Orlando on Radio 3 - Pioneering Live Online Commentary

It’s a familiar sight in offices around the world: the intense stare at the screen, the reluctance to get up for a coffee, the sustained quiet. Yes – there’s a major sporting event and everyone is following the online commentary. Not everyone can be at Centre Court or in Monaco, but they get up-to-the-minute reaction, images, highlights and conversation through the BBC website.

Our Network Radio team here in Cardiff regularly broadcasts productions from Welsh National Opera – great national events of another kind that we want to share with our audiences. But if you miss the beginning of the opera when the presenter explains the plot, how do you catch up if you can’t understand the Italian and don’t know the work? How do you appreciate the work of the costume and set designers? And what about the background to the story – often a really important part of understanding the real meaning behind the opera.

So, for Saturday’s Opera on 3 we’ve teamed up with BBC Connected Studio, Live Events and Welsh National Opera to run a live commentary on the broadcast of Handel’s opera Orlando. 

As the opera plays out on Radio 3 we’re trying to put our radio audience in the theatre itself, and go one better. Thanks to WNO we have a series of fantastic productions shots which not only capture the magical 1940s costumes and design of the show, but also take us through the action scene-by-scene. There will also be things the theatre audience will never see – shots from backstage and selfies by the artists in their dressing rooms. Not only that – we’ve spoken to the cast too and as the opera goes on and their stories play out they’ll be telling us about the rehearsal process and what it’s like to perform the music.

We don’t think that anyone has ever done this for an opera before. And there are certainly a lot of editorial and technical issues which we’re all having to grapple with for the very first time. However, I’m writing this in the final run through and as I sit round the table with Robin Moore from Connected Studio, David Massey and Sophie Rashbrook from WNO and several empty coffee cups, there’s a sense of excitement in the air. It’s going to be a long afternoon, but we’re very excited about how we can make the best of working across platforms, departments and genres within the BBC, and also building a new dimension onto the well-established partnership between BBC Wales and WNO. 

• Handel's Orlando is broadcast on Radio 3 at 6.30pm on Saturday 7 November.
• Connect with the Live Commentary, from 6pm.
• Opera on 3