Front Row

How the opiod crisis inspired an opera

July 29, 2026·42 min
Episode Description from the Publisher

Composer Missy Mazzoli discusses her opera The Galloping Cure, which fuses a live orchestra with electronic beats and features a charismatic antihero and talking dogs. An allegory for a crisis which has become a worldwide epidemic, the production by Opera Ventures Productions and Scottish Opera receives its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival and is a reimagining of a story by Franz Kafka. Artist Joyce W Cairns is one of Scotland's most renowned painters, and in 2018 she was elected the first President of the Royal Scottish Academy of Art and Architecture. She talks to us about making the move from mythological to autobiographical painting and about how she was inspired to create her impressive War Tourist series of paintings - drawn from research in Normandy and Tunisia - after inheriting a suitcase of her father's World War II memorabilia. And as the heatwave continues across parts of the UK and Europe, we ask how cultural institutions are responding. Is the closure of galleries due to uncomfortable temperatures going to become the norm? Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Mark Crossan

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