Front Row - 10/03/2010

Sarah Crompton reviews Andrew Lloyd Webber's latest musical Love Never Dies, a sequel to the hugely successful Phantom of the Opera which opened in 1986 and is now one of the longest-running musicals of all time. Soprano Dame Emma Kirkby is widely thought of as a pioneer in the field of early music. She talks to Mark Lawson about her ground-breaking career ahead of her concert Arias for Mrs Arne, part of The London Handel Festival. Based on the first of the bestselling novels in the Millennium series by the late Swedish author Stieg Larsson, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo tells the story of a journalist and a young female hacker who investigate a mysterious disappearance. Jeff Park reviews. French author JMG Le Clézio was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2008. Author of over 40 books, his works have been translated into 36 languages. Now his 1980 novel Desert, a reflection on colonization and its legacy, has been brought out in English. Jean-Marie Le Clézio talks to Mark Lawson about the book and the continuing relevance of the subject matter.