Music for the masses

LUCY WORSLEY’S NIGHTS AT THE OPERA | BBC2 9PM

If we were to say that opera was to the 17th century as Emmerdale is to us now, that’s not actually too far from the truth (hence the term ‘soap opera’, right?): back in the day, operas were written as entertainment for the masses, reflecting their own time and place, and the hopes and fears of ordinary people.

In this two-part series, Lucy Worsley visits several cities and studies the operas that were born there to discover how they reflected the times.

Her search begins in Venice, where the composer Claudio Monteverdi revolutionised the genre in 1643 by turning his back on the typical themes of gods and myths – and instead producing The Coronation Of

Poppea, the first opera about real people with human passions.