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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

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

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

Composer of the Week: Jules Massenet (1842-1912)

Composer of the Week: Jules Massenet (1842-1912): Episode 3: Literary Leanings

Jules Massenet (1842-1912)

Episode 3

Episode 3: Literary Leanings

Literary Leanings

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Jules Massenet (1842-1912), Literary Leanings

Donald Macleod explores the narrative sources that caught Massenet's dramatic eye.

Donald Macleod explores the narrative sources that caught Massenet's dramatic eye, including the legend of El Cid and Goethe's autobiographical novel The sorrows of Young Werther.

The origins of some of Massenet's most celebrated stories.

He was one of the most successful composers of his age. Jules Massenet gave his adoring audiences just what they wanted: beautiful melody, rich sentimentality, romance, fantasy and an unmistakably French sense of elegance. It was a formulae that served him well into the twentieth century, over a prolific output of twenty-five opera productions. His accomplishments were the product of a rigid personal regime, often starting work at four o'clock in the morning, and continuing for sixteen hours a day. When he wasn't composing, Massenet could often be found supervising his current stage production, or coaching the latest in a long line of brilliant leading ladies. Whether the whiff of scandal that followed him throughout his career had any basis in fact is still a subject for debate. What is unarguable is that he provided some of the best female voices of the age with music that tested their talents to the very limit.

In this programme, Donald Macleod explores some of the varied narrative sources that caught Massenet's dramatic eye, including the oft re-told legend of El Cid and Goethe's autobiographical novel "The Sorrows of Young Werther", whose tragic ending so captivated the composer.

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 life and work of Jules Massenet

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of one of France's most spectaular operatic superstars, Jules Massenet

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Composer of the Week

Jules Massenet (1842-1912)

Episode 3: Literary Leanings

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