1600: Opera's First Breath
1600, Florence. At a lavish Medici wedding, Jacopo Peri’d Euridice introdces a radical new idea: drama told entirely through music. This is the birth of opera.
6 October 1600, Florence. The city is ablaze with celebration as the Medici court hosts a spectacular wedding. Amid the lavish feasting and pageantry is suitably extravagant entertainment: Jacopo Peri’s Euridice, a work in which every word is sung.
From its origins as courtly spectacle to the masterworks of Monteverdi, this programme traces how opera emerges from Renaissance experiments with music, poetry and drama, and rapidly spreads across Italy to become one of the most powerful forms of storytelling.
Gillian Moore is joined by a roster of distinguished historians for this major new BBC Radio 3 series, charting a course through 1000 years of classical music history. For the next eight programmes, historian Suzannah Lipscomb is in the chair.
Producer: Zerlina Vulliamy
Academic Consultant: Professor Laura Tunbridge, University of Oxford
Story Consultant: Kate Leys
Series Editor for BBC Audio: Emma Harding
Key Changes theme tune composed by Joseph Howard and performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Kerem Hasan.
Jacopo Peri: Euridice – Prologue
Françoise Masset (soprano)
Les Arts Baroques
Mireille Podeur (conductor)
Jacopo Peri & Giulio Caccini: Euridice – Al canto, al ballo
Pygmalion
Raphaël Pichon (conductor)
Christoph Willibald Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice – “Che farò senza Euridice”
Andreas Scholl (countertenor)
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Sir Roger Norrington (conductor)
Claudio Monteverdi: L’Orfeo – Toccata / “Possente spirto”
Furio Zanasi (Orfeo)
Les Concert des Nations
Jordi Savall (conductor)
Carlo Gesualdo: Asciugate i begli occhi
BBC Singers
Owain Park (conductor)
Claudio Monteverdi: Lamento d’Arianna
Helen Charlston (voice)
Toby Carr (lute)
Francesca Caccini: La liberazione di Ruggiero – “Così, perfida Alcina”
Luciana Mancini (voice)
L’Arpeggiata
Christina Pluhar (director)
Claudio Monteverdi: L’incoronazione di Poppea – “Pur ti miro”
Elin Manahan Thomas (soprano)
Robin Blaze (countertenor)
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Harry Christophers (conductor)
John Adams: Nixon in China – “News Has a Kind of Mystery”
James Maddalena (Nixon)
Orchestra of St Luke’s
Edo de Waart (conductor)
To listen to this programme using most smart speakers, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Key Changes."
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Music Played
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Jacopo Peri
Le Lagrime d'Orfeo: Al canto, al ballo 'Euridice'
Composer: Giulio Caccini. Ensemble: Pygmalion. Conductor: Raphaël Pichon.- HARMONIA MUNDI.
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Christoph Willibald Gluck
Orfeo ed Euridice, Act 3: 'Che faro senza Euridice'
Singer: Andreas Scholl. Orchestra: Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Conductor: Sir Roger Norrington.- DECCA.
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Carlo Gesualdo
Asciugate i begli occhi
Choir: BBC Singers. Conductor: Owain Park.![]()
Claudio Monteverdi
L'Orfeo (excerpt)
Singer: Furio Zanasi. Orchestra: Les Concert des Nations. Conductor: Jordi Savall.- ALIA VOX.
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Claudio Monteverdi
Lamento d'Arianna
Performer: Toby Carr. Singer: Helen Charlston.![]()
Francesca Caccini
'Cosi, perfida Alcina' from La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'islo d'Alcina
Singer: Luciana Mancini. Ensemble: L’Arpeggiata. Director: Christina Pluhar.- ERATO.
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Claudio Monteverdi
Pur ti miro, pur ti godo (L'Incoronazione di Poppea)
Singer: Elin Manahan Thomas. Singer: Robin Blaze. Orchestra: Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Conductor: Harry Christophers.- HELIODOR.
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John Adams
Nixon in China, Act 1, Scene 1: "News has a kind of Mystery"
Singer: James Maddalena. Singer: Thomas Hammons. Orchestra: Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Conductor: Edo de Waart.- NONESUCH.
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Gustav Mahler
Symphony no.3 in D minor (Part 2; 2nd mvt)
Singer: Hanna Hipp. Choir: Tiffin Boys’ Choir. Choir: Philharmonia Chorus. Orchestra: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Vasily Petrenko.- Harmonia Mundi.
Broadcast
- Sat 6 Jun 202613:00BBC Radio 3
