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

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

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Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: Monteverdi to Rossini - Italian Opera

Composer of the Week: Monteverdi to Rossini - Italian Opera: Episode 5

Monteverdi to Rossini - Italian Opera

Episode 5

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Monteverdi to Rossini - Italian Opera, Episode 5

Donald Macleod explores operas by Rossini, Ferdinando Paer and Simon Mayr.

Donald Macleod explores Rossini's operas, as well as two leading composers in the generation before him - Ferdinando Paer and Simon Mayr - little-known now, but famous in their day.

Continuing Donald Macleod's exploration of two centuries of Italian opera from Monteverdi to Rossini. In the final course of this week-long operatic banquet we reach Signor Crescendo himself, Gioacchino Rossini. Rossini is known above all for his dazzling comic masterpiece The Barber of Seville, but like many of his musical forbears he also cultivated his 'serious' side. It's a side that many listeners may be only dimly aware of, and it's never been particularly good box office. 

After a shaky start, The Barber became a perennial favourite with audiences. By contrast, the searing tragedy of Ermione just didn't catch on; the opera ran for a handful of nights before the composer withdrew it, after which it went into suspended animation until it was finally revived over a century and a half later. When they met in 1822, Beethoven advised Rossini to stick to comic opera. Ermione proves how wrong he was. We also hear from the two leading composers of Italian opera in the generation before Rossini, Ferdinando PaÃ«r and Simon Mayr - as with several of this week's composers, little-known now but major players in their own day.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Donald Macleod on two centuries and more of Italian opera, from Monteverdi to Rossini

As part of the BBC's focus on opera in 2010, Donald Macleod explores two centuries and more of Italian opera, from Monteverdi to Rossini

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