This year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Gounod (1818-1893), the most celebrated French composer in his time, known today for his opera Faust (1859) and the prayer in song Ave ...

Donald Macleod introduces music from Gounod's early years as he begins to make his mark. In today’s programme, the young composer widens his cultural horizons in Rome and struggles with his vocation.

Gounod's contemporaries believed that his religious works, rather than his operas, would ultimately constitute his most enduring legacy. Posterity has, of course, proved them wrong, but you get some ...

Before Bizet's Carmen, the world's most popular opera was Gounod's Faust, a cure for all box-office ills almost from the moment of its Parisian premiere in 1859. Not far behind in popularity was ...

Gounod's Faust was the most popular French opera of the 19th century, but Gounod's personal life was at least as colourful as his stage works... Gounod is an intriguing fellow, an endearing mix of the ...

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or ...

How many composers have been inspired by the two lovers from Verona depicted by Shakespeare? From Vincenzo Bellini and Hector Berlioz to Leonard Bernstein, the list is long. Charles Gounod's Roméo et ...

This week, Donald Macleod explores Charles Gounod’s student years in Italy and the sacred and symphonic music these formative years later informed, including his Symphony No.1 in D. Monday - An Artist ...