Suzanne Aspden, Fellow and Tutor in Music and Associate Professor in Music at the University of Oxford, features in a new BBC Radio 4 series ‘Britain in Ten Operas’.

The programme, hosted by baritone and composer Roderick Williams OBE, explores what our opera history tells us about British identity.

At many points over the last 350 years, sung dramas have spoken to and for a mass audience. At other times, opera has sometimes been viewed as elitist and foreign. In this three-part series, Williams investigates the changing place of opera in British culture and how it tells a revealing story about who we are. The first episode, titled ‘Royals and Rogues’ takes a looks at Britain’s early opera story and sees how that nation’s struggle with a new, flamboyant and decidedly decadent style of musical theatre from Europe mirrored the dramatic changes that were happening in British society during the eighteenth century.

You can listen to today’s broadcast here and tune in to the second part of the series next Wednesday 18th November at 9.00am.