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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: Delius - Koanga

Performances & Events

Music: Classical: Opera

Afternoon on 3

17/03/2016

Delius - Koanga

BBC Radio 3 - Afternoon Concert

Penny Gore presents Delius's opera Koanga performed at the 2015 Wexford Festival Opera.

Penny Gore presents a performance of Delius's opera Koanga given at the 2015 Wexford Festival Opera. Plus the Ulster Orchestra in music by Peter Sculthorpe.

Penny Gore presents Delius's opera recorded at the 2015 Wexford Festival Opera.

Koanga, in 3 acts, is based on the novel The Grandissimes by George Washington Cable. Composed between 1895 and 1897, it is considered to be the first opera written about African-Americans. Inspired by the spirituals Delius heard as a 20-year-old working on an orange plantation in Florida, Koanga is powerfully atmospheric - there's more to recommend alongside the concert hall favourite, the dance tune La Calinda. An African prince (Koanga) is sold into slavery in Louisiana and falls in love with a mixed-race maid (Palmyra). He later invokes voodoo in revenge on his masters for the abduction of his bride.


2pm
Delius: Koanga

Koanga ..... Norman Garrett (baritone)
Palmyra ..... Nozuko Teto (soprano)
Simon Perez ..... Jeff Gwaltney (tenor)
Uncle Joe ..... Aubrey Allicock (bass-baritone)
Don José Martinez ..... Christopher Robertson (baritone)
Rangwan ..... Aubrey Allicock (bass-baritone)
Clotilda ..... Kate Allen (mezzo-soprano)
Renée ..... Rachel Croash (soprano)
Hélène ..... Eleanor Garside (soprano)
Jeanne ..... Frances Israel (soprano)
Marie ..... Maria Hughes (soprano)
Aurore ..... Emma Watkinson (mezzo-soprano)
Hortense ..... Vivien Conacher (mezzo-soprano)
Olive ..... Laura Murphy (mezzo-soprano)
Paulette ..... Jennifer Parker (mezzo-soprano)
The Chorus of Wexford Festival Opera
The Orchestra of Wexford Festival Opera
Stephen Barlow (conductor)

Followed by more from Afternoon on 3's celebration of music from the Southern Hemisphere:

4pm:
Peter Sculthorpe: Third Sonata for Strings "Jabiru Dreaming"
Ulster Orchestra
David Porcelijn, 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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