Good Intentions
In the words of Shakespeare, Milton, Burns and Carol Ann Duffy, John Sessions and Indira Varma elucidate the comedy and tragedy born of the apparent innocence of good intentions.
Intent is a great driver for drama. The better the intent the more agonising the tragedy when it all goes wrong and, in equal part, the more hilarious the comedy as chaos unfolds in front of a knowing audience. And there are several different varieties of good intention; the ambitious, the optimistic, the clear sighted, the nervous and the horribly mistaken.
Today's Words and Music seeks, with the best of intentions, to illustrate just a few of them and to discover where they might lead, beginning with a well-intentioned trip to the underworld where Orpheus attempts to win back his wife.
Eve's intentions appear laudable enough as Milton has her contemplate sampling 'the fruit of that forbidden tree', and it's hard to blame Shakespeare's Juliet and Friar Lawrence for hatching a plot that they believe will ensure a happy ending all round.
There's a look back to the now agonising intentions of the Music Hall Recruitment songs with the results reflected with understated eloquence by Sarojini Naidu's 'Gift of India.'
And there are less direct approaches. Was Midas a greedy tyrant or just another, very modern, figure to fall under the sway of the apparent virtue of economic need? Carol Ann Duffy has Mrs Midas watch and judge the results. And Robert Burns, doing what any farmer should be doing at harvest time, finds his innocent intentions are pretty grim news for the mouse whose home he unwittingly exposes.
And then there's the sheer joy resulting from the operatic activities of a cleaning lady in Wexford, shared by the late Bernard Levin, and the Flanders and Swann hymn to eternal self-generating good works in 'The Gasman Cometh'.
The readers are John Sessions and Indira Varma.
Producer: Tom Alban.
Last on
More episodes
Previous
Next
Music Played
Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes
-
![]()
00:00Christoph Willibald Gluck
Orphee et Euridice, Dances of the Blessed Spirits
Performer: Opera Lafayette Orchestra - Conductor Ryan Brown.- Naxos.
- Tr1.
-
James Boswell
Extract from Life of Johnson read by John Sessions
Jane Austen
Extract from Emmam Read by Indira Varma
![]()
00:02Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Tatiana聮s Letter (Puskai pogibnu ya) from Eugene Onegin
Performer: Teresa Kubiak, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Sir Georg Solti.- DECCA.
- Tr14.
William Wordsworth
The Prelude 聳 Book 11 read by John Sessions
![]()
00:16Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op.55, 1st movement.
Performer: New York Philharmonic - Leonard Bernstein.- SONY.
- Tr5.
![]()
00:17Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op.55, 2nd movement.
Performer: New York Philharmonic - Leonard Bernstein.- SONY.
- Tr6.
John Milton
Paradise Lost - Book iX read by Indira Varma and John Sessions
Albert Camus
Extract from La Peste (The Plague) read by John Sessions.
![]()
00:33Paul Rubens
Your King and Country Want You - from The Great War
Performer: Edna Thornton.- PEARL.
- Tr2.
Sarojini Naidu
Gift of India read by Indira Varma
![]()
00:37Folk song
Johnny I Hardly Knew You
Performer: Bejamin Luxon & Bill Crofut.- Cousin Jacks CX 546.
- Tr6.
Rudyard Kipling
Extract from a speech in London, 1934 read by John Sessions
![]()
00:42Prokofiev
Romeo and Juliet - Ballet Score: No.44
Performer: Boshoi Theatre Orchestra - Conductor Algis Zuraitis.- CLASSICS FOR PLEASURE.
- Tr17.
William Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet; Act IV, read by John Sessions and Indira Varma.
![]()
00:46Sergey Prokofiev
Romeo and Juliet - Ballet Score: No. 52 Death of Juliet
Performer: Boshoi Theatre Orchestra - Conductor Algis Zuraitis.- CLASSICS FOR PLEASURE.
- Tr25.
Carol Ann Duffy
Extract from her Poem 聭Mrs Midas聮 read by Indira Varma.
![]()
00:51Benjamin/Marcus/Caldwell
Don聮t Let Me Be Misunderstood
Performer: Nina Simone.- MERCURY.
- Tr3.
Robert Burns
Poem to a Mouse read by John Sessions.
![]()
00:56Paul Dukas
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Performer: The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields - Neville Marriner.- Philips.
