I Fagiolini: Re-Wilding The Waste Land

It proffers optimism and pessimism in the same breath. This programme intersperses readings from it, narrated by RSC favourite Amber James, with Renaissance music, choral works from Eliot’s time and new commissions.

The shadowy world of the Tenebrae Responsories by Spanish master Victoria - sung at their rarely heard but intended lower pitch – is present throughout the programme. Also from the late 16th century, William Byrd’s Deus, venerunt gentes chillingly describes a land wasted through intolerance.

Out of this flow further world premières by Joanna Marsh. And reflecting Indian motifs in The Waste Land, Shruthi Rajasekar’s Ganga's peace.

50 years before T.S. Eliot's ground-breaking poem, Manley Hopkins’ sonnet God’s Grandeur offers hope that ‘…and for all this, nature is never spent'. This is sung in Leighton's rapturous setting while Joanna Marsh takes up John F.Deane's response to it, The world is charged, challenging us to contemplate our own reaction to recent times.

As Eliot concludes his poem with a request for peace but no easy way to create it, Re-Wilding The Waste Land avoids a simplistic response. Instead, old and new music and poetry mirror the cycles of creation, encouraging reflection and hope.

Narrator Amber James is a leading light in theatre. She recently starred as Wendy in Wendy & Peter Pan at the Leeds Playhouse and starred in the London debut of Mike Bartlett's Snowflake, following a run in Vassa at the Almeida Theatre. She also played Titania at Regent's Park and took the title role of Cressida in Greg Doran's Troilus & Cressida for the RSC. Filming-wise she has done an episode for the CBS series Ransom and guests in Vera and Doc Martin.