gamble on the love of the three oranges.
03:47Well, what about this star-crossed lover's love?
03:50Well, the only thing I can think of is love.
03:52What?
03:52The love of the three oranges.
03:53Say it again, Patrick.
03:54We've all said it before.
03:56Say it again.
03:56What about these star-crossed lovers?
03:59Yes, exactly.
04:00Well, it could be Romeo and Juliet.
04:01LAUGHTER
04:02Well, the next is pretty easy because it's face the consequences.
04:10You've got your cards, fill them up from the musical clues and you end up with something
04:15like you're having a game of consequences, only you don't pass your cards on.
04:18It's been very difficult, mate.
04:20Clip.
04:20It's going to be very easy now.
04:22Good.
04:22Right.
04:23Are you ready?
04:24Yes.
04:25First, a male character.
04:27A male character.
04:27You can certainly write that one with a grin.
04:51met a female character.
04:58On, this is when they met.
05:28To what he'll say, he will call, but not die from a distance.
05:39I, without eye, drink all my stuff, to quietly conceive.
05:44A bit to seize him, and a bit so as not to die.
05:54All happy?
06:01Yes.
06:02So far.
06:03He said to her...
06:06You called me when the moon had veiled her light
06:13Before I went from you into the night
06:19I came, do you remember, back to you?
06:30It's like taking dictation, that one.
06:33Tell me when you're ready.
06:35Yes.
06:36She said to him...
06:37Yes.
06:47Is it?
06:48Yes.
06:49The consequence was, nevertheless, they spend a...
06:52Well, who would like to get a...
07:14Well, who would like to get the first one?
07:23Robin?
07:24Yes, the first one, Bernard should have done this one.
07:28It was Lohengrin by Wagner.
07:30Quite right.
07:31Max?
07:31Wagner's Lohengrin.
07:32Patrick?
07:33I think that was Anitra from Grieg.
07:35Quite right.
07:35Yes.
07:36On, Joyce?
07:37One Fine Day.
07:39Yes.
07:39And did you know who was singing?
07:41Oh, I didn't.
07:42It was the voice of Joan Cross.
07:45Was it?
07:45Yes.
07:46Oh, how lovely.
07:48He said to her, anybody?
07:50You called me when the moon had left the night.
07:54Or words to that affair.
07:55Yes, exactly.
07:56I hear you calling me.
07:58I hear you calling.
08:01Yes.
08:02You're calling me.
08:10I know.
08:18You're crying because you're a musician, aren't you?
08:22Right.
08:22Anyhow, that was sung by John McCormack on a very old record.
08:25I guess that.
08:26And she said to him, Joyce.
08:27Charlie is my darling.
08:29Yes.
08:29Do you know who arranged it?
08:30Oh.
08:32Frank Bridges, was it?
08:33Beethoven.
08:34Beethoven?
08:34Beethoven?
08:34Yes.
08:35No.
08:35Yes, arranged by Beethoven.
08:37Yep.
08:39And the consequence was, nevertheless, they spent a...
08:42Something to do with Delius.
08:43And something to do with summer, I think.
08:45Yes, yes.
08:45Everything except one word.
08:47Summer something.
08:47Summer night on the...
08:49Bear Mountain.
08:53Well, you said it was one fine day, didn't you?
08:57There's summer night on the river.
08:58Oh, of course.
09:00We weren't far off, were we?
09:02No.
09:02Now, I'll just recap these answers.
09:04Lohengrin, prelude to act three of Wagner's opera,
09:06met Anitra, Anitra's dance from Grieg's Piergint,
09:09on one fine day, sung by Joan Cross.
09:12He said to her, I hear you calling me, sung by John McCormack.
09:15She said to him, Charlie is my darling.
09:17It's part of a Beethoven arrangement.
09:19And the consequence was, nevertheless,
09:20they spent a summer night on the river by Delius.
09:24Now, for our hidden melody.
09:26This is where I wrap up a tune in the style of a composer,
09:28and you have to guess the tune and the style.
09:31Let's go.
12:52Well done, Robin.
13:22which commissioned many works, I believe, including Peter Grimes.
13:26Did he?
13:27Hmm, fine.
