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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

Words and Music

Drama

Music: Classical

A journey of discovery, weaving music with poetry and prose read by leading actors.

A weekly journey of discovery, weaving together a range of music with poetry and prose read by leading actors.

Words and Music: A Legend of Good Women

A Legend of Good Women

20/05/2012

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Texts and music on the theme of good women. Readers: Oliver Dimsdale and Sian Thomas.

Texts and music on the theme of good women, with readings by Oliver Dimsdale and Sian Thomas. Includes Tennyson, Carol Ann Duffy and Browning, plus Gluck, Sibelius and Handel.

Since ancient times poets, artists and composers have celebrated the ideal woman. Chaucer's famous poem, from which this programme takes its title, undermined and satirised this process: does abandonment, assault and suffering make for a "good" woman and what place do the murderous Medea and Philomela have in the parade of virtuous femininity?

Oliver Dimsdale and Sian Thomas read poems by Tennyson, Carol Ann Duffy and Browning with music by Gluck, Sibelius, Handel and Stravinsky.

Producer: Natalie Steed

First broadcast in May 2012.

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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