The Librettist

William Radice was born in London in 1951.

He has more than thirty books to his name, including nine books of his own poetry, and is particularly well known for his translations for Penguin of the poems and stories of Rabindranath Tagore.

He is Senior Lecturer in Bengali at SOAS, University of London, but in 2005 went part-time in order to devote more time to writing.

Playing the piano is his main recreation.  He wrote the libretto for Param Vir’s highly praised chamber opera  Snatched by the Gods (1992, based on a narrative poem by Tagore), and in 1995 translated Puccini’s Turandot for the English National Opera.  He recently wrote the libretto for Chincha-chancha Cooroo, or The Weaver’s Wedding, an opera for young people by Bernard Hughes, commissioned by W11 Opera in London, and performed in December 2006 at the Britten Theatre, Royal College of Music.

More information at www.williamradice.com and http://www.w11opera.org/bios/librettists.html#radice

Photo by Jonathan Steffen 2005