13:28Anyway, now it's your turn to take a breather
13:30while we ask our guest to come and face the music,
13:32and tonight she's a very distinguished soprano
13:34whose voice you've actually already heard on this programme,
13:37and this very evening, I mean.
13:40She's retired from singing.
13:41We still think of her as one of the stars of the Sadler's Wells Opera,
13:44and, of course, we think of her so much
13:46as a first-night performer of so many of the Benjamin Britten operas.
13:50We welcome tonight Joan Cross.
14:06Joan, did you hear me sticking my neck out
14:08about Kusevitsky and Peter Grimes behind the screen there?
14:12Yes, I did.
14:12Did I get it right, or was I not?
14:14Yes, I think you got it right.
14:16I think Ben had the idea of Peter Grimes,
14:20probably some time back, and then...
14:25Well, when he was living in the States.
14:26When he was in the States,
14:27and then there was the question of finding the time
14:29to compose it and all that sort of thing,
14:34and Kusevitsky, I think, came up with a grant for it,
14:37and Grimes, of course, is dedicated to his wife.
14:39You know that.
14:40Well, I'd forgotten that fact.
14:41Yes, yes.
14:42Good, so it wasn't far wrong.
14:44No, no, you're all right.
14:45You're all right.
14:45Now, your first question,
14:47what are these two pieces in common?
14:49Here's the first.
14:50The Joan Cross evening, you're quite right.
15:10Anyhow, here's the second.
15:11Ah, what have the two got in common?
15:41Do you think what the first piece is?
15:45Well, the first is La Boheme.
15:48Yes.
15:49And the second is one of the trilogy,
15:52which is known, or used to be known in my days,
15:54as the English ring.
15:56Which is, of course.
15:56The Bohemian Girl.
15:57The Bohemian Girl, yes.
15:58And then there was another one called Meritana.
16:00But another sort of Victorian opera.
16:01Yes, another one called The Lily of Killarney.
16:05And they all had delicious tunes in them.
16:08And part of my history, my youthful history,
16:12is that I did a tour with Meritana,
16:15which is a ghastly piece.
16:16You've no idea.
16:17Who wrote Meritana?
16:18Wallace.
16:19Wallace.
16:19Wallace.
16:19That's what I just wanted.
16:20And there was a piece in it called
16:22Yes, Let Me Like a Soldier Fall.
16:24Oh, yes.
16:26And this we performed,
16:28I hate to tell you what date,
16:30I won't tell you,
16:31in the Ilford Hippodrome,
16:33and pennies rain down from the gallery.
16:36Onto the stage.
16:38They hated it.
16:40Incidentally, in that first aria,
16:42you were singing with...
16:43Webster Booth.
16:44Webster Booth, yes.
16:45It's a lovely record.
16:45It's an old record,
16:46but it still comes out quite well.
16:47It's a horrible record,
16:49as a matter of fact,
16:49because I don't sing in tune.
16:51Don't you?
16:53But it was made after a night of bombing,
16:58and it was when the bombs were raining down on London.
17:02And I remember walking down Kingsway over glass,
17:06you know,
17:06which had all sort of, you know,
17:09come from smashed windows,
17:11and making this record,
17:12not having slept a wink the night before, you know?
17:16But I didn't.
17:16It didn't sound out of tune.
17:17Last part is...
17:19Is it?
17:22Now, your next question is,
17:24what is final about this?
17:25Well, what a pity you didn't begin it earlier.
17:44This is Rosenkavalier.
17:47Yes.
17:48The last curtain.
17:50Yes.
17:50Now, it has...
17:51It's a last curtain in another sense that I'm thinking, actually,
17:54because, tell me again if I'm wrong,
17:57but wasn't it the last opera done at Sadler's Wells before the war?
18:00It was the last new opera that we did.
18:03It was the new opera that we did the season before the war.
18:07And we only, alas, did seven performances of it and then came the end of that particular season
18:13and the end of, temporarily, of Sadler's Wells because of the war.
18:17What happened, actually, when the war broke out?
18:20Were you able to take your Sadler's Wells opera on tour?
18:23When the war broke out, actually, the whole thing shut down, you see?
18:29And there was a blackout, as you know, and all the theatres shut down.
18:32Then, gradually, they began to open for matinees.
18:35And we also did some matinees, which were tremendously oversubscribed.
