The BBC has announced a new range of classical programmes for the summer and autumn, including new documentaries and a series of performances capturing the spirit of the country house opera season.

Reflecting the cancellation of the UK’s vibrant country house opera season, BBC iPlayer will show operas from a number of venues forced to temporarily close, including the Barber of Seville from Glyndebourne, and The Turn of the Screw and The Marriage of Figaro from Garsington. An intriguing broadcast from Opera North, meanwhile, will see La Traviata shot from backstage.

It will also broadcast on BBC Radio 3 the first of three live concerts taking place at the Royal Opera House – announced yesterday – while BBC television will broadcast highlights from all three. A performance of Fidelio, recorded before the virus closed Covent Garden, will be shown on BBC Four, which will also broadcast a new series about Beethoven.

Another major summer festival, Aldeburgh, will be represented by a documentary on its founder Benjamin Britten, Britten on Camera, and the Edinburgh International Festival by the broadcasting of a summer of Queen’s Hall Concerts on BBC Radio 3.

Other new documentaries will include Imagine: This House is Full of Music on BBC One, offering a portrait of cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and his family, including a concert given by them from their home in lockdown, while BBC Four will broadcast a portrait by John Bridcut of Bernard Haitink. Meanwhile, BBC Radio 3 will broadcast a new 90 minute audio drama by Timothy X Atack about Beethoven, with Peter Capaldi playing the composer.

There are also plans to broadcast a further series of live concerts from London’s Wigmore Hall in the autumn following the lunchtime recital series that seems to have caught listeners’ imaginations so well since starting this Monday with pianist Stephen Hough. Meanwhile, daily broadcasts from the archives will provide a Proms season on BBC Radio 3, as reported last week. 

Online, the BBC will draw on its archives to offer hundreds of performances from BBC Orchestras, Choirs and New Generation Artists alongside Radio 3 programmes and podcasts, specifically targeted at newer classical listeners, which will be available here: bbc.co.uk/archive.

The programmes are all part of the BBC’s Culture in Quarantine broadcasting, launched in the wake of the closure of arts venues throughout the world by restrictions put in place in response to the coronavirus. ‘The pandemic has had a severe impact on the UK’s creative industries, which prior to lockdown were worth £100 Billion per year,’ said Tony Hall, BBC Director-General. ‘The BBC wants to do all it can to bring British Creativity to the widest possible audience. That’s why we are working with cultural organisations and artists to make that happen.’