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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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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: Verdi 200 - Il Corsaro

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Music: Classical: Opera

Verdi 200 - Il Corsaro

19/09/2013

BBC Radio 3 - Afternoon Concert

Penny Gore introduces a celebrated recording of Verdi's rarely-performed opera Il Corsaro.

Penny Gore introduces a celebrated recording of Verdi's rarely-performed opera Il Corsaro, starring Montserrat Caballe, Jose Carreras and Jessye Norman.

Verdi 200 - Il Corsaro

Penny Gore introduces an acclaimed recording of this rarely performed opera starring Montserrat Caballé, José Carreras and Jessye Norman.

First performed in 1848 Verdi's Il Corsaro, like Berlioz's overture and Petipa's ballet, is based on Lord Byron's poem The Corsaire. Verdi first expressed interest in the poem several years earlier but by the time Il Corsaro received its premiere in Trieste he had shown surprisingly little interest in the production and did not attend the opening night, which was poorly received.

The action takes place in the Turkish city of Corone and on a Greek island in the Aegean where Corrado, the chief corsair, is in exile. On hearing of the threatening military plans of the Turkish Pasha Seid he sets forth with his men for Corone, leaving behind his heart-broken lover Medora. Despite an initial victory over Seid, and having caught the eye of the Pasha's favourite slave-girl Gulnara, Corrado is eventually imprisoned. Ultimately they escape and set sail for the island, but Medora has already taken drastic action assuming that Corrado is dead...


Corrado ..... José Carreras (tenor)
Medora ..... Jessye Norman (soprano)
Gulnara ..... Montserrat Caballé (soprano)
Pasha Seid ..... Gian-Piero Mastromei (baritone)

The Ambrosian Singers
New Philharmonia Orchestra
Lamberto Gardelli (conductor).

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.

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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Verdi 200 - Il Corsaro

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