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Afternoon Concert

Music: Classical

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Afternoon on 3: Thursday Opera Matinee

Afternoon Concert: Thursday Opera Matinee: Ethel Smyth - The Boatswain's Mate

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Music: Classical: Opera

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09/03/2017

Ethel Smyth - The Boatswain's Mate

BBC Radio 3 - Afternoon Concert

Katie Derham introduces a recording of Ethel Smyth's comic opera The Boatswain's Mate.

Katie Derham introduces the first complete recording of Ethel Smyth's comic opera The Boatswain's Mate. Plus the BBC NOW in music by Bax and Grace Williams.

Katie Derham introduces this week's Thursday Opera Matinée: Ethel Smyth's comic opera The Boatswain's Mate, one of six she wrote between the 1890s and 1920s.
Smyth's previous opera The Wreckers was very much in touch with the Late Romantic musical world of Germany; the music in The Boatswain's Mate is by contrast more simple and folk-like, with some wonderfully lyrical and melodious music. The story, setting Smyth's own libretto, focuses on three main characters - a strong widow, Mrs Waters, her unwanted suitor the retired boatswain Harry Benn, and his accomplice Ned Travers.
Katie Derham introduces the first complete recording of this opera, conducted by Odaline de la Martinez.

Mrs Waters.....Nadine Benjamin (soprano)
Harry Benn.....Edward Lee (tenor)
Ned Travers.....Jeremy Huw Williams (baritone)
Policeman.....Simon Wilding (bass)
The Man.....Ted Schmitz (tenor)
Mary Ann.....Rebecca Louise Dale (mezzo soprano)
Chorus.....Mark Nathan and other members of the cast
Lontano Ensemble
Odaline de la Martinez (conductor)

c.3.30pm
Bax: Tintagel - symphonic poem 
BBC National Orchestra of Wales 
Vernon Handley , conductor

c.3.50pm
Williams: Four Illustrations for the Legend of Rhiannon 
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Perry So, 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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Ethel Smyth - The Boatswain's Mate

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