Verdi's great Shakespeare-inspired opera Otello live from the Barbican Hall in the City of London. Colin Davis conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in this concert performance with an international cast led by Argentinian star tenor Jose Cura in the title role.
"The opera shows the last 24 hours of a human being who is going to pieces," says Cura - as Otello's love for his wife Desdemona is destroyed by the malevolent, scheming lago. Presented by James Naughtie.
London Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, conductor Colin Davis
Acts 1 and 2 8.10 A Sound Read
Ivan Hewett is joined by Janet Ritterman , director of the Royal
College of Music, and by playwright Howard Brenton to review recently published books on music. This month's programme features the memoirs of celebrated musicologist HC Robbins Landon , the Hamlyn history of classical music, and Reminiscing in Tempo - a portrait of Duke Ellington by Stuart Nicholson.
8.40 Acts 3 and 4