- Tr3.
Bernard Levin
Description of events at Wexford Opera read by John Sessions and Indira Varma
![]()
01:06Spontini
La Vestale - La Nuit Cheve Sa Carriere (scene one)
Performer: Anthony Michaels-Moore.- SONY.
- Tr2.
![]()
01:08Spontini
La Vestale - Pres de ce Temple Auguste
Performer: Anthony Michaels Moore & J.Patrick Raftery.- SONY.
- Tr3.
![]()
01:09Spontini
La Vestale - Ouverture
Performer: Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala.- SONY.
- Tr5.
![]()
01:11Michael Flanders and Donald Swann
The Gas-Man Cometh
Performer: Michael Flanders and Donald Swann.- PARLOPHONE.
- Tr1.
Producer's Note
Good Intentions
The use of the phrase 鈥楪ood Intentions鈥� is almost invariably accompanied by news of 鈥榖ad results鈥�.聽 Those results may be comically or tragically bad but in a way that鈥檚 not the point.聽 The important thing is that it wasn鈥檛 the motivation that was at fault.
In drama good intentions are everywhere.聽 Only the truly Machiavellian is free of them.聽 The better the intentions the more agonising the tragedy when it all goes wrong and, in equal part, the more hilarious the comedy as chaos unfolds in front of a knowing audience.聽 There are several different varieties of good intention; the ambitious, the optimistic, the clear sighted, the narrow and the horribly mistaken.
This edition of 鈥榃ords and Music鈥� seeks, with the best of intentions, to explore just a few of them.
We begin with Orpheus.聽 Nobody could fault his ambition as he steps out into the Elysian district of Hades.聽 His desire to rescue his late wife Eurydice through the sheer beauty of his music making is virtuous indeed.聽 Unfortunately he didn鈥檛 pay full attention to the small print in his deal with the Gods.聽 The stipulation that he remain silent and not look back at his wife seemed fine without the flow of questions, doubts and fears on Eurydice鈥檚 part.聽
Would he have approached things differently if he鈥檇 heard James Boswell鈥檚 report of Dr Johnson鈥檚 admonition about the road to hell being paved with Good Intentions?聽 Probably not.聽 It sounds, on the face of it, 聽a shade defeatist, implying that there is some better, more honest form of intent that should be adopted.聽 As it is his reported words survive as a gentle, if not genteel, warning.
The next two characters, undone in spite of their noblest efforts, are the very English Emma Wodehouse and the very Russian Tatiana Larina.聽 Jane Austen thought nobody would much like Emma.聽 How wrong can you be? We love her all the more because her foibles are almost invariably good hearted, if deluded.聽 Such is the case with her attempts to hitch up Harriet Smith with the dreadful Mr Elton. When her intent veers towards the vindictive later in the novel, she is severely checked 聽but never broken.
Tatiana inhabits an Operatic world where the stakes are higher, the risks far greater.聽 Here she is wrestling with the wisdom of a clear and unequivocal statement of her love in the famous 鈥楲etter Scene鈥�.聽 Is it wise? With her aria ringing in our ears of course we could have wished she tread more carefully but there鈥檚 no disputing the genuine nature of her motives.聽 Indeed for the audience they accuse Onegin from the moment they鈥檙e committed to paper until the Opera鈥檚 end.
William Wordsworth looks back at a national or even an international example of 鈥榞ood intentions鈥� which went horribly, bloodily bad.聽 The French Revolution was not, he insists, 聽for 鈥榝avoured spots alone, but the whole earth鈥�.聽 鈥楤liss was it鈥� to experience the upheaval which was to bring about such freedoms for humanity.
The story suggests that Ludwig van Beethoven felt much the same and saw it exemplified in the figure of Napoleon Bonaparte.聽 Did he really tear out the dedicatory page of his third Symphony on discovering his hero had feet of clay?聽 It certainly feels as though something had died in the second movement, the more so because of the hopes aroused in the first.
That sense of loss is at the heart of John Milton鈥檚 Epic Poem 鈥楶aradise Lost鈥�.聽 Here we have Eve, weighing the words of the Satanic Serpent and finding in them intentions that she is certain are good.聽 鈥楬ere grows the cure of all鈥� which 鈥榝eeds both bodie and mind鈥�.聽 It was for religious thinkers to find the ultimate good in the Loss, accepting that 鈥榥ay had the apple taken been鈥� then there would be no glory in the message of the New Testament.聽聽 Much is made of Eve鈥檚 folly but, for me, not enough of her essential goodness.
