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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: Giovanni Paisiello (1740-1816)

Composer of the Week: Giovanni Paisiello (1740-1816): Episode 1

Giovanni Paisiello (1740-1816)

Episode 1

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Giovanni Paisiello (1740-1816), Episode 1

Donald Macleod introduces two Paisiello comic operas - Don Chisciotte and La Frascatana.

Donald Macleod introduces excerpts from two Paisiello comic operas - Don Chisciotte della Mancia and La Frascatana - with which he launched his international career.

Donald Macleod introduces the life and music of the Italian composer whose comic operas were the toast of some of the greatest world leaders of the day. 

Giovanni Paisiello was one of the most popular opera composers of his day, feted all over Europe, not least by the greatest world leaders of the day including Napoleon, Catherine the Great and Emperor Joseph II. And yet, other than a handful of operatic arias, he's virtually unknown today. Donald Macleod looks at the life and times of this prolific composer who produced nearly 100 operas and made a significant contribution to the development of opera.

Paisiello was an ambitious young man - although he was already making a name for himself around Italy, he was determined to win the hearts and minds of the Neapolitan court, one of the most flourishing centres of musical excellence in Europe at that time. In the first programme, Donald Macleod introduces excerpts from two of his comic operas - 'Don Chisciotte della Mancia', one of the first to find favour with the King of Naples, and 'La Frascatana', with which Paisiello launched his international career.

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 music of Giovanni Paisiello

Donald Macleod explores the life and music of Giovanni Paisiello, the Italian composer whose comic operas were the toast of some of the greatest world leaders in their time

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