James Conlon conducts the Fenice Orchestra and Chorus for the unmissable summer concert in the heart of Venice.
On July 13, 1883, the Capriccio sinfonico premiered. Twenty-six-year-old Giacomo Puccini presented the piece at his licensing exam at the Milan Conservatory. Coincidentally, July 13 is also the date picked for Omaggi a Puccini dal mondo, a programme produced by Fenice Theatre in Piazza San Marco. The Fenice’s resident orchestra and choir, conducted by James Conlon and Alfondo Caiani, will homage one of the most beloved Italian composers with pieces from both Puccini’s oeuvre and others. The concert will open E lucevan le stelle from the Tosca, performed by tenor Francesco Demuro, followed by Cio-Cio-San’s seducing aria Un bel dì vedremo from Madama Butterfly, performed by soprano Selene Zanetti. Another centennial to celebrate is the premiere of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.
Performed for the first time in New York on February 12, 1924. In Venice, the piece will be played by young Russian talent Aleksandr Malofeev. Other pieces by other composers will follow, like the triumph march from the second act of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida. As a young man, Puccini met Verdi, and in 1913, he dedicated him a heartfelt interview. We will then listen to Maurice Ravel’s Bolero, a testimony to Puccini’s influence on the French musical world, and the wild notes of Richard Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries. Puccini was a young admirer of Wagner’s, and adopted the use of Leitmotiv in his own production. Closing act again with Puccini with three pieces from the Turandot, his last opera and one that he left unfinished due to illness. Puccini died on November 29, 1924, and the Turandot was completed by others. Tu che di gel sei cinta precedes the famous Nessun dorma. The very last piece of the programme will be Padre augusto, the solution of the final enigma and the opera’s happy ending.
