La Juive
A French rarity launches this winter season at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
Halevy's smouldering tragedy was hugely popular in the 19th century, with its story of religious strife, thwarted love and mistaken identity, centering on the Jewish goldsmith Eleazar, his supposed daughter Rachel, her illicit lover Leopold and her real father Cardinal Brogni.
Presented by Stephanie Hughes.
New York Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra, conductor Marcello Viotti Act
6.50 Twenty Minutes: A View from the Bridge The first of four programmes in which writers and artists in New York evoke the scenes from the various crossings to Manhattan island.
1: Bridge and Tunnel
Fiction editor Bill Buford crosses in from New Jersey and heads for Bleeker Street on a Friday night. He reveals how the romance of Manhattan lies in its being an island, how it's sustained by those who come in from outside by bridge ortunnel to work and make merry - and how the Manhattanites resent the daily invasion of what they call "the B&T crowd".
7.10 Acts 2 and 3 8.40 Interval: The Met Opera Quiz
Steven Blier puts listeners' questions to Martin Bernheimer , Michelle Krisel and Terrence McNally.
Send questions to Met Opera Quiz, FDR Station, PO Box 805. New York, NY 10150. USA. or via the website: www.bbc.co.uk/radio3.
8.55 Opera Snaps In the first of this season's reflections on the Met broadcasts, critic Rodney Milnes considers whether La Juive is the only successful
French grand opera written by a Frenchman.
9.00 Acts 4 and 5