Opera on 3: Wagner 200 - Lohengrin

Live from the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff, Donald Macleod and theatre historian Sarah Lenton introduce Wagner's epic fairytale Lohengrin, in a new production by Antony McDonald for Welsh National Opera. Described as the composer's 'Romantic opera', Lohengrin transports us to the tenth century where themes of chivalry, love and redemption collide. In the interval there is a Radio 3 Music Guide to the opera. Wagner: Lohengrin. Peter Wedd, tenor (Lohengrin), Emma Bell, soprano (Elsa), Susan Bickley, mezzo-soprano (Ortrud), Claudio Otelli, baritone (Friedrich von Telramund), Simon Thorpe, baritone (Herald), Matthew Best, bass (Heinrich), Chorus and Orchestra of Welsh National Opera, Lothar Koenigs (conductor). Including 4.00 Interval: Nicholas Baragwanath explores the issues of longing and distance which fill the work, with contributions from singer Petra Lang and conductor Semyon Bychkov. Plus a visit backstage with the costume department of WNO. 6.00 Interval: Could Wagner ever have been a great symphonist? Composer Matthew King is convinced he could have been, so much so that he is attempting to create a work based on a handful of late sketches. Donald Macleod meets him to discover whether the fragments might be clues to a Wagnerian revolution in symphonic music