Words & Music:Femmes Fatales
Words and Music is a BBC Radio 3 programme which mixes a sequence of classical music with well-loved and less familiar poems and prose.
This 75-minute long programme first aired on BBC Radio 3 at 10.15pm on Sunday, 18th January 2009 and was repeated at 5pm on Tuesday, 29th December 2009. Here’s the listing from the web page for the show:
A programme of poetry and music on the theme of the femme fatale, an idea exemplified in some of the most passionate artistic creations, including Medusa, Delilah, Carmen and Lady Macbeth.
Jeremy Northam and Harriet Walter read works by Keats, Spenser, Shakespeare, Wilde, Carol Anne Duffy and Angela Carter, alongside music by Handel, Massenet, Saint-Saens, Richard Strauss, Bizet and Gershwin.
Introduction
I’ve always loved Keats’ poem La Belle Dame Sans Merci and it was my starting point for the programme. Who is this supernatural beauty who drains the life of warriors and kings and where does she come from? She is, of course, a femme fatale – an archetype who figures in myth and literature across all cultures and all ages. I looked up the term in various dictionaries, here is the entry from Chambers 21st century dictionary: “a woman with an irresistible charm and fascination, often bringing those who love her (usually men) into despair and disaster.”
She was memorably incarnated by Glenn Close as the bunny-boiler in Fatal Attraction and the popular television series Desperate Housewives features a handful of femmes fatales. One of my favourite recent examples from popular culture is Xenia Onatopp from the James Bond film Goldeneye who crushes men to death between her thighs. Eve is one of the earliest examples of the type, and one of the deadliest, as she is not only responsible for Adam’s personal downfall but for the fall of man.
The first femmes fatales
In Hebrew mythology she appears as Lilith, Adam’s first wife who refused to adopt the missionary position during sex and ended up giving birth to all the demons in the world. In Sumerian myth she is Inanna, who attracts men and then cruelly rejects them. In Ancient Greece she is Pandora, who opens the forbidden box and releases all the evils of mankind. In Homer’s The Odyssey she is embodied in the character of Circe who turns men into pigs.
It was difficult to decide which women to include in my programme, and there are many notable deadly ladies I didn’t have room for. I hope they won’t wreak vengeance on me. The programme starts with the Eqyptian Queen Cleopatra described by Enobarbus in his famous speech from Shakespeare’s Anthony and Cleopatra. I have used music from Samuel Barber’s 1965 opera of the same name to underscore the speech.
Serpent Women
Anthony refers to the Egyptian queen as “my serpent of old Nile”. Cleopatra has a perfectly formed body, but very often the femme fatale is in possession of a serpent’s body or a fish’s tail. I have used various examples of the serpent-woman including Keats’s Lamia, Rusalka – the mermaid in Dvorak’s opera, the Lorelei in an appealing song by Gershwin and Duessa, the ‘loathly lady’ in Book 1 of Spenser’s The Fairy Queen.
Manon
One of the most popular works of fiction of the 18th century was Abbé Prévost’s Manon Lescaut. His story of the beautiful, fragile, but amoral Manon inspired no less than 4 operas and several ballets. I have used music by Massenet, not from his opera Manon Lascaut, but from the overture to Kenneth Macmillan’s ballet Manon. The score of the ballet is drawn from many different works by Massenet, although, oddly enough, not one of them is taken from his opera about Manon. I have also used a piece from Massenet’s opera Cléopâtre.
The character of Manon was the inspiration for Prosper Merimee’s Carmen, one of the most well-known femmes fatales. In celebration of her I have included a version of The Habanera arranged for the violin and played by the virtuoso Anne-Sophie Mutter. The writing of the fin de siècle is seething with femmes fatales and I have used an extract from Oscar Wilde’s Salome together with the Dance of the Seven Veils from Richard Strauss’s opera of the same name.
Vamps
In the 20th century the femme fatale was re-invented as the vamp by the silent screen star Theda Bara whose fabricated name was actually an anagram of ‘Arab Death’, hinting at another essential characteristic of the femme fatale – her exoticism. The man-eating vamp became an essential part of the genre of film noir in the 1940s and 50s and was notably portrayed by such actresses as Mary Astor, Veronica Lake, Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Bennett. My programme concentrates on the vamp in literature and music, but I have given a nod to film by including Jackie Kay’s poem The Life and Death of Bette Davis.
The femme fatale, unsurprisingly, is a male construction and until the 20th century nearly all the literary depictions of her are by men. However, I have given her the opportunity to answer back in poems by Carol Ann Duffy, Jackie Kay, Linda Pastan and Suzanne Lummis.
In addition to the music already mentioned I have used music by Handel, Philip Glass, Shostakovich, Saint-Saëns and Dowland.
Naturally, I have given the femme fatale herself the last word in an extract from Angela Carter’s short story about a female vampire ‘The Lady of the House of Love’.
