Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Classical Music, Sunday 7 February 2016, 9pm

This week Catherine Bott gives in to her light side and asks: “What exactly is operetta?”

In her exploration of operetta, Catherine has plenty of well-known and much-loved music to feature, such as stalwarts Gilbert and Sullivan, with highlights from Iolanthe, HMS Pinafore, and The Mikado (pictured), along with Johann Strauss’ overture to Die Fledermaus with Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.

But there’s more to discover, too: Heuberger’s Der Opernball, composed in 1897, is still a firm favourite in the German repertoire, and Lincke celebrates an unlikely animal – a glow worm – in an aria from his 1902 operetta Lysistrata.