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Viva Verdi

Episode 2 of 3

In a series tracing the history of Italian opera, Antonio Pappano looks at six of Verdi's most famous works and visits his birthplace of Le Roncole in northern Italy.

Three-part series tracing the history of Italian opera presented by Antonio Pappano, conductor and music director at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. The series features sumptuous music, stunning Italian locations and some of the biggest names in opera as contributors.

The second episode focuses on Verdi, whose operas are central to Pappano's conducting repertoire and the backbone of the international opera scene. It shows how Verdi's music was influenced by composers such as Bellini and particularly Donizetti, whose gothic masterpiece Lucia di Lammermoor is explored with the help of soprano Diana Damrau.

Pappano looks at six of Verdi's most famous works - Nabucco, Rigoletto, Don Carlo, Otello, Falstaff and La Traviata, the last of which Pappano rehearses and conducts at the Royal Opera House with the starry cast of Renee Fleming, Joseph Calleja and Thomas Hampson.

Pappano travels to Le Roncole in northern Italy where Verdi was born amidst a turbulent political environment, and politics became a major influence on Verdi's operas in later life. He conducts Va Pensiero from Nabucco at a vast open-air concert in Naples, a chorus which was to become a powerful symbol of political unity for the Italian people.

1 hour

Last on

Mon 13 Feb 2023 00:45
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Four

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Beginnings

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The Triumph of Puccini

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Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • 00:13

    Giuseppe Verdi

    Nabucco – Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves

  • 00:22

    Tenors Unlimited

    La Donna E Mobile

  • 00:57

    Giuseppe Verdi

    Nabucco: Va Pensiero (Chorus of The Hebrew Slaves)

  • 00:58

    Nana Mouskouri

    Song For Liberty

Credits

Presenter Antonio Pappano
Producer Flavia Rittner
Director Flavia Rittner
Executive Producer Peter Maniura

Broadcasts