18:40We couldn't get the people in, you know, sort of thing.
18:43And eventually, during the first silly war period, you know,
18:47when nothing happened and everybody was expecting something to happen,
18:50we simply got back to normal.
18:53Excepting that, occasionally, we had air raid warnings.
18:57I remember one air raid warning, which began in the middle of AIDA.
19:01And then went on, and the first thing that was said was Aminazra,
19:07who said, the people are now waiting for the signal.
19:13And then, eventually, that awful September the 7th,
19:18when London was firebombed, finished the whole thing,
19:20until we went out on tour, and we toured for the rest of the war.
19:24Thousands of miles.
19:26You did?
19:26Mm.
19:27In great discomfort, no doubt.
19:28Huge discomfort, yes.
19:30Yes.
19:31But, you know, it was fun, in a way.
19:34Now, Joan, here you are singing again, and singing something very lovely.
19:38And while we all listen to you,
19:40what I want you to do is to think
19:42of how many East Anglian associations you can connect with this music.
19:48Four or five?
19:49Just see.
19:49You know, it's also Biola.
19:50Thanks, people.
19:51If you believe in it, you have it.
20:01You're a great support, you have it.
20:03But, you can't even be a good response,
20:05you have it.
20:07You have it.
20:08You know, you own the music.
20:09You have it.
20:10You are a greatARE.
20:11You have it.
20:11You have it.
20:12You have it.
20:14You have it.
20:15You have it.
20:15You have it.
20:16You have it.
20:17Silk and fresh living with him
20:27Of a silk
20:36Of a silk and fat in life
20:45Now I can draw it away
20:54Upon the clue
20:59Pull me
21:04The clue
21:07Well, one of the first things I remember about East Anglia
21:13Was meeting Ben Britton
21:17And I went to stay with him
21:19He lived then in a mill at Snape
21:22And this was a very strange, very attractive place
21:26I remember staying there
21:29And I remember playing this game with him
21:32We all played tunes on the piano
21:34And said, do you know what this is?
21:36You know, sort of thing
21:38And then I remember walking along the front
21:42At Oldber
21:43Towards the end of the war
21:45When the first ideas of the Oldber festival were conceived
21:49I think that's the limit of what I remember
21:52Marvellous
21:53Now can we relate it actually to the actual piece
21:55Which is not, of course you know it
21:57But the audience might know it
21:59Can we just identify the piece
22:00And take a few more from there?
22:02In what way do you mean?
22:03I mean, the story of or something?
22:04Well, let's just say what the actual piece was you were singing
22:07Peter Grimes
22:08Yes, it was the embroidery area, wasn't it from Peter Grimes
22:11Well, let's think of one or two more
22:13What about the poet?
22:15George Crabb
22:16Yes, that's another one
22:18What about the character you were playing?
22:20Ellen Orford
22:21Isn't there a village called?
22:23Yes, there's a village called Orford, thank you
22:25But the interesting thing about Ellen Orford in the poem itself
22:30Is she's such a desperately tragic character
22:33All her children went to the bad
22:36Husband committed suicide and she went blind
22:39Which is really rather terrifying
22:41But couldn't possibly be put in the opera
22:44Just one other type of association which you haven't mentioned
22:48What?
22:49You live in Suffolk
22:50Ah, but that's to do with
22:52Oh, that's all to do with another opera altogether
22:54This is Albert Herring
22:56Oh
22:57My favourite role, you see, Lady Billows
22:59Who lived in a place in the opera called Locksford
23:03And I now live in Yorksford
23:06How lovely
23:07And Lady Billows has returned home
23:09Well, thank you very, very much indeed
23:11You're very welcome, thank you
23:12For coming on the programme
23:13Thank you
23:14Thank you
23:15Thank you
23:16Thank you
23:17Thank you
23:18Thank you
23:19Thank you
23:20Thank you
23:21Thank you
23:22Thank you
23:23Thank you
23:27So we're going back to the panel for a free for all question
23:29The funny opera
23:30Ah, yes, well we will need our help to do that please
23:32This is where we show you a scene from an opera with the wrong music attached to it
23:35And the music is also from an opera
23:37Can you tell the name of the opera you see and the opera you hear?
23:40Six
23:43Fear
23:50Fear!
