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Friday, February 10, 2012

Ten Reasons Why Jonathan Miller Is Awesome

The next time you're feeling constrained by career choices or boxed in by the whims of fate, it might be good to consider the career of Jonathan Miller, director of New York City Opera's production of La traviata, currently running at BAM. A true polymath, Miller has proven that being both a jack and a master of all trades is only a few TV shows, books, and operas away. Here are 10 reasons we think he's awesome.

1.  He is president of something called The RationalistAssociation.

2.  He is a trained neurologist and revered medical historican.

3.  He produced a multi-part miniseries on atheism called A History of Disbelief (2004) for the BBC in which he says things like “I will not be seen leaning over a balcony watching René Descartes nibbling his quill while he struggles with the problem of mind/brain duality.” First part here:


4.  He produced another multi-part mini-series on the BBC entitled The Body in Question (1978), in which he says things like: “The reason why Dudley Moore is so at ease on this keyboard is that he has no need to rehearse the keyboard he has inside his own spinal cord.”


5.  He wrote and produced Beyond the Fringe, a proto-Monty Python and Saturday Night Live sketch comedy revue. Clip here:


6.  He started directing opera when he couldn’t even read music. Some of his thoughts on acting in opera:


7.  He is highly opinionated about pants:


8.  He did an avant-garde adult version of Alice in Wonderland (1966) with music by Ravi Shankar:



9.  For a time, he was vice president of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality.

10.  His production of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, thrice performed at BAM, is legendary:


1 comment:

  1. He isn't highly opinionated about pants, he's opinionated about other people being highly opinionated about pants.

    ReplyDelete

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