Covent Garden goes head to head with BBC pseudo-Prom

Covent Garden goes head to head with BBC pseudo-Prom

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norman lebrecht

August 24, 2020

Just in: The Royal Opera: Live in Concert will be broadcast live on Friday 4 September 7:30 BST. Curated by the Royal Opera House’s Director of Music, Antonio Pappano, the concert will see Aigul Akhmetshina, Charles Castronovo, Gerald Finley, Lisette Oropesa, Sonya Yoncheva, and Vito Priante take to the stage.

That’s some lineup, easily outclassing the BBC’s empty Prom that night.

 

Comments

  • Una says:

    Where will the Garden be broadcast? BBC surely on BBC4 telly?

  • Humbuggersworth says:

    Also without a live audience…why not have a go at the garden about that then?

    • Tone row says:

      agree, inexcusable for Covent Garden not to be admitting an audience

    • Markus says:

      They are using their bite of the £1.6B to sack the “casual” staff via redundancies (ushers, cloakroom, etc…) so they cannot host audiences

  • Kenneth Griffin says:

    The BBC Prom on that date features Anoushka Shankar, so this Royal Opera effort is complementary programming, rather than direct competition.

    Anyway, they’re apparently twelve hours apart, with the Opera at 7:30 and the Prom at 19:30.

  • GCMP says:

    And will they sing Rule, Britannia?

  • Goggle Eyes says:

    BBC is dire for culture. BBC 2 and 4 overlap. What is needed is just 3 Channels BBC 1 for news and stuff for the plebs, BBC 2 in depth documentaries, films, and BBC 3 linked to Radio 3, for Arts, opera, concerts broadcast instead of the cut and paste job we get from BBC 2 with the odd Danish film imported with STs! When will they understand many folk have no smart tellys or watch online!
    I am watching a pile of Bayreuth DVDs, the BBC is so bad these days, why pay a licence for rubbish?

    • karajanman says:

      Calling ordinary people “plebs” is what gets classical music lovers a bad name and gives the music an elitist label.

  • malahat` says:

    I must correct my comment – 7:30 is 1930

  • icebreaker says:

    NL is on form today – two swipes at the BBC… Wonder how long it will be before they stop asking him to provide comment and content on various programmes and channels as a result of continuously attacking both the institution and various management / employees.

    • Tim says:

      He loves to have a go at the bbc for a biased narrow viewpoint, yet they have him on all the time.. with just about the most rhetorical mind-numbing opinions going!

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