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Teatro San Cassiano: Turning the impossible dream into reality

One man's quest to build the world’s first public opera theatre, 200 years after it was demolished.

Do you have what seems like an impossible dream? Maybe it’s to complete a marathon, swim with dolphins or win the lotto. Or, maybe, it’s to bring the world’s first public opera theatre back to life? Well the latter is the "impossible dream" of Dr Paul Atkin, a business man and musicologist from the UK. 200 years after Teatro San Cassiano was demolished – apparently on the orders of Napoleon – Paul is attempting to recreate this lost opera house, so that the Baroque opera he loves can be performed in the very theatre it would have been composed for. In a tale that’s as dramatic as any opera or World Cup final, join Ella-mai Robey for an episode of In the Studio, which reveals - before even a brick is laid – what it takes to try and turn an impossible dream into reality.

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29 minutes

Podcast