Iqbal Khan

Michael Berkeley's guest is the opera and theatre director Iqbal Khan.

He has brought to the stage everything from Madame Butterfly and Sondheim's Into the Woods to an RSC production of Much Ado About Nothing set in modern India.

In Private Passions, Khan explores his favourite operas, with extracts from Verdi, Mozart, and Wagner, and chooses other music which inspires him, from Mahler's 2nd Symphony and Britten's War Requiem, to an extraordinary percussive piece by Nitin Sawhney. He plays, too, a historic recording of Paul Scofield as King Lear. And he talks movingly about his childhood and difficult teenage years, growing up in Birmingham, after his father died and the family was left penniless. Khan was inspired by his older brother, who encouraged him to aim for the highest academic honours, and read to him at night by candlelight - to make the books more exciting. Dracula was a particular favourite.

Produced by Elizabeth Burke A Loftus production for BBC Radio 3.