Words and Music

Original version

BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

Drama

Music: Classical

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: Butterflies and Moths

Butterflies and Moths

BBC Radio 3 - Words and Music, Butterflies and Moths

Readings from Nabokov, Sebald, Tagore, Poppy Adams, David Henry Hwang and Emily Dickinson.

From the Ugly Bug Ball and Alice's caterpillar to Madame Butterfly, Kaija Saariaho's Sept Papillons, John Fowles's collector of specimens and Tennessee Williams's plague of moths.

From the hookah-smoking caterpillar in Alice and Joby Talbot's ballet score, to John Fowles's collector of specimens and Poppy Adams exploration of the behaviour of moths, Shakespeare's King Lear laughing at "gilded butterflies" and WG Sebald's tracking of silkworms to Dickens' Mr Skimpole "free as a butterfly": today's programme weaves together examples of moths and butterflies in prose and poetry, set alongside music which ranges from operas by Bellini and Puccini to Harrison Birtwistle's Moth Requiem, Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road journeys, Dolly Parton's observation that "love is like a butterfly", a Hopi butterfly dance and music from film, including Silence of the Lambs. Our readers are Erin Shanagher and Rupert Hill.

Producer: Chris Wines

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.

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Words and Music

Butterflies and Moths

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BBC Radio 3

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