Lesley Manville CBE makes her BBC Proms debut narrating Sibelius’s Snöfrid, a supernatural melodrama for narrator, choir and orchestra in a new translation by Edward Kemp at the First Night of the Proms, which takes place this Friday 14 July at the Royal Albert Hall.

Principal Guest Conductor Dalia Stasevska leads the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, the BBC Singers and internationally renowned pianist Paul Lewis for a celebratory evening of music, marking the start of the world’s greatest classical music festival. The programme for the evening also includes Grieg’s Piano Concerto, Sibelius’s Finlandia, Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra and a world premiere piece by Ukrainian composer, Bohdana Frolyak, entitled Let There Be Light.

From the moment the Royal Albert Hall doors open, BBC Radio 3 will take listeners behind the scenes as they broadcast live from the Hall throughout the day. The Proms Countdown begins at 6.30am, as Petroc Trelawny explores the opening week of the 2023 season, followed by programmes with Georgia Mann, Linton Stephens, Penny Gore, Elizabeth Alker and Sean Rafferty, before Georgia and Petroc co-host the live concert broadcast of the First Night from 7pm. In addition, a special mini-series of short Proms programmes, hosted by Tom Service, will be broadcast on the day and made available on BBC Sounds.

The festivities for the First Night of the Proms are also celebrated on TV. From 7pm on BBC Two, presenter Clive Myrie will be joined by guests Anna Lapwood and Sandi Toksvig.

Lesley Manville CBE says: “I absolutely adore the Proms and am so excited to be involved in the iconic First Night to narrate Sibelius’s Snöfrid with all its dramatic lyricism and tempestuous energy. The Proms is a brilliant festival and I can’t wait to join in and kick off this summer’s celebrations!”

David Pickard, Director of the BBC Proms says: “The First Night of the Proms is very nearly here and we are so looking forward to the coming eight weeks of fantastic classical music. We are excited to say that from 6.30am on Friday our colleagues at BBC Radio 3 will join us for a day of broadcasting live from the Royal Albert Hall, and, for the First Night of the Proms concert we are delighted to collaborate with Lesley Manville, one of Britain’s greatest actors, who will perform alongside over 200 musicians and singers from the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and the BBC Singers, led by Dalia Stasevska. Whether you’re joining us on the radio, on TV or in person, we can’t wait for the beginning of what we hope will be another thrilling season.”

Over the eight-week season, which will conclude on Saturday 9 September with the world-famous Last Night of the Proms, BBC television and BBC iPlayer will broadcast over 20 programmes, and for the first time, all will be available to watch on BBC iPlayer for 12 months.

The televised BBC Proms are listed below. Further broadcast dates and times will be confirmed closer to the time, and additional televised concerts will be announced in due course.

• First Night of the Proms, live on BBC Two on Friday 14 July at 7pm
• Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, broadcast on the night of the performance, BBC Four on Sunday 16 July
• Beethoven’s Fifth at the Proms, broadcast on the night of the performance, BBC Four on Friday 21 July
• Beethoven’s Ninth at the Proms, live on BBC Four on Sunday 23 July
• Bollywood at the Proms, broadcast on the night of the performance, BBC Two on Friday 28 July
• Bomsori plays Bruch at the Proms, broadcast on BBC Four on Sunday 30 July
• Northern Soul
• Horrible Histories: ‘Orrible Opera
• Isata Kannah-Mason plays Prokofiev
• NYO Jazz (USA) with Dee Dee Bridgewater
• Felix Klieser plays Mozart
• Yuja Wang plays Rachmaninov
• National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain with Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha
• Mozart’s Mass in C minor
• Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto
• Budapest Festival Orchestra with András Schiff
• Sir Simon Rattle conducts Mahler’s Ninth
• Fantasy, Myths and Legends
• Chineke! performs Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony
• New Music at the Proms
• Last Night of the Proms
• Unmissable Moments of the BBC Proms 2023

Tickets are on sale for the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall and at venues across the UK.

As the world’s biggest classical music festival, the BBC Proms offers eight weeks of world-class music-making from a vast array of leading orchestras, conductors and soloists from the UK and around the world. Across more than 80 concerts, the festival aims to offer a summer of music that allows for the most diverse and exciting musical journeys. More than 125 years since it was founded, the driving factor in building a festival of this scale is to offer exceptional music-making at the lowest possible prices, continuing founder-conductor Henry Wood’s original ambition of bringing the best classical music to the widest possible audience. With every Prom broadcast on BBC Radio 3, available across multiple platforms and many televised on the BBC, the Proms reaches far beyond the Royal Albert Hall.

The 2023 BBC Proms runs from Friday 14 July to Saturday 9 September.