Marilyn Monroe centenary: What is beauty?
Words about Marilyn Monroe, Helen of Troy and a host of other beauties both real and imagined by Sappho, Austen, Oscar Wilde. And music to match from Tchaikovsky, Bach, Judith Weir.
Marilyn Monroe was born June 1 1926. Inspired by the movie star, Words and Music explores the question What is Beauty?
Answers come in words from the Greek poet Sappho, Monroe's husband and playwright Arthur Miller and Joyce Carol Oates, who wrote a novel inspired by Marilyn. We will also hear about more everyday beauty from the writers James Baldwin and E Annie Proulx. And we will hear words in praise of the beauty of music from Pablo Casals and Haruki Murakami, Jane Austen in praise of poetry and Zadie Smith on art. And of course, there will be music in all its glories from Tchaikovsky鈥檚 Sleeping eauty to Kara Karayev鈥檚 Most Beautiful of All Beauties to Judith Weir's Still, Flowing.
The readers are Ralf Little and Susannah Fielding.
Producer in Salford: Olive Clancy
The BFI Southbank has a major two-month season of films this summer, Marilyn Monroe: Self Made Star, celebrating the centenary of the birth of cinema鈥檚 most enduring film star. And the National Portrait Gallery will present an exhibition, Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait, looking at how she inspired photographers and artists.
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- Sun 31 May 2026 19:45麻豆社 Radio 3
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