Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

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

Migrated podcast image for: Composer Of The Week

Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

Composer of the Week - Brand

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

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

Composer of the Week: Russian Opera

Composer of the Week: Russian Opera: Episode 1

Episode 1

Russian Opera

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

Donald Macleod focuses on the beginnings of Russia's opera tradition.

Donald Macleod explores Russian opera, starting with Verstovsky's Askold's Grave, Glinka's A Life for the Tsar, Dargomizhsky's The Stone Guest and Mussorgsky's The Marriage.

As part of the BBC's focus on opera in 2010, Donald Macleod explores the rich tradition of Russian opera, from Glinka to Schnittke. Opera began in Italy and that's where Russia got it from too; a string of Italians from Ristori to Cimarosa staged productions in St Petersburg and thereby planted the seeds from which Russia's own operatic tradition eventually sprang. That first sapling appeared in 1836 with Mikhail Glinka's A Life for the Tsar, universally regarded as the first 'real' Russian opera. In The Stone Guest, Alexander Dargomïzhsky continued the move away from the Italian tradition with his naturalistic approach to text-setting, which removed the distinction between aria and recitative. Mussorgsky took part in early private run-throughs of Dargomïzhsky's work and was so impressed that he decided to try his hand at the same kind of thing; the result was The Marriage, his first opera and an important milestone on the way to his masterpiece, Boris Godunov.

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 explores the rich tradition of Russian opera, from Glinka to Schnittke

As part of the BBC's focus on opera in 2010, Donald Macleod explores the rich tradition of Russian opera, from Glinka in the early 19th century to Schnittke in the late 20th

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Composer of the Week

Russian Opera

Episode 1

Genres

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3