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BBC Philharmonic

Conductor

Anja Bihlmaier

Orchestra

An afternoon at the opera with the BBC Philharmonic

Salford

United Kingdom

MediaCityUK

An afternoon at the opera with the BBC Philharmonic: Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor Nicolai (+3 More)

Public

Concert

Oratorio / Orchestral

The Merry Wives of Windsor

Hansel and Gretel

Madame Butterfly

The Knight of the Rose

Paul Koneri

Approved

Concert Information
Today’s programme begins with the overture to Otto Nicolai's The Merry Wives of Windsor, based on Shakespeare’s comedy of the same name. Masquerades and mischief-makers steal the show, duplicitous suitors fall foul of plotting friends, and a late-night wedding celebration rounds off the madness under a gleaming full moon.

Next, we journey from Windsor to deepest woodland, as we hear a selection from Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel und Gretel. Humperdinck’s fairy-tale opera started life as a series of musical sketches and songs composed for his sister, as a gift to her children. In time, this became a full-scale opera which premiered on 23 December 1893, conducted by Richard Strauss.

Giacomo Puccini wrote the iconic Madame Butterfly in 1901, having seen a play based on the tale of a young geisha’s betrayal by the man she loves. The Intermezzo, which we hear today, soars and glides through some of the heart-rending themes of the opera, transporting you to Madame Butterfly’s Japan, and telling of her hope and anguish.

We finish on a high, with the Second Waltz Sequence from Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier (The Knight of the Rose) - an operatic triumph, and as popular today as when it premiered in January 1911.

English

An afternoon at the opera with the BBC Philharmonic by Nicolai, Humperdinck, Puccini, Strauss, From (2024/2024), Conductor Anja Bihlmaier, MediaCityUK, Salford, United Kingdom

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