24:20Sonny! Sonny!
24:26Peace!
24:28See you!
24:31Sonny!
24:39It was quite a production, wasn't it?
24:41That's the biggest stage I've ever seen.
24:44It almost hit me at the end.
24:45Well, now, who would like to speak?
24:47Not me, really.
24:48We looked for hints.
24:50It's, well, it's Romans.
24:52Oh, no, Egyptians.
24:53And those sort of soldiers in a hot land like...
24:55Egyptians, okay.
24:56Is it Aida?
24:57Yes, it is Aida.
24:58Well done, Joyce.
24:59I thought it was Aida.
25:04And what were you listening to?
25:06I tried to get a signal from our guest here,
25:08but all she did was look at me and go...
25:11And you get your gun.
25:15There's only one thing to do.
25:17Ask Joan Cross if she'll tell us.
25:19Well, it's Freischutz, isn't it?
25:20It's the Wolfglen scene.
25:22From what?
25:23The scene from the Wolfglen.
25:25Oh, great.
25:26I'm not very up on this opera, but do you know?
25:28Not much, you're not.
25:29You're more up on it than we are.
25:30I'm right down.
25:31I'm no more up than I was to start with.
25:34Well, anyway, that's what it was.
25:36It was quite correctly, as you said, Joan Cross said,
25:38The Freischutz, the Freischutz by Weber.
25:41That's what you were listening to,
25:42and you were looking at Aida, the Grand Triumphal March.
25:46Well...
25:47Lastly, we come to...
25:48Sorry.
25:49Lastly, we come to our dummy keyboard,
25:50which, as you know, makes no sound except a bit of a rattle.
25:52And you have to guess what I'm going to play for my movements only.
25:55And for you at home, we'll give you some sound after a bit.
25:58Now, tonight it's going to be a sonata,
26:00and a quick rider to the question is,
26:02why is it a sonata suitable for beginners?
26:28Well, let's go.
26:29Let's go.
26:30Let's go.
26:31Let's go.
26:32Let's go.
26:33Let's go.
27:03PIANO PLAYS
27:22Ah, that was very nice.
27:24APPLAUSE
27:28Would you get very bad tempered if we told you it was called in an 18th-century drawing room?
27:34I shouldn't mind a bit, but it wasn't called that by the composer.
27:38No, it wasn't indeed.
27:39We know who the composer was, too.
27:41We know the key. You know the key.
27:43Mozart.
27:44Well, tell us.
27:45Mozart, C Major, so.
27:46Quite right, yes.
27:47Why is it called a little...?
27:49545.
27:50545.
27:51Right, right, first time.
27:53Right.
27:54And why was it suitable for beginners?
27:56Because it had a nasty little subtitle called Sonata Facile, or something like that.
28:01You're quite right.
28:02This is the one only sonata that boats are put in the catalogue.
28:06It's sort of a thematic list of works.
28:08An easy sonata, suitable for beginners.
28:10I didn't find it so, I must confirm.
28:12No, nor me.
28:13PIANO PLAYS
28:19You should do very well, you know. You want to take this up for a living.
28:23Well, I'm afraid that's it for tonight.
28:27Ah.
28:28So it's goodnight from Joyce Grenfell, from Robin Ray, Patrick Moore, Joan Cross, and me, Joseph Cooper. Goodnight.
28:34APPLAUSE
28:53From recent encounters to more memorable moments from the archives, famous faces in conversation, choosing their Desert Island discs. Listen now on BBC 7.
29:03I'm going to show you guys.
29:04Let's get to the show.
29:05I'm going to show you, David Bowie.
29:06I'm going to show you a lot of questions.
29:08I'm going to show you now.
29:09OK, this is not a fun way.
29:10Here's a fun way.
29:11So, thank you.
29:14Would you like to show us, James.
29:15It's a fun way, Dave Stafford.
29:16Tate collected in conversation.
29:17This is what you can do next to Mo.
29:18I'll be here.
29:19I'll have you.
29:20I'll have you.
29:21You can do that.
29:22I'll be here.
29:23It's a fun way.
29:24So, you can do this.
29:25I'll be here.
29:26Up and then.
29:27No, I'll be in.
29:28I'll just be here.
29:29I'll be here.
Comments