For the first time, George Petrou will conduct the Orchestra of the Teatro La Fenice, in the concert scheduled at the Malibran Theater in double performance, on Friday 13 January at 8 pm and Sunday 15 at 5 pm, as part of the Foundation’s 2022-2023 Symphony Season La Fenice Theater. The Greek maestro, music director of the Greek Radio National Symphony Orchestra and artistic director of the renowned Internationale Händel-Festspiele Göttingen, will conduct the overture from the cantata Ulysses to the Elysians by Nikolaos Mantzaros, the Symphony n. 36 in C major kv 425 Linz by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and, in the second part of the evening, the Symphony n. 7 in A major op. 92 by Ludwig van Beethoven. The cantata Ulisse ai Elisi is the work of Nikolaos Mantzaros, a composer born in Corfu in 1795 when the island was still under Venetian administration. Coming from a noble family, of Greek-Italian origin and predominantly Italian musical training, he is known for having founded a real Ionian school on his island, or a generation of composers including Spyridon Xyndas, Pavlos Karrer and Frangiskos Domeneginis. Mantzaros’ best-known composition is the Hymn to Freedom on a text by Dionysios Solomos, the national anthem of Greece since 1865, later adopted also by Cyprus. The overture of the cantata Ulysses to the Elysians dates back to 1820, a page that collects Haydnian reminiscences and typically Rossinian influences.
