Stage to Screen season
Rigoletto; Giuseppe Verdi Opera live in HD from The Royal Opera House
Tuesday, 17thApril 2012 @ 7.15 pm
In Rigoletto, Verdi charts the fate of his larger-than-life characters – the tormented jester trying to avenge himself on his heartless playboy employer the Duke of Mantua, who has carelessly seduced Rigoletto’s innocent daughter Gilda – in music of immense theatrical punch and instant memorability. Based on Victor Hugo’s controversial play, Le Rois’amuse,
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Filarmonica della Scala: George Gershwin: Saturday 21st april @ 7pm
George Gershwin: An American in Paris, Catfish Row , Concerto in fa. Riccardo Chailly, Music Director of the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, and the Italian jazz pianist Stefano Bollani has already topped the charts around the world with their recordings of Gershwin. However, without any doubt, the fusion of classical sounds with jazz improvisations is at their best when heard live. Riccardo Chailly has had an on-going and invaluable rapport with the orchestra, having conducted numerous opera productions, such as Madama Butterfly, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Rigoletto and Aida, and a wide ranging symphonic repertoire which includes a triumphant tour of the United States in 2007
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ilarmonica della Scala: Serge Rachmaninoff: Monday 7th May @ 7pm
Serge Rachmaninoff; Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Symphony No. 2 Matteo Franceschini world première commissioned by the Filarmonica della Scala. The 23-year-old Andrea Battistoni, the most successful young Italian conductor who will conduct a production of The Marriage of Figaro at La Scala in 2012, will lead the Filarmonica and together with the equally young pianist Alexander Romanovsky through the most spellbinding melodies by Rachmaninov. Andrea Battistoni makes his debut with the Filarmonica with an impressive programme of romanticism, with remarkable virtuosity that starts with a world première of a musical composition by the 32-year-old Matteo Franceschini commissioned by the Filarmonica.
Cyrano De Bergerac, Live from Teatro Real Madrid:
Thursday 10th May @ 7pm
Franco Alfano’s 1936 opera Cyrano de Bergerac, the story of a swordsman-poet with an enormous heart and even larger nose, has been revived in recent years as a vehicle for veteran tenor Plácido Domingo. In this 2010 San Francisco Opera production, brought over from the Théâtre du Châtelet, the tenor is paired with Spanish soprano Ainhoa Arteta as Roxane, the beautiful object of Cyrano’s affection. French conductor Patrick Fournillier leads the production.
La Fille Mal Gardee; Live ballet in HD from The Royal Opera House
Wednesday, 16thMay 2012 @ 7.15 pm
The simple story of Lise, her suitor Colas and Lise’s larger-than-life mother, the Widow Simone, who tries to marry her off to the simpleton son of a rich neighbour, is full of delicious comedy but also wonderful, characterful choreography. One of the greatest pleasures of Fille is the way in which the steps, though at times devilishly difficult, never get in the way of the natural, easy storytelling.