Producer: Philippa Ritchie
Playlist
Music
Performer: Spoleto Festival Orchestra, cond. Christian Badea
Prelude, Antony and Cleopatra
Composer: Samuel Barber
Name of CD: Antony and Cleopatra: Samuel Barber
CD Code: NW322/323/324-2
CD 2, track 12
Dur: 02.18
Reading
Author: Shakespeare
Name of poem: Enobarbus’s speech from Antony and Cleopatra
Reader: Jeremy Northam
Dur: 01.12
Reading
Author: Carol Ann Duffy
Name of poem: Delilah
From Book: The World’s Wife
Reader: Harriet Walter
Dur: 01.55
Music
Performer: Shirley Verrett and the RCA Italiana Opera Orchestra cond. Georges Pretre
Name of piece: Sampson et Dalila, Mon Coeur s’ouvre a ta voix
Composer: Saint Saens
Name of CD: Shirley Verrett in Opera
CD Code: 09026 61457 2
Track 11
Dur: 05.19
Reading
Author: Michael Donaghy from New British Poetry
Name of poem: The Bacchae
From Book: New British Poetry
Reader: Jeremy Northam
Dur: 00.41
Music
Performer: Anne-Sophie Mutter and Wiener Philharmoniker
Name of piece: Carmen
Composer: Pablo de Sarasate
Name of CD: Carmen-Fantasie
CD Code: 437-544-2
Track 7
Dur: 02.26
Readings
Author: Jackie Kay
Name of poem: The Life and Death of Bette Davis
From book: Darling
Reader: Harriet Walter
Dur: 01.29
Music
Performer: Renee Fleming, the Kuhn Mixed Choir, and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra cond. Sir Charles Mackerras
Name of piece: Rusalka
Composer: Dvorak
Name of CD: Rusalka
CD Code: 460 568-2
CD1, Track 6
Dur: 03.12
Reading
Author: John Keats
From Lamia
From Book: Keats: The Complete Poems
Reader: Jeremy Northam
Dur: 02.11
Music
Performer: Ella Fitzgerald
Name of piece: The Lorelei
Composer: Gershwin
Name of CD: Mack The Knife
CD Code: 825 670-2
Track 7
Dur: 03.02
Music
Performer: Trevor Pinnock and the English Consort
Name of piece: The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba
Composer: Handel
Name of CD: Best of Baroque: Trevor Pinnock
CD Code: 419-410-2
Track 21
Dur: 03.11
Reading
Author of poem: Edmund Spencer
Extract from The Faerie Queen, Book 1
Reader: Jeremy Northam
Dur: 01.43
Music
Performer: Philip Langridge and Stephen Marchionda
Name of piece: Come Heavy Sleep
Composer: John Dowland
Name of CD: Songs For Tenor and Guitar
CD Code: CHAN 10305
Track 1
Dur: 02.17
Reading
Author: John Keats
Name of poem: La Belle Dame sans Merci
From Book: Keats: The Complete Poems
Reader: Jeremy Northam
Dur: 02.29
Music
Performer: Harold Budd
Name of piece: A Sidelong Glance From My Round Nefertiti
Composer: Harold Budd
Name of CD: Glitters Is Gold
CD Code: ASCD 31
Track 5
Dur: 03.11
Reading
Author: Linda Pastan
Name of poem: Circe
From Book: Carnival Evening: New And Selected Poems 1968 – 1998
Reader: Harriet Walter
Dur: 01.33
Music
Performer: Nina Simone
Name of piece: The Other Woman
Composer: Nina Simone
Name of CD: Songs to Sing: the Best of Nina Simone
CD 2, Track 16
Dur: 03.04
Music
Performer: Scottish National Orchestra, cond. Neeme Jarvi
Name of piece: Salome’s Dance, from Salome
Composer: Richard Strauss
Name of CD: Strauss: Der Rosenkavelier
CD Code: CHAN 8758
Track 2
Dur: 10.24
Reading
Author: Oscar Wilde
Extract from Salomé
Reader: Harriet Walter
Dur: 03.47
Reading
Author: Carol Ann Duffy
Name of poem: Salome
From Book: The World’s Wife
Reader: Harriet Walter
Dur: 01.52
Readings
Author: John Betjeman
Name of poem: Olympic Girl
From Book: Complete John Betjeman
Reader: Jeremy Northam
Dur: 01.40
Music
Performer: Russian State Symphony Orchestra, cond. Dmitry Yablonsky
Name of piece: Little Polka, from Jazz Suite Number 2
Composer: Shostakovich
Name of CD: Shostakovich – Jazz Suites Nos 1 and 2
CD Code: B000063TS9
Dur: 02.30
Reading
Author: Suzanne Lumis
Name of poem: Femme Fatale
From Book: In Danger
Reader: Harriet Walter
Dur: 01.32
Music
Performers: Janice Pendarvis and The Philip Glass Ensemble
Name of piece: Lightening
Composer: Philip Glass
Name of CD: The Essential Philip Glass
CD Code: SK 64133
Track 1
Dur: 06.45
Reading
Author: Walter Pater
Name of poem: Mona Lisa
Reader: Jeremy Northam
Dur: 00.52
Music
Performer: Marlene Dietrich
Name of piece: Falling In Love Again
Composer: Hollander/ Connelly
Name of CD: You Must Remember This… Great Film Songs
CD Code: 75605 52283 2
Track 2
Dur: 03.10
Music
Performer: Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, cond. Richard Bonynge
Name of piece: Scene 1, Manon Ballet
Composer: Massenet
Name of CD: Manon – Ballet
CD Code: 470 525-2
CD 1, track 1
Dur: 02.30
Music
Performer: Nouvel Orchestre de Saint Etienne, cond. Patrick Fournillier
Name of piece: Cleopatre: Danse Lydiennes
Composer: Massenet
Name of CD: Jules Massenet – Cleopatre
CD Code: 3-1032-2
CD2, track 6
Dur: 03.08
Reading
Author: Angela Carter
Extract from The Lady of the House of Love
From Book: The Bloody Chamber
Reader: Harriet Walter
Dur: 02.00
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