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The soundtrack of Farinelli, which features the recreation of the castrato voice using a digitally 'morphed' mixture of a countertenor
The soundtrack of Farinelli, which features the recreation of the castrato voice using a digitally 'morphed' mixture of a countertenor
Alessandro Moreschi was born in 1858 and he was the only castrato singer to make solo sound recording.
Opera Italia presented by Antonio Pappano
Episode 1: Beginnings
In the first programme, Pappano takes a whistle-stop tour of the beginnings of opera, from Monteverdi to Rossini. He also looks at the works of two non-Italian composers, Handel and Mozart, both of whom were pivotal in the development of the art form. Along the way he enlists the help of some of the world's greatest singers - Juan Diego Florez, Joyce DiDonato, Danielle de Niese, Sarah Connolly and Pietro Spagnoli.
Opera Italia presented by Antonio Pappano
Episode 2: Viva Verdi
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.
Opera Italia presented by Antonio Pappano
Episode 3: The Triumph of Puccini
The final episode is devoted to Puccini, the worthy successor to Verdi. Puccini's operas are cinematic in their scale with ravishing, passionate and clever music, as he took Italian opera into the 20th century.
Pappano looks at five of Puccini's most popular operas - La Boheme, Tosca, Madame Butterfly, Gianni Schicchi and Turandot. He travels to Rome to meet stage director Franco Zeffirelli and talk about Puccini and Zeffirelli's famous production of Turandot.
Pappano also talks to one of the great Puccini interpreters, the soprano Renata Scotto, about the composer, Madame Butterfly and the role of Mimi in La Boheme. Also featured are soprano Angela Gheorghiu, tenors Jonas Kaufmann and Roberto Alagna and baritone Sir Thomas Allen.

The Seikilos epitaph is the oldest surviving example of a complete musical composition, including musical notation, from anywhere in the world. The song, the melody of which is recorded, alongside its lyrics, in the ancient Greek musical notation, was found engraved on a tombstone, near Aidin, Turkey (not far from Ephesus). The find has been dated variously from around 200 BC to around AD 100.
Ὅσον ζῇς, φαίνου,
Hoson zês, phainou,
While you live, shine,
μηδὲν ὅλως σὺ λυποῦ·
mêden holôs su lupou;
don't suffer anything at all;
πρὸς ὀλίγον ἐστὶ τὸ ζῆν,
pros oligon esti to zên,
life exists only a short while,
τὸ τέλος ὁ xρόνος ἀπαιτεῖ.
to telos ho chronos apaitei.
and time demands its toll.
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