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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: Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901): Slow beginnings

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)

Slow beginnings

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901), Slow beginnings

Donald Macleod explores Verdi's youth and early musical experiences in Busetto and Milan.

Donald Macleod explores Verdi's youth and early musical experiences in Busetto, his marriage to Margherita Barezzi, and the early operas he produced for Milan that made his name.

Few composers have made their mark on the world of opera like Giuseppe Verdi. He wrote a host of eminently hummable tunes as he rose to fame, paralleling the growing sense of identity which Italy was forging for itself in the 19th century, and establishing himself as the most successful Italian composer of his generation. Tracing his life is riddled with difficulties however, due to the artistic licence Verdi himself used when taking about his own history. Donald Macleod pieces together the truths as he traces Verdi's life and music and finds a story of shrewd investments, run-ins with the authorities, driving ambition, and emotional tragedy. 
In Monday's episode, Donald explores Verdi's youth and early musical experiences in Busetto including the Busseto "civil war" which erupted over his proposed appointment to the post of town music master and organist, his marriage to Margherita Barezzi - the daughter of his patron, and the early operas he produced for La Scala in Milan which would make his name.

La Forza del Destino - Overture
Philharmonia Orchestra
Giuseppe Sinopoli (conductor)

Tantum Ergo in G
Kenneth Tarver (tenor)
Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi
Riccardo Chailly (conductor)

Deh, pietoso, oh addolorata
Renata Scotto (soprano)
Vincenzo Scalera (piano)

Simon Boccanegra - Act 1 - Orfanella il tetto umile m'accogliea d'una meschina... ; Figlia! A tal nome io palpito
Kristine Opolais (Amelia) 
Thomas Hampson (Doge)
Wiener Symphoniker
Massimo Zanetti (conductor)

Oberto, Conte di San Bonifacio - Act 2 - Eccolo!; Vili all'armi a donne eroi

Samuel Ramey (Oberto)
Maria Guleghina (Leonora)
Violeta Urmana (Cuniza)
Stuart Neill (Riccardo)
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
London Voices 
Neville Marriner (conductor)

Nabucco - Act 2 - Chi s'avanza
Renata Scotto (Abigaille)
Robert Lloyd (Gran Sacerdote)
Ambrosian Opera Chorus
Philharmonia Orchestra 
Riccardo Muti (conductor)

Producer: Sam Phillips

Composer of the Week: Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)

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 pieces together the truths as he traces Verdi's life and music.

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Slow beginnings

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