The first concert in the new year is a great opportunity for a loud and joyful celebration. It will also be an opportunity to enjoy the beauty of the human voice, as it is an all-opera programme.
In the first part of the evening, music of Classicism and Romanticism will be heard. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was considered by his contemporaries primarily to be an opera composer. The concert will begin with a popular, energetic and joyful Le nozze di Figaro Overture; the program also includes two arias and recitatives from this work. Don Giovanni has a decidedly different character, which Mozart described as drama giocoso (Italian cheerful drama), because in this opera menacing and serious fragments are intertwined with light and cheerful sections. Idomeneo, a much earlier composition, belongs to the genre of opera seria that is serious opera.
Józef Michał Poniatowski was a Polish composer, tenor singer and diplomat, nephew of Prince Józef Poniatowski. His operas, written in the style of Rossini, enjoyed great popularity in the 19th century. The comic opera Don Desiderio was staged for the first time in 1840 in Pisa, and later also at the opera theaters in Venice, Bologna, Milan, Palermo and Paris. It was