Christopher Columbus (play)

Summary

Christopher Columbus is a radio play, with text by Louis MacNeice and music by William Walton, commissioned by the BBC in 1942. It was first heard in a live broadcast in October 1942 on the BBC Home Service. Sir Adrian Boult conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and the cast was headed by Laurence Olivier in the title role. The production was greatly admired on both sides of the Atlantic, but Walton was reluctant to have his incidental music played in concert or on record and only one number from the score was published in his lifetime. Since his death in 1983 the score of Christopher Columbus has been arranged into a cantata and a suite, published and recorded. The BBC broadcast a new production of the play in 1992.