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Benvenuto Cellini, Berlioz鈥檚 first opera, tells the story of the famed Italian sculptor, draughtsman and musician. The premiere in Paris in 1838 sparked a riot from its audience and the orchestra claimed the piece was impossible to play! This week English National Opera鈥檚 new production of the piece opened in London - the first staging in over thirty years. Tom Service speaks to the opera鈥檚 conductor Edward Gardner to find out why Benvenuto Cellini is so rarely staged (and why Gardner thinks it鈥檚 the hardest thing he鈥檚 ever conducted) and reviews the production with Alexandra Coghlan, music critic for the New Statesman and the broadcaster and critic Geoffrey Smith.

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Photo:听 漏 Richard Hubert Smith

Peter Gelb is in his eighth season as General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York. In that time he has introduced the highly successful HD cinema relays of the house鈥檚 productions worldwide, but even the income and raised profile from these can鈥檛 keep the wolf from the Met鈥檚 door. In a frank discussion with Tom, Gelb explains that the future of the world famous opera house is at stake and it鈥檚 his mission to save it.听 A few years ago private donations plus the box office takings for the 3,800 seat theatre covered costs but unfortunately that鈥檚 no longer the case and if things aren鈥檛 rectified Gelb thinks that bankruptcy could be a mere two or three years away.

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Photo:听 漏 Dario Acosta, Metropolitan Opera

The American countertenor Lawrence Zazzo is regarded as one of the finest singers of his generation. His roles range from Handel鈥檚 Giulio Cesare (the Met and ENO) and Gluck鈥檚 Orfeo, to Oberon in Britten鈥檚 A Midsummer Night鈥檚 Dream and creating the role of Trinculo in Thomas Ades鈥檚 The Tempest. Tom met Zazzo when he was in London this week for a concert at Wigmore Hall, he tells Tom about the singers that influenced him including Frankie Valli, the Bee Gees and James Bowan. He also reveals his frustration at the idea that countertenors are continuations of the castrati line and not seen as falsettists in their own right.

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Tom visits Birmingham to see how preparations are coming along for the composer David Lang's new work:听 Crowd Out which features a thousand voices shouting, whispering and chanting. Lang describes how the idea for the piece first came to him during an Arsenal football match. Lang sees Crowd Out as an entirely new kind of piece and a serious musical work that anyone can perform. Tom talks to the musical director Simon Halsey plus Amie Boyd and Scott Pawsey, two members of the choirs taking part.听 As well as being performed in Birmingham the piece will also be performed in London and Berlin with local performers building their own 鈥榟ome-grown鈥� Crowd Out company to rehearse and perform the piece.

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