Today at the Proms - Prom 71

Continuing our daily coverage of what's on at The Proms 2018, Susan Omand has a quick look at the programme for Prom 71: Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique perform Berlioz ...



It's all about Berlioz in tonight's Prom and the big piece after the interval is his Symphony called Harold in Italy. Inspired by a poem by Lord Byron, and encouraged by Paganini, Berlioz said "By placing it among the poetic memories formed from my wanderings in the Abruzzi, I wanted to make the viola a kind of melancholy dreamer in the manner of Byron’s Childe-Harold." Wandering violas it is then.



There's a veritable smorgasbord of little bits of Berlioz before the break though, with an overture for a pirate before a the death of a queen, a royal hunt and a storm. The evening is rounded off by another major death scene as Dido (no, not the 90s pop person) does the deed.



But you'll hear all that tonight. In the meantime here's 90's pop person Dido instead.







Here's the full programme for this evening's Prom which you can listen to live on Radio 3 or on the iPlayer



Hector Berlioz
Overture 'Le corsaire'(8 mins)
La mort de Cléopâtre(21 mins)
The Trojans – Royal Hunt and Storm(10 mins)
The Trojans – Dido’s death scene(7 mins)

INTERVAL

Hector Berlioz
Harold in Italy(42 mins)


Image - Photo © Chris Christodoulou