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His enthusiasm and energy knows no bounds. Dancer, choreographer, and Strictly judge Bruno Tonioli returns to Radio 2 with a third series celebrating his greatest passion - opera. Top Cs, broken hearts, murdering mothers, sparkling cadenzas and record breaking curtain calls - that's what we have in store as Bruno brings the red and gold of the world's finest opera houses to your front room via Radio 2.

In this first programme Bruno looks at the mamas and papas of opera. Don’t expect any nursery rhymes or cosy bedtime stories – being a parent in opera is not an easy task and happy families are rare. Bruno uncovers heartbreak, cruelty, betrayal and murder. Mamma mia - an hour of murderous mothers and dearly beloved fathers. The programme includes music from opera’s most famous single mother – Madam Butterfly, fraudulent father Gianni Schicchi and jester Rigoletto – the protective father who concocts a murderous plot to save his daughter from the clutches of the evil Duke of Mantua. We meet Wotan father of the Valkyries, the Queen of the Night from Mozart’s The Magic Flute and there’s a bravura performance by Sir Bryn Terfel as Don Magnifico in Rossini’s La Cenerentola – opera’s re-telling of the Cinderella fairytale