In a revealing interview, Norman Lebrecht talks to one of the world's best know opera directors, Peter Sellars. A man who maintains a certain mystery about his own background, Sellars has been startling audiences with overtly political stagings and festival seasons for quarter of a century. But behind his non-stop clatter of ideas, what is it that drives his artistic vision - a passion to change the world or a determination to create something of beauty? Where does his line between art and politics blur?
As well as talking about how the divorce of his parents and his early childhood shaped his passion for theatre, he reveals how one of his closest working relationships with mezzo soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, who died last year from breast cancer, and his most recent collaboration with soprano Dawn Upshaw, who has also suffered from breast cancer, has breathed new life and understanding into the works of Bach and Saariaho.
He's never married, and remains "really, really celibate", but tells Norman that "what the theatre has to offer is a beautiful way of being with people ... of truly not being solitary."
This interview forms part of a series broadcast during the Proms season to include Mariss Jansons and Franz Welser-Most.
This programme is available to download for 7 days as a podcast from The Lebrecht Interview homepage.
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