On 03 Mar 2017 Moscow Philharmonic will continue to acquaint its listeners with the stars of the world Opera and will offer a concert of famous canadian singer contralto, mezzo-soprano Marie-Nicole Lemieux, who has gained prominence since 2000 and is now performing on the best world stages. The singer will be accompanied by the Russian national orchestra (conductor is also canadian, young Maestro Jean-Marie Zeitouni). The entire concert will be dedicated to music of the great Italian composer Gioacchino Rossini, who reflected in his work the liberating impulse of the Italian people of the period of the unification of Italy.
Gioachino Antonio Rossini, 1792 – 1868 is Italian composer born into a musical family of conductor and singer. He worked in Bologna in churches and theatres as a conductor and accompanist. During the revolution he was a member of the National guard; carbonaro. Rossini was recognized during his life. He lived and worked in Italy (as head of theatre Italien and Music Lyceum in Bologna) and France (as Royal composer and General inspector of singing). The main creativity of Rossini was Opera, he brought there the spirit of reformation. Both in the Opera Buffa (“the Barber of Seville”) and Opera Seria (“Othello”), he greatly enriched it.
The Director of the concert Mikhail Fichtenholz told the readers of the cultural-political magazine “E-Vesti” that “the Russian national orchestra performs regularly with singers of the world level and was chosen for the debut concert of Mrs. Lemieux. It is no coincidence: during the last several years in the framework of the Big festival RNO plays seldom Rossini’s Opera with the legendary Italian conductor Alberto Zedda. Musicians of the RNO have extensive experience in the Rossini music, so the collaboration of the orchestra and Marie-Nicole Lemieux promises a great future”.
According to him, the choice of compositions was made by Marie-Nicole Lemieux, who “built the program on the contrast of serious and comic operas of Rossini – and if the comic Operas (“the Italian girl in Algiers” and “the Barber of Seville”) are quite well known to the General public, then the excerpts from a serious, dramatic works of the composer are real rarities. Stylistically, these things are very different from each other – but in any case they require incredibly virtuosic vocal techniques”.
The performance of musicians in Moscow will be a premiere, and even talk about the continuation of cooperation is in the pipeline. “Both musicians perform in Moscow for the first time, – said M. Fikhtengolts, Marie-Nicole is one of the most exciting singers of her generation. She’s well known in the world for her interpretation of Baroque music and Rossini. Together with Maestro Zeitouni she recorded not long ago album of Opera arias by Rossini, fragments from which they will present in Moscow. At the moment there is no concrete plans for our future collaboration, but the Moscow debut of Marie-Nicole Lemieux will surely become a reference point in negotiations on further projects.”
The program will include recitals, cavatina and arias from the works of G. Rossini, which are chef-d’euvres of international Opera: “the Barber of Seville,” “the Italian in Algeria”, “William tell”, etc.
