Radio Documentaries by Angela Mezzetti
The latest series of radio documentaries by Angela Mezzetti
Stranieri
Stranieri tells the story of the foreigners or ‘stranieri’ who were recruited to the Radio Eireann Symphony Orchestra from 1948. Some came to leave behind a devastated post war Europe, others came to escape communist regimes. All of them came to share their extraordinary talents with what would became a world class National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland. They were recruited by enlightened officials from the department of Posts and Telegraphs from all over Europe. The Ireland they came to though, didn’t know that olive oil could be used for more than clearing ears, and good coffee was a rarity. The lack of equal pay for women mystified women members, communication was difficult and condoms were smuggled in newspapers by nonnas /grannies in newspapers. Hear the fascinating stories in this BAI funded radio documentary presented and produced by Angie Mezzetti first broadcast on RTE Lyricfm.
Mrs Finlay’s Broadwood Square Piano
Nominated for a New York Radio Award ‘Mrs Findlay’s Broadwood Square Piano’ is a haunting love story that is revealed through the restoration of a piano. As the piano is lovingly restored from a bag of bones, so too is the love story from the pages of history and a long lost Sonata is unearthed in the process and given new life by concert pianist Inja Davidovic.
Bought in 1977 on a whim for fifty pounds in Ballycastle, Mrs. Findlay’s Broadwood Square Piano, a bockedy old instrument, unearths a story of forbidden romance in Glasgow between heiress Dorothea Findlay and John Donaldson her piano teacher, a legal battle over a dowry and the reunification of two families. As its strings and pedals are restored by Michael Hannon, so too is the history of a family and airing of a sonata by Donaldson inspired by Dorothea, that had lain dormant for years.
Donaldson’s several musical compositions for the piano were inspired by his romance with Dorothea whom he finally married without a dowry in 1820. His Sonata for the Piano Forte in G Major was published by Muzio Clementi Esq in 1822 and supposedly charts his romantic journey and love for his wife ‘the flighty Dorothea’. He later studied law and spent decades in courts claiming her portion of her family inheritance.
Saucy Mistress Boldface
Letters from the Bishop of Elphin to his daughter Alicia reveal an affectionate relationship between the pair. Saucy Mistress Boldface is a peek through a Georgian window at life for women from 1746 to 1751 through a series of 221 letters from the Bishop Of Elphin to his only teenage daughter, Alicia. We hear about music, fashions, lazy servants, exotic fruits and women’s health. It shows what life was like for women in Georgian Dublin where Alicia learned to take her place in the world.
Dorothea The Doozy
Dorothea Herbert writer, poet, proud spinster and diarist from Tipperary wrote about her life family and society in the late 1760 to 1829. Her book ‘Retrospections of an Outcast’ which she hand wrote and illustrated documents her extraordinary life. her poetry is clever witty and insightful into a world that was colourful and often violent for women in the upper classes. She documents her declining mental state and talks about her supposed love affair which was likely only in her own mind. Her broken romance could also have been a literary tool to explain herself to her family.
Well worth a listen!
I Hear A Sound The stories of Cochlear Implants in Beaumont Hospital
A Cochlear Implant is a miracle piece of technology and surgery that gives hearing back to some people who have become deaf or very hard of hearing. This radio documentary follows several adults and their journey back to improved hearing. It shows the therapy and homework people who opt for the surgery have to do, to get the best results. It is a joyous story that will lift your heart and may take some of the mystery away from the process. First broadcast on Newstalk and funded by BAI from the TV licence fee
