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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: Niobe, regina di Tebe

23/10/2010

Niobe, regina di Tebe

BBC Radio 3 - Opera on 3, Niobe, regina di Tebe

A rare chance to hear Agostino Steffani's opera Niobe, regina di Tebe.

From the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Louise Fryer presents a rare chance to hear Agostino Steffani's opera Niobe, regina di Tebe, based on Ovid's Metamorphoses.

Tonight's Opera on 3 is a rare chance to hear Agostino Steffani's Niobe, from the Royal Opera House in London. Based on Ovid's Metamorphoses, it tells the story of Queen Niobe whose pride insults the Gods. As punishment, her children are killed and in her grief she turns to stone. Veronique Gens sings Niobe, and male soprano Jacek Laszczkowski her husband Anfione, a role originally written for a castrato. Thomas Hengelbrock conducts his own Balthasar Neumann Ensemble, and discusses why Steffani's music, which had such an influence on Handel, deserves to become better known. 

Presented by Louise Fryer

Anfione ..... Jacek Laszczkowski (Soprano)
Niobe ..... Veronique Gens (Soprano)
Nerea ..... Delphine Galou (Contralto)
Clearte ..... Tim Mead (Alto)
Tiberino ..... Lothar Odinius (Tenor)
Manto ..... Amanda Forsythe (Soprano)
Tiresia ..... Bruno Taddia (Baritone)
Poliferno ..... Alastair Miles (Bass)
Creonte ..... Iestyn Davies (Countertenor)

Balthasar Neumann Ensemble
Thomas Hengelbrock (conductor).

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