What comprises an unlikely trinity? Music, science, and film. Let me explain.

It’s remarkable how a piece of music can resurrect memories from the deep recesses of one’s mind.

Christoph W Gluck

Just as Steph and I sat down to dinner last Saturday evening, I chose a CD (always classical) to play in the background as we ate. I’ve no idea precisely why I chose the opera Orfeo ed Euridice (first performed in October 1762) by Christoph Willibald Gluck other than it’s one of my favorite pieces of music. There’s one aria in particular, Che farò senza Euridice? (from Act 3) sung by the character of Orfeo, that became a signature concert piece for British soprano Kathleen Ferrier. And it’s a recording of hers that I remember from my childhood in the early 1950s. Ferrier died at age 41 in 1953, and I was born in 1948.

Traditionally however, Orfeo is played/sung by a counter tenor. And in this Philips release (CD 434 093-2, and available on Spotify) the counter tenor is Derek Lee Ragin.

Enjoy the power of Ragin’s voice as he reaches the highest notes in Che farò. Sends shivers down my spine.

I first came across this John Eliot Gardiner/Ragin/Sylvia McNair collaboration on a Lufthansa flight from the Philippines (where I was working at the International Rice Research Institute) to Dublin, Ireland (via Frankfurt) around March/April 1996. I flew quite frequently to Europe in the 1990s and Lufthansa was often my airline of choice because of the good connections to Rome. I always made the trip more enjoyable by listening to Lufthansa’s excellent classical music channel. And it was on that particular trip to Dublin that I heard this particular recording for the first time, and listened to the whole opera.

With some free time in Dublin, I took the opportunity of walking around the city center, and came across a record store on Grafton Street, where this recording of Orfeo ed Euridice was in stock. I also bought Mark Knopfler’s Golden Heart that had just been released. It’s remained a favorite of mine ever since.

So what was I doing in Dublin? There’s no obvious rice connection.

Well, I had been invited to interview for the Chair of Botany (1711) at Trinity College Dublin (TCD), and on a grey early Spring morning, I found myself among six candidates including one internal candidate who was subsequently appointed to the Chair (one of the oldest professorships at TCD). I’d certainly traveled furthest by a long chalk.

So that explains two points of the trinity: music and science. So what about film?

Educating Rita was released in 1983, starring Michael Caine and Julie Walters and written by Willy Russell based on his stage play. Although the storyline takes place at the Open University in England, several scenes were filmed on the Trinity College campus.

And one intimate scene between Caine and Walters was filmed in the lecture theater in the Botany Department. Or so the story goes. I’ve heard that but not (yet) been able to verify. And it was in that very same lecture theater that I presented my candidacy seminar.

Botany building at TCD

It’s interesting to note that botany is still offered today at TCD. Not ‘plant sciences’ or ‘plant biology’. Good old ‘botany’! It’s thriving and there are more staff than when I visited. It’s not a department as such but an important discipline in the School of Natural Sciences.

The Chair of Botany (1711) is now occupied by Professor Jennifer Mc Elwain, whose research focuses on the development and use of palaeobotanical methods (proxies) that use fossil plants to reconstruct the evolution of Earth’s atmospheric composition and climate on multimillion year timescales.

When I lectured in plant biology at The University of Birmingham between 1981 and 1991 a tutee of mine, Trevor Hodkinson, took a joint degree in biological sciences and geography. I don’t remember the dates, but he stayed on to complete his PhD supervised by one of my colleagues. He joined TCD shortly after my visit there, and has been Professor of Botany since 2016 focussing on molecular systematics, genetic resource characterisation, and endophyte biology.

So, as we sat down to a dinner of roast pork, accompanied by a delicious Reserve de Pierre Rosé 2023 from the Côtes du Rhône by winemaker Pierre Latard, all these memories came flooding back. And though, back in 1996, I was momentarily disappointed at the TCD outcome, I have no regrets about how my career turned out.