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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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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: Opera-Comique

Composer of the Week: Opera-Comique: Episode 1

Opera-Comique

Episode 1

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Opera-Comique, Episode 1

Donald Macleod defines some of the characteristics of the Opera-Comique genre.

Donald Macleod explores the colourful world of the Parisian Opera-Comique, beginning with an attempt to define some of the characteristics of the genre.

Opéra-Comique can be a kind of opera, an institution or a building. All three have strong links with each other and specific characteristics which were quite different to the other types of opera on offer. Donald Macleod and his guest Karen Henson, an Assistant Professor at Columbia University with a special interest in French opera unravel the intricacies of nineteenth century Parisian operatic life. 

0ver the course of five programmes they'll be looking at some of the big names of the 19th century including Bizet, Massenet, and Boieldieu, who penned the runaway hit La dame blanche. Boieldieu's own life story could make him a character in one of his own opéra-comiques. The series draws to a close in classic opéra-comique territory with the tragic finale of Auber's version of Manon.

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.

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Music: Classical: Opera

Donald Macleod is joined by academic Karen Henson explore the world of the Opera-Comique

Donald Macleod and Karen Henson explore the world of the Opera-Comique - a type of opera, an institution and also a building - unravelling the intricacies of 19th-century Parisian operatic life

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