Afternoon Concert

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Afternoon Concert: Summer Festivals

Summer Festivals

BBC Radio 3 - Afternoon Concert, Summer Festivals

Opera Matinee: Moniuszko's Flis (The Raftsman) and the conclusion of Handel's Susanna.

Today's opera is by Polish composer Stanislaw Moniuszko - his one-act Flis is a classic tale of boy meets girl, but father disapproves. Plus the conclusion of Handel's Susanna.

Opera Matinee this week is a cheerful one-acter set on the picturesque banks of the Vistula, on the edge of Warsaw - and featuring a slightly less famous barber than Rossini's from Seville.  Born in what's now Belarus in 1819, Stanisław Moniuszko moved to Warsaw and fell very much in love with his new home. The Raftsman is a charming depiction of the city in music, with beautiful melody & rich colour. A simple plot: father wants daughter to marry a socially more acceptable bloke - a hairdresser from Warsaw - rather than the eponymous raftsman. The frustrated raftsman threatens to leave the village to seek out a long-lost brother; and it turns out that the hairdresser is that brother who, of course, magnanimously steps aside. This performance was recorded in the Wielki Theatre of Polish National Opera at last year's Chopin and his Europe International Music Festival, marking the 200th anniversary of Moniuszko's birth.
After the short opera, this week's celebration of vocal and choral music in Afternoon Concert continues with the last two acts of Handel's dramatic oratorio Susanna (Act 1 was broadcast yesterday). Susanna premiered after Solomon in 1749 and is one of Handel’s less-performed oratorios; it's heard here in a concert performance from the 2019 Handel Festival in the composer's hometown of Halle, near Leipzig. 
Presented by Georgia Mann.

2pm
Stanisław Moniuszko: Flis (The Raftsman)
Jakub ..... Mariusz Godlewski, baritone
Zosia ..... Ewa Tracz, soprano
Franek (The Raftsman) ..... Matheus Pompeu, tenor
Antoni ..... Krzysztof Bączyk, bass
Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic Chorus
Violetta Bielecka, chorus conductor
Europa Galante
Fabio Biondi, conductor

c.3pm
Handel: Susanna HWV 66 - Acts 2 & 3
Susanna ..... Mary Bevan, soprano
Joacim, Susanna's husband ..... Tim Mead, countertenor
Chelsias, Susanna's Father ..... David Soar, bass
First Elder ..... Thomas Walker, tenor
Second Elder ..... Derek Welton, bass baritone
Daniel / A servant ..... Charlotte Shaw, soprano
Richter ..... Jakob Eberlein, bass
MDR Radio Chorus, Leipzig
Benjamin Goodson, chorus director
Basel Chamber Orchestra
Paul McCreesh, conductor

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