Original version

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

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

Afternoon Concert

Music: Classical

Unique performances with BBC Orchestras, Choirs and other great orchestras

Unique performances with BBC Orchestras, Choirs and other great orchestras from around the world

Afternoon on 3: Thursday Opera Matinee

Afternoon Concert: Thursday Opera Matinee: Episode 11: Beethoven: Fidelio

Beethoven: Fidelio

Episode 11

Episode 11: Beethoven: Fidelio

BBC Radio 3 - Afternoon Concert

A performance from the Liceu theatre in Barcelona of Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio.

A performance from the Liceu theatre, Barcelona of Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio. Plus BBC Performing groups in Mussorgsky, orch Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition; and Vicentino.

Radio 3's opera matinee season continues with Beethoven's only opera, a hymn to freedom: the political prisoner Florestan languishes in a dungeon, but his oppressors have reckoned without his heroic wife Leonore. In this production from the Liceu Theatre in Barcelona they're sung by Clifton Forbis and Karita Mattila.

Beethoven: Fidelio
Leonore......................Karita Mattila, soprano 
Florestan........................Clifton Forbis, tenor 
Rocco..........................Stephen Milling, bass 
Marzelline..........Elena de la Merced, soprano 
Jaquino..........................Mathias Klink, tenor
Don Pizarro.............Terje Stensvold, baritone 
Don Fernanado............Anders Larsson , bass 
Gran Teatre del Liceu Orchestra and Chorus 
Sebastian Weigle, conductor

4pm
Continuing this week's focus on the BBC performing groups with a stunning performance from Wales of Mussorgsky's colourful masterpiece as orchestrated by Ravel, and another chance to hear the BBC Singers in music by the amazing sixteenth-century microtonal composer Nicola Vicentino, who wrote music using 31 notes per octave, built special keyboard instruments to play it and trained choirs to sing it.

Mussorgsky, orch. Ravel
Pictures at an Exhibition
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Walter Weller, conductor

4.40pm
Nicola Vicentino: 'Poiche il mio largo pianto'; 'Soave dolc' ardore'; Madonna, il poco dolce'
Antoine de Bertrand: 'Je suis tellement amoureux'
Nicola Vicentino: 'Dolce mio ben'; 'Musica prisca caput'
Members of the BBC Singers
James Weeks, conductor.

Afternoon Concert: Thursday Opera Matinee

Thursday Opera Matinee

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.

Performances & Events

Music: Classical: Opera

Series of fifteen operas recently recorded at some of world's greatest opera houses

Series of operas performed at venues around the world. Singers such as Bryn Terfel, Anna Netrebko, Simon Keenlyside and Joyce DiDonato perform under conductors including Seiji Ozawa and Simon Rattle

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Afternoon Concert

Thursday Opera Matinee

Episode 11: Beethoven: Fidelio

Genres

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3