The man who mistook his wife for a hat

A film version for television, directed by Christopher Rawlence, of Michael Nyam’s chamber opera, factually based on Neurologist Oliver Sack’s investigation into the mind of a man for whom the visual world has lost its meaning, the singer and music teacher Dr. P. It isn’t that Dr. P. fails to see things. It’s how he sees them how he perceives. Or doesn’t. Computer-like, his powers of recognition are reduced to detail: key features, schematic relationships. A master at mental chess who cannot identify the simple symetry of rose. Or a photograph of his mother. Stricken with the condition of “agnosia” (a symptom of the advance Alzheimer’s disease), how can Dr. P. and his wife—also musician—cope with everyday life? This is the start point for Michael Nyman’s opera composed for bartone, tenor, soprano, string quintet, harp and piano. Frederick Wescott sings the role of Dr. P., Patricia Hooper singd the role of Mrs. P., and Emile Belcourt the Neurologist. Michael Nyman, who leads the ensemble is perhaps best known for his scores for Peter Greenaway’s “The Draughtman’s contract” and “Zed and two Noughts.” “I think that music, for him, had taken the place of image. He had no body image, he had body-music: this is why he could move and act as fluently as he did, but came to a total confused stop if the “inner music” stopped.” Oliver Sacks.