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Michael Berkeley introduces a selection of former guests discussing their love of opera, including Joanna Lumley, Jonathan Miller, Anthony Minghella and Stephen Fry.

Michael Berkeley introduces a selection of former Private Passions guests talking about a particular opera they love. Artist Quentin Blake chose a duet between hero and villain from Act II of Verdi's 'Otello'; Joanna Lumley talks about the great quartet from Beethoven's 'Fidelio'; Scottish writer Janice Galloway says how she finds great satisfaction in seeing the rake Don Giovanni dispatched to Hell at the end of Mozart's opera; Jonathan Miller remembers the alarm he felt as a young and inexperienced opera director faced with putting singing animals on the stage in Janacek's 'The Cunning Little Vixen'; director Anthony Minghella chooses Cavaradossi's pre-execution aria 'E lucevan le stelle' from Puccini's 'Tosca'; children's writer David Almond loves the Greek myth of Orpheus and Euridice as imagined by Monteverdi; actress Maureen Lipman has a particular affection for the voice of Maria Callas in a brilliant coloratura aria from Rossini's 'The Barber of Seville', and Stephen Fry waxes lyrical over the tumultuous ending of Wagner's 'Tristan und Isolde'.

1 hour

Last on

Sun 30 May 2010 12:00
BBC Radio 3

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Music Played

  • Giuseppe Verdi

    Era la notte…Si, pel ciel (from Otello, Act II)

    Performers: Placido Domingo (Otello), Sherrill Milnes (Iago), National PO/James Levine

    • VERDI Otello.
    • RCA 74321 39501 2.

  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    Mir ist so wunderbar (Quartet from Act 1, scene 4 of Fidelio)

    Performers: Gwyneth Jones (Leonore), Edith Mathis (Marzelline), Peter Schreier (Jacquino), Franz Crass (Rocco) Dresden Staatskapelle/Karl Böhm

    • BEETHOVEN Fidelio.
    • LP: DG 2720-009.

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Don Giovanni, a cenar teco (from Don Giovanni, Act II, Scene V, Finale)

    Performers: Gottlob Frick (Commendatore), Giuseppe Taddei (Leporello), Eberhard Wächter (Don Giovanni), Philharmonia Chorus & Orchestra/Carlo Maria Giulini

    • MOZART Don Giovanni.
    • EMI 556232-2.

  • Leos Janáček

    Introduction to The Cunning Little Vixen

    Performers: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/Charles Mackerras

    • JANACEK The Cunning Little Vixen.
    • Decca 417130-2.

  • Giacomo Puccini

    E lucevan le stelle (Tosca, Act II)

    Performers: Placido Domingo (Cavaradossi), Philharmonia/James Levine

    • PUCCINI Tosca.
    • EMI CDZ 762 520 22.

  • Claudio Monteverdi

    Possente Spirto (L'Orfeo Act III)

    Performers: Anthony Rolfe Johnson (Orfeo), English Baroque Soloists/John Eliot Gardiner

    • MONTEVERDI L’Orfeo.
    • ARCHIV 419 250-2.

  • Gioachino Rossini

    Una voce poco fa (from The Barber of Seville)

    Performers: Maria Callas (Rosina), Philharmonia Orchestra/Tullio Serafin

    • Diva.
    • EMI CDEMTVD113.

  • Richard Wagner - Isoldes Liebestod (from Tristan und Isolde, Act III, Scene 3)

    Performers: Kirsten Flagstad (Isolde), Philharmonia Orchestra/Wilhelm Furtwängler

Broadcast

  • Sun 30 May 2010 12:00
    BBC Radio 3

Podcast

  • Private Passions

    Guests from all walks of life discuss their musical loves and hates