Albert Camus, stepping out of the action of 鈥楲a Peste鈥�, points out the narrator鈥檚 unease at the glorification of good intentions which he believes imply the opposite in the majority.聽 Ignorance, he believes is far worse. 聽Darkest of all is the ignorance, dressed up as righteousness, that claims as a virtue the right to kill.
Dr Johnson鈥檚 warning about good intentions is at its most vivid in war.聽 All sides ring to the righteousness of their case.聽 Paul Rubens caught the mood in 1914 with his song 鈥榊our King and Country Want You鈥�.聽 The next year he penned an equally earnest number about the need for nurses to do their bit for the stricken soldiers.
Sassoon, Owen, Rosenberg, there are so many voices who gave vivid voice to the cost of righteous war.聽 Here Sarojini Naidu tries to measure the price paid by Indian soldiers who fought, not just in Europe, but in Persia, Egypt and East Africa.
鈥楯ohnny I hardly knew ya鈥� comes from an earlier conflict in Sri Lanka (Ceylon in the lyrics of the time).聽 Here it鈥檚 the wife who has to watch the shattered remnant of her husband who set off intent on fame, fortune and glory.聽 Benjamin Luxon鈥檚 performance is searing.
But amidst the hand-wringing is the voice of Rudyard Kipling who, by 1934, when he spoke to a dinner in London, knew what it was to lose a son in war and yet he was also aware of the risks his nation was taking in a Europe rearming at furious rate.
We return to drama now and one of the clearest examples of good intentions leading to tragedy.聽 Friar Lawrence knows the risks of her feigning death and Juliet gives us a horrible premonition of what could go wrong.聽聽 Prokofiev鈥檚 ballet score captures the tension, hope, anxiety, foreboding and, in the event, tragedy.
I admit the jury may be split over King Midas.聽 Greedy, selfish and stupid is one reading.聽 However, isn鈥檛 there something very modern about his instinct to seek economic stability as a first resort.聽 A steady supply of Gold is all it would take he reasons.聽 鈥楳oney can鈥檛 buy you happiness鈥� is usually quoted by those who believe it鈥檚 nonsense.聽 Here Carol Ann Duffy has Mrs Midas watching with delicious domestic detail, wit and mounting horror.
Nina Simone speaks for herself.聽 If there鈥檚 one thing that we all wish of our intentions it鈥檚 that they be understood for what we believe them to be - good.聽 That鈥檚 certainly the message Robert Burns has for the little mouse whose nest he鈥檚 unwittingly destroyed with his harvesting. As the beastie panics Burns sees himself in the trembling creature with its best laid plans鈥� gang aft agley鈥�.
For Burns and the mouse and many more besides it鈥檚 pure accident that sweeps away their good intentions.聽 Paul Dukas describes an accident waiting to happen in the form of that ageless human desire to cut corners.聽聽 Was the crime of the Sorcerer鈥檚 Apprentice so great?聽
And so, belatedly, to the comic side of the equation and the making of an unusual argument by Bernard Levin, that as well as the road to hell, the road to heaven can also be paved with good intentions, albeit laid the wrong way up and back to front.聽 Here is pure joy in Levin鈥檚 recollection of an Operatic production undermined by the simplest act of good will.聽 Opera is always a high wire act.聽 There are so many things that have to go well.聽 When one ingredient fails it can be frustrating, embarrassing, ludicrous or, as here, catastrophically joyous.
And to bring us to a close Michael Flanders and Donald Swann observing with their usual 茅lan that good intentions will always be with us, driving us onwards to distraction or back to where we started.聽 Where there鈥檚 a good will there鈥檚 not necessarily a way.
Producer:聽 Tom Alban
Broadcasts
- Sun 25 May 2014 17:30麻豆社 Radio 3
- Sun 3 Jan 2016 17:30麻豆社 Radio 3
The hidden history of plant-based diets
![The hidden history of plant-based diets]()
Forget social media influencers - the meat-free movement started with the Victorians.
Books website
Get closer to books with in-depth articles, quizzes and our picks from radio & TV.
Related Content
