Julian Barnes: Opera - Coming to it Late
Frustratingly banal plots and often incomprehensible lyrics meant that for much of his listening life, Julian Barnes had 'a serious problem with opera'. Then all that changed.
Frustratingly banal plots and often incomprehensible lyrics meant that for much of his listening life Julian Barnes had 'a serious problem with opera'. Then all that changed.
In an attempt to demystify this huge and multifaceted genre for the BBC's Opera season, five creative individuals examine their own encounters with opera, as an art form and as a life-enhancing and sometimes life-changing emotional experience. These personal essays reveal the variety of ways in which opera can seduce, fascinate, bore, frustrate and excite.
Opera - Coming to it Late, written and read by Julian Barnes
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company Production for BBC Radio 3.
Last on
Broadcasts
- Mon 16 Oct 201722:45BBC Radio 3
- Mon 28 Jan 201922:45BBC Radio 3
BBC Opera Season
On TV, radio and digital, in collaboration with the V&A and the Royal Opera House.
Death in Trieste
A 1760s murder still informs ideas about aesthetics, a certain sort of sex, and death.
Watch: My Deaf World
Five compelling experiences of what it is like to be deaf in 21st-century Britain.
The Book that Changed Me
Five figures from the arts and science introduce books that changed their lives and work.
Podcast
![]()
The Essay
Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.
