Opera Scotland

Audience with Jonathan Miller 2013Gardyne Theatre, Dundee

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One of our greatest polymaths (and frequent director of opera), Jonathan Miller met with an appreciative audience at the Gardyne Theatre.  He has written that his reputation as a polymath rests on being 'pathetically susceptible to someone knocking on my door with a Frisbee in their hand saying "Do you want to come out to play?"'

Descended from immigrants who fled Tsarist anti-Semitism to become shopkeepers in Ireland and London's East End, Miller was born into an intellectual milieu, between Bloomsbury and Harley Street.  Miller has since forged a career as a leading actor, theatre-maker and self-taught opera director.  He is a satirist, humourist, public intellectual and TV personality.

Opera lovers will remember his famed productions of Mikado and Rigoletto for ENO; and closer to home of Magic Flute for Scottish Opera. Those with longer memories will recall his work with Kent Opera, which was showcased at the Edinburgh International Festival.

As a co-creator of the seminal comedy revue, Beyond the Fringe, his writing helped to launch the artistic careers of Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Alan Bennett.  His talents and interests encompass many areas, from medicine and neuropsychology to the arts, sculpture, atheism, criticism and comedy.  He wrote and presented the controversial BBC series The Body in Question.  The first comprehensive biography of him, "In Two Minds" is written by leading arts journalist Kate Bassett (The Independent) and was published in November 2012.

Tickets are £18 (£16 concessions).