“Through the climactic scene of La Traviata the good doctor clowned, interpreted, gestured and flung his eminently quotable metaphors at us, and a performance began miraculously to take shape. The problem for singers is that opera is difficult enough as music, let alone as stagecraft. Miller cajoled, joked, visibly eased tensions between contending forces, provided props, explained nuances. By the end, drama had emerged from opera. Magic, underpinned by a great deal of hard work.” —The Listener

“For me, the charismatic Dr. Jonathan Miller can do no wrong, so it is a special pleasure to watch him taking an opera workshop through the last scene of Verdi's LA TRAVIATA.” —Elizabeth Crowley, The Daily Mail

 “You often see Violetta rushing around her grand bedroom in a gauzy peignoir with barely a consumptive symptom. But she should be at her lowest ebb in a room stripped of furniture, and she should be scarcely able to sit up…The audience is moved—less by the dying woman than by the sorrow of those she leaves behind.” —Jonathan Miller

Among the topics addressed by Jonathan Miller:
Opera Now
Duets: Singing Reactively
Opera as Musical Theatre
Vocal Rendering
When Singers Know Their Parts
The Recitatif: Where the Drama Is
Ready-Made Bits of Stage Business

Jonathan Miller studied natural sciences at Cambridge and worked as a hospital doctor upon graduation. His associations with the Cambridge Footlights diverted him to the Edinburgh Festival, where he helped write and produce BEYOND THE FRINGE, which launched the careers of Alan Bennett, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. His career thereafter has been inextricably linked with the stage, including his direction of Olivier's MERCHANT OF VENICE. He was artistic director of THE OLD VIC and has recently directed A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM for the Almeida Theatre.

In the 1970s he began directing and producing opera at Glynebourne, with a new production of THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO for the English National Opera in l978. He has now become one of the world's leading opera directors, with over fifty operas to his credit at the world's great venues, including the Metropolitan Opera and La Scala.

Most of his television work has been for the BBC, starting with a series of twelve Shakespeare plays. He also wrote and presented several documentary series drawing on his experience as a physician, including THE BODY IN QUESTION, STATES OF MIND , and THE QUESTION OF LANGUAGE.

His books include THE HUMAN BODY, NOWHERE IN PARTICULAR, and SUBSEQUENT PERFORMANCES .

Conductor: Paul Daniel

Tenor: Adrian Martin

Bass-Baritone: Mark Richardson

Mezzo-Soprano: Ethna Robinson

Soprano: Susan Bullock

Baritone: Terence Sharpe

Repetiteur: Phillip Thomas

Produced by:
Maria Aitken
David G. Croft
Nathan Silver

Film Editor: Graham Taylor