This podcast introduces the exhibition OPERA: PASSION, POWER AND POLITICS, which runs from the 30th of September this year until the 25th of February 2018 at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. It is an immersive exhibition in an innovative partnership between the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, with stage sets, recordings and never before assembled memorabilia of special landmark premieres in the history of opera, from the start of the 17th Century up to the present time. The premieres are reincarnated in the context of the impact they made on society when they first appeared. In this podcast, the exhibition’s Curator, Kate Bailey, and its Music Director, Sir Antonio Pappano, give a guide to the exhibition and discuss some of its highlights.

Music extracts for this podcast have been exclusively supplied through the generous agreement of Warner Classics and Decca Classics. Warner Classics have provided the extracts from Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, and the closing Scene from Strauss’s Salome. Decca Classics have provided the extract of the opening bars of Strauss’s Salome.

Jon Tolansky – Podcast Narrator and Producer

#OperaPassion

This exhibition is sponsored by

You can listen to this podcast in its entirety below, accompanied by visuals, or in audio segments, available further down on this page.