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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

The Early Music Show

Music: Classical: Early Music

Performance and news from the world of early music.

An exploration of early music, looking at early developments in musical performance and composition in Britain and abroad. UK only: please note that not all episodes are podcast.

The Early Music Show: Opera Profiles

The Early Music Show: Opera Profiles: Episode 8: Opera Profile: Handel's Alcina

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Music: Classical: Opera

Handel - Alcina

Episode 8

Episode 8: Opera Profile: Handel's Alcina

Opera Profiles

Opera Profile: Handel's Alcina

BBC Radio 3 - The Early Music Show, Opera Profiles, Opera Profile: Handel's Alcina

Lucie Skeaping delves into Handel's opera Alcina, with musical director Alan Curtis.

Lucie Skeaping delves into Handel's opera Alcina, with contributions from musical director Alan Curtis, who recorded the work in 2007 with his ensemble Il Complesso Barocco.

Lucie Skeaping continues the Early Music Show's series of opera profiles by delving into the music and history surrounding Handel's "Alcina". Based on the epic poem by Ariosto, the libretto by Antonio Marchi provided Handel with some very intense dramatic opportunities, including star-crossed lovers, dark magic and madness. 

Alcina was composed for Handel's first season at London's Covent Garden Theatre and it premiered on April 16 1735. Like many of the composer's other serious stage works, it fell into general obscurity; after a revival in Brunswick in 1738 it was not performed again until a production in Leipzig nearly two centuries later, in 1928. It has now become one of Handel's most popular operas.

Lucie Skeaping talks to the American harpsichordist and musical director Alan Curtis at his home in Florence. Curtis recorded Alcina in 2007 with his ensemble Il Complesso Barocco. That recording also starred Joyce DiDonato in the title role and Karina Gauvin as her sister Morgana (the role that was originally written for Thomas Arne's wife, Cecila Young).

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.

Series celebrating baroque opera, broadcast as part of the Opera on the BBC season

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Episode 8: Opera Profile: Handel's Alcina

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