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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

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Opera on 3

Music: Classical: Opera

Programme presenting rare and fascinating operatic performances

Programme presenting rare and fascinating performances and vividly communicating the immediacy of the live experience

Opera on 3: Live from the Met

Opera on 3: Live from the Met: Verdi's Aida

Verdi's Aida

03/04/2010

Live from the Met

BBC Radio 3 - Opera on 3, Live from the Met, Verdi's Aida

Marco Armiliato conducts a performance of Verdi's spectacular opera Aida.

From the Metropolitan Opera, New York, Marco Armiliato conducts a performance of Verdi's spectacular opera Aida, set in the ancient Egypt of the pharaohs. Starring soprano Hui He.

Set in the ancient Egypt of the pharaohs and with a masterly combination of grand set-pieces, including the spectacle of its swaggering Triumphal March, and intimate scenes, Aida tells the story of the Ethiopian slave girl who finds that her lover and her father are on the opposite sides of warring nations. A love rival to her princess employer, she chooses to be buried alive with her lover Radames, rather than endure life without him.
Commissioned for the opening of the Suez Canal, Verdi's Aida has been a staple of the repertory ever since its 1871 Egyptian premiere and is probably the greatest music ever written to celebrate an artificial waterway. Chinese soprano-of-the-moment Hui He takes the title role and the internationally renowned Italian tenor Salvatore Licitra plays her lover.


Presented by Margaret Juntwait with guest commentator Ira Siff. There will be live backstage interviews and the Met Quiz during the two intervals.

Aida: Hui He (soprano)
Radames: Salvatore Licitra (tenor)
Amneris: Dolora Zajick (mezzo-soprano)
Amonasro: Carlo Guelfi (baritone)
King of Egypt: Stefan KocÃ¡n (bass)
Ramfis (Chief Priest): Carlo Colombara (bass)
High Priestess: Elizabeth DeShong (soprano)
Messenger: Diego Torre (tenor) 
Marco Armiliato: conductor
Chorus and Orchestra of Metropolitan Opera.

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