Conductor
Simone Ori
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Ouverture from Le nozze di Figaro
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ouverture Coriolano op. 62
Gioachino Rossini
Symphony from La cenerentola
Giuseppe Verdi
Prelude from the third act of Traviata
Gioachino Rossini
Ouverture from La scala di seta
Symphony from L’italiana in Algeri
Pietro Mascagni
Intermezzo from Cavalleria rusticana
Gioachino Rossini
Symphony from Barbiere di Siviglia
This concert, entitled ‘Il suono dell’opera’ (The Sound of Opera), is a celebration of the leading musical genre of Italian culture, observed through ‘symphonic’ pages: overtures, symphonies and opera intermezzos spanning over a century of Italian and European musical history, from the brilliant lights of Mozart’s classicism to Rossini’s energy, to the tragic lyricism of Verdi and then Mascagni.
The programme opens with the overture from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro (1786), a masterpiece of 18th-century musical theatre and a model for many subsequent works. In just a few bars, the score captures the essence of lightness with elegance, theatrical rhythm and subtle irony. It is a true symphonic miniature that anticipates, without revealing, the bustling situations of the opera.
This is followed by Ludwig van Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture, Op. 62 (1807), a dramatic piece inspired by Collin’s tragedy of the same name. Here, Beethoven contrasts the impetuous strength of the hero with the sweetness of his mother’s pleas, using a few contrasting motifs to depict an intense psychological conflict. The dramatic tension of the music introduces a new expressive dimension to the overture, which from an introduction becomes a narrative.
Rossini’s symphonies take us to the heart of Italian opera buffa: La scala di seta, La Cenerentola, L’italiana in Algeri and Il barbiere di Siviglia. Each overture is a little gem of vivacity and rhythmic and melodic invention, surprising in its brilliance and theatricality. Rossini, a master of effect and formal construction, condenses unstoppable energy into these pieces, with famous crescendos and twists that delight the ear and the imagination.
The Prelude to Act III of Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata, on the other hand, takes the listener into a more intimate and suspended realm. It is music that recounts Violetta’s inner drama, between abandonment and yearning. The phrases of the orchestra become breath, anticipation, foreboding: in a few minutes, Verdi condenses a tragic force of great emotional power.
From verismo opera comes the Intermezzo from Cavalleria rusticana by Pietro Mascagni, an authentic emblem of an era; a lyrical, simple and intensely moving piece that flows like a secular prayer at the heart of the story. The orchestra becomes a collective, meditative voice, in a narrative silence that speaks louder than words.