Grand Guignol or High Drama? Gordon Stewart presents four programmes which take the lid off the hotpot of Italian verismo - its seething passions, heart-throbbing emotions and lurid violence, as expressed through some of the best sets of vocal chords in the business.
1: Singers, Poets, Clowns and Revolutionaries. Featuring excerpts from Tosca, La Gioconda, La
Boheme, I Pagliacci and Andrea Chenier , with singers including Caruso, Del Monaco, Pavarotti,
Bergonzi, Gobbi, Callas and Tebaldi. Producer Adam Gatehouse