Charles Rice

Henry VIII, Queen Victoria and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart are our hosts for a special live concert as part of the BBC Proms season at London’s Royal Albert Hall, introducing us to the world of opera. Mozart is sure that the Horrible Histories audience will love opera, with all its grisly and gruesome stories. But Queen Victoria is not so sure, thinking opera is totally unsuitable for children. In fact, she thinks the audience need to leave at once! Can Mozart change her mind?

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Strange creatures roam the woods near Athens at night, and different worlds exist there without ever crossing paths. The Lovers are unaware of the existence of the Rustics. Neither the Rustics nor the Lovers know that they are surrounded by fairies. And only the ingenious Puck can travel from one world to another. Illogical, you might say? Of course, since it's a dream! But rest assured: Shakespeare's artistry, masterfully adapted by Benjamin Britten, transforms this confusion into a magical comedy of love.

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When young Candide's marriage offer to a baron's daughter backfires, the naïve student of optimism is hurled into an eye-opening journey around the globe, discovering the horrors of existence at every step. Turning Voltaire’s Candide, a stinging blast against tyranny and feigned moralising, into toe-wiggling musical theatre is a crazy idea. Bernstein revised his operetta countless times before settling on the final version. The Grange Festival’s 2018 semi-staged production commemorates the composer’s 100th birthday.

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The great storyteller Hoffmann is losing himself to drink. His rival in love, Councillor Lindorf, claims that Hoffmann knows nothing of the heart, and so goads Hoffmann into telling the tales of his three great loves – each destroyed by a villain who bears an uncanny resemblance to Lindorf… First Hoffmann tells of his infatuation for the mechanical doll, Olympia – who is destroyed by the inventor Coppélius. Next comes the courtesan Giulietta, who throws over his adoration in favour of jewels from the magician Dappertutto. Finally, the gentle Antonia is forced to sing to her death by the wicked Doctor Miracle. His stories finished, Hoffmann rouses from his drunken stupor to find Lindorf has made off with Stella, Hoffmann’s latest love – but the Muse compels him to transform his heartache into art.

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German-Jewish essayist, philosopher, and critic Walter Benjamin were one of the early 20th century's most influential thinkers, a light in the darkness of looming war and political oppression. In Benjamin, dernière nuit, composer Michel Tabachnik and librettist Régis Debray examine this life cruelly cut short by despair in the face of Nazism. Experience the opera here in its highly acclaimed 2016 premiere production at the Lyon Opera.

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An open-air staging by Aldeburgh Music of Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes, on the beach that inspired the opera. A small seaside community struggles to accept a fisherman.

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