Words and Music

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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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A journey of discovery, weaving music with poetry and prose read by leading actors.

A weekly journey of discovery, weaving together a range of music with poetry and prose read by leading actors.

Words and Music: Napoleon

Napoleon

BBC Radio 3 - Words and Music, Napoleon

Simon Russell Beale and Natalie Simpson with readings from fact and fiction about Napoleon

From Beethoven to Anthony Burgess, writers, poets and composers have reflected on the tumultuous times of Napoleon Bonaparte and whether he stands as a heroic figure or a despot.

Orwell's pig in Animal Farm, Beethoven's Eroica, Ruth Scurr's biography which focuses on his interest in gardening, Berlioz’ setting of the nostalgic poem ‘Le Cinq Mai' - the date of Napoleon's death, Thomas Keneally's novel about his friendship with a girl on Elba who ended up living in Australia, Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev's evocations of the Russian campaigns, ABBA - Napoleon has fascinated writers and musicians through the centuries since his death.  It's been calculated that Napoleon attended 163 different operas, and his favourite composer was Giovanni Paisiello.  Today's Words and Music mixes examples of music he might have heard with composers inspired by him, and words from novels and poems. The readers are Sir Simon Russell Beale and Natalie Simpson.

Producer: Nick Holmes

You can find a Free Thinking discussion about Napoleon and his interest in both gardening and artworks available on BBC Sounds and as an Arts and Ideas podcast.

Readings:
Jane Austen        Pride and Prejudice 
George Orwell    Animal Farm
Josephine           Letter to Napoleon
Anthony Burgess    Napoleon Symphony
Ruth Scurr              Napoleon: A Life in Gardens and Shadows
André François Miot de Mélito         Description of Napoleon
Charlotte Brontë                               Villette
Lord Byron                 Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
Anon                          Napoleon the Brave (Broadside Ballad)
Thomas Keneally       Napoleon's Last Island
Arthur Conan Doyle   The Adventure of the Six Napoleons
Leo Tolstoy                 War and Peace
Walter de la Mare       Napoleon
Joseph Ogbonna        Napoleon to Josephine
William Wordsworth   The Ruined Cottage
William Thackeray       Vanity Fair
PG Wodehouse           Napoleon
Miroslav Holub           Napoleon 
John Clare                   To Napoleon

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