Opera on 3 from the Met

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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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Opera on 3

Music: Classical: Opera

Programme presenting rare and fascinating operatic performances

Programme presenting rare and fascinating performances and vividly communicating the immediacy of the live experience

Opera on 3: From the Met: Mozart - Così fan tutte

Mozart - Così fan tutte

From the Met

BBC Radio 3 - Opera on 3, From the Met, Mozart - Così fan tutte

They're all like that - or are they? Two tiresome men test their lovers' fidelity.

Two military men happily submit to test their lovers' fidelity to determine whether or not, as the title of Mozart's comedy asserts, They're All Like That.

When Don Alfonso overhears two military men, Ferrando and Guglielmo, boasting of their respective lovers' (sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella) rock-solid fidelitly, he easily persuades them to put it to the test. And guess what? It doesn't take long after the two soldiers have apparently gone off to war before two Albanian brothers appear (Ferrando and Guglielmo, of course) who each successfully seduces each other's girlfriend. 

As a plot it's not up to much. But the opera, whose cynically misogynist title translates as 'They're All Like That', has survived because it contains some of Mozart's greatest music, including unforgettable solo arias and ensembles wrapped up in some in wonderful orchestration. Mozart's achievement is to make us believe in these otherwise two-dimensional characters as flesh-and-blood human beings, subject to genuine and painful emotions.    

As ever, The Met fields a starry international cast. Today's performance from the New York Metropolitan Opera House is presented by Mary Jo Heath and Ira Siff.

Mozart: Così fan tutte

Fiordiligi.....Nicole Car (soprano)
Dorabella.....Serena Malfi (soprano)
Despina.....Heidi Stober (mezzo-soprano)
Ferrando.....Ben Bliss (tenor)
Guglielmo…..Luca Pisaroni (bass-baritone)
Don Alfonso…..Gerald Finley (baritone)
New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra 
Harry Bicket (conductor)

Opera on 3: From the Met

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.

Performances of the great operas from New York's Metropolitan Opera House

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