Royal Opera House
After leaving Channel 4, and failing to be appointed Director General of the BBC in 1987, Isaacs became General Director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, a role he fulfilled until 1996. This was a difficult period for the ROH, which was not helped by the broadcast of the revealing The House (1996) documentary series on BBC2.
Ted Turner sought out Isaacs (confusing him with the actor Jeremy Irons) for the role of executive producer for his 1998 24-episode Cold War series.
Between 1997 and 2000 Isaacs was president of the Royal Television Society. He is currently chairman of Sky Arts.
From 1990 to 1998 Isaacs acted as interviewer in a revival of the BBC series Face to Face; John Freeman had filled this role in the original 1959-62 run.
Read more about this topic: Jeremy Isaacs
Famous quotes containing the words royal, opera and/or house:
“This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house
Against the envy of less happier lands;
This blessèd plot, this earth, this realm, this England.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“If music in general is an imitation of history, opera in particular is an imitation of human willfulness; it is rooted in the fact that we not only have feelings but insist upon having them at whatever cost to ourselves.... The quality common to all the great operatic roles, e.g., Don Giovanni, Norma, Lucia, Tristan, Isolde, Brünnhilde, is that each of them is a passionate and willful state of being. In real life they would all be bores, even Don Giovanni.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)
“The lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and then becomes a host, and then a master.”
—Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931)