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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

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: Light Fantastic: Gilbert and Sullivan - The Mikado

Light Fantastic: Gilbert and Sullivan - The Mikado

30/06/2011

BBC Radio 3 - Afternoon Concert

Penny Gore presents a performance of Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta The Mikado.

Continuing Radio 3's celebration of light music, Penny Gore presents Gilbert and Sullivan's most popular operetta, The Mikado, with Lyric Opera of Chicago conducted by Andrew Davis.

Penny Gore presents Gilbert and Sullivan's two-act operetta, The Mikado, which received its premiere at the Savoy Theatre in London in 1885 and ran for a remarkable 672 performances. Since then, it has been popular with audiences across the world, including in the U.S. where this performance was recorded earlier this season at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, conducted by their music director, Sir Andrew Davis.

British tenor, Toby Spence, makes his Lyric Opera debut in the role of Nanki-Poo, son of the Mikado of Japan (bass James Morris). In the land of Titipu, all is not well, as Nanki-Poo is thwarted in his amorous intentions towards Yum-Yum (soprano Andriana Chuchman), who is already betrothed to her guardian Ko-Ko (baritone Neal Davies). The farcical plot unravels, throwing out classic G&S show-tunes along the way, including "Three little maids from school", the list in "A more humane Mikado", and "Tit Willow" - "On a tree by a river". 

It will keep you smiling from curtain to curtain.

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.

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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

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Light Fantastic: Gilbert and Sullivan - The Mikado

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