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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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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: Verdi 200

Composer of the Week: Verdi 200: Episode 1: High Noon

Episode 1

Episode 1: High Noon

Verdi 200

High Noon

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Verdi 200, High Noon

Donald Macleod focuses on works works that took Verdi to the height of his fame.

Donald Macleod focuses on some of the works that took Verdi to the height of his fame.

Donald Macleod explores Verdi's later life and music when, after years of honing his craft, he unleashed an outpouring of innovative masterworks that would propel opera from the world of the 19th century into the modern age. It wasn't a smooth road, though, and the aging composer had to be persuaded out of retirement several times as he found himself increasingly at odds with the world around him.

Having written 16 operas in 11 years at the height of his productivity, he then dedicated much of his time to accumulating and cultivating a huge estate, with the help of his second wife, Giuseppina Strepponi. Their relationship began in Paris, and while this was an intensely creative period during which Verdi composed some of his best-loved works - Rigoletto, Il Trovatore and La Traviata - it was also a difficult time for him privately, the unmarried couple facing scandal when they moved back to the small Italian town of Bussetto.

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 Verdi's later life and music

Donald Macleod explores Verdi's later life and music when, after years of honing his craft, he propelled opera from the world of the 19th century into the modern age

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Verdi 200

Episode 1: High Noon

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