starring
Peter Glossop
Narrated and conducted by Bernard Keeffe
Opera Month continues with this informal workshop-style programme which tells the story of Giuseppe Verdi 's superb mastery of vocal expression, of how his soaring melodies perfectly match the quality of the human voice.
As well as examining soprano and tenor roles, BERNARD KEEFFE concentrates in particular on Verdi's writing for baritone. Previously little used, Verdi was one of the first to realise the true musical and dramatic potential of the middle-range male voice, a quality he fully exploited in such powerful roles as Rigoletto, lago and Falstaff.
The programme also includes the famous finale to Act 2 of Ballo in Maschera (a grisly midnight setting on Gallows Hill) where soprano, tenor and baritone join in one of the most masterful operatic scenes ever written, with Milia Andrew (soprano) Henry Howell (tenor) and the ROYAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA leader BARRY GRIFFITHS
Sound DEREK MILLER-TIMMINI Lighting clive THOMAS Designer AUSTIN RUDDY
Producer KENNETH corden