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Count Omega
by Lord Berners



Lord Berners - Count Omega

Dramatised by Mike Steer. BBC Radio 3 10-02-1989

Composer Emanuel Smith is searching for a sensational climax to his symphony when at a party he hears an enormous trombonist called Gloria who can hold a note without apparent effort while it swells to a volume that is almost physically painful before diminishing to silence. He pursues her, breaks a tepid engagement for his new passion but then discovers she is false.

Rupert Graves . Emanuel Smith (A composer not to be confused with William Walton)
Annette Badlands . Gloria (A large lady of unusual musical talent)
Madam Dark . Jane Wenham
The Social Secretary . Anthony Newlands
Professor Grumbalious . Timothy Bateson
Evangeline . Susie Brand
James . Paul Gregory
Reverend Thomas Brown . Manning Wilson
Mrs. Brown . Rachel Gurney
Queen Mother . Elaine Prador
Narrator . Eric Stozel

Also taking part: Jennifer Pearcey, Brian Hewlett, Jonathan Tafler, Natasha Pyne and Steven Hattersley.

Music "L'Uomo Dai Baffi" (the bearded man) by Lord Berners performed by the Aquarius ensemble conducted by Nicholas Cleobury in Belfast.

Piano extracts played by Michael Maxwell Steer.

Special sounds created by Malcolm Clark of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop; directed by John Theocharis.



"The big drama of the week on Radio 3 - A pleasantly exotic whimsy." (The Listener)

"These highly original (musical) works help to make the characters seem more credible than on the printed page ... As a result Count Omega was magnified by its translation from novel to radio play; and Lord Berners' fantasy became a musical extravaganza." TLS

[Info from http://msteer.co.uk/biog/msradiocreds.html
berners and below]

Note - 'Fantastic Fiction' had a funny story about the publication of the book:

"Count Omega's" working title was "The Last Trump, the Tale of a Symphony and its Composer". Berners's hero, Emanuel Smith is no self-portrait - he is twenty-three, fair-haired and slender and has a profound contempt for opera and ballet. Amory takes up the story: "[Emanuel] is searching for a sensational climax to his symphony when at a party he hears an enormous trombonist called Gloria who can hold a note without apparent effort while it swells to a volume that is almost physically painful before diminishing to silence. He pursues her, breaks a tepid engagement for his new passion but then discovers she is false, a trick, she was merely miming to hidden players. Nevertheless, the symphony is played and when Gloria puts down her instrument and the note continues, chaos erupts. Emanuel goes to live quietly in the country and marries his old fiancee The book is more skilful than any fiction Berners had written before and touches on things that were important to him, and it is readable and original".

Before publication Berners wrote, wickedly, to his erstwhile good friend William Walton: "I am reserving you for a forthcoming novel 'Count Omega', which I will send you as soon as it appears. I thought it only fair that the funniest composer should be immortalised by my pen. I must inform you that, should you, in Sitwellian fashion, propose to take action for libel, the book has been gone through by a lawyer and that I have insured myself against possible damages for libel". Walton's humour failed him, he consulted his solicitor and demanded a pre-publication text. Berners compounded his derring-do by writing direct to Walton's solicitor: "I am shortly bringing out a book called 'Ridiculous Composers I have known'. If your client Mr. William Walton should consider it necessary to see a copy before publication, will you kindly tell him to apply". The situation was defused and Walton thereafter would suffer convenient amnesia whenever the topic was raised. Berners, in recounting the episode to Osbert Sitwell, wrote: "There may be something in what dear old Mrs. Hunter used to say about it being a mistake to be playful with someone who is not quite a gentleman".

Jim

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