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Sean Connery as 007, James Bond From Russia With Love United Artists/AKG
Philip Langridge CBE plays Bluebeard. He talks about being directed by his son, Stephen Langridge "I suppose it must be strange for a father to work with and obey their sons, but for Stephen and me it comes naturally. Of course most fathers hail their sons as geniuses – and I am no exception – but our relationship is different in one main respect: our mutual love of our work, of theatre and music. Our first professional collaboration was The Bells in the early 90s and we later admitted to a last minute panic about our relationship: how would I, the father, react to being bossed around by my son? That didn’t happen and we just got on in the normal way as singer and director. We have since worked together on Turn of the Screw.
I have sung the part many times and hold strong views so this was a true test of our ability to collaborate. This was Stephen's production and I found his ideas gave me a deeper understanding of the character. By the time we get to Grange Park we will have also notched up another opera at ROH, Birtwistle’s The Minotaur. For both these operas Stephen jokingly threatened to audition me, but relented at the last minute! Bluebeard will be our first comedy together and it is a genre in which Stephen is exceedingly accomplished. I shall certainly need a lot of help on this one, and I hope I can come up to his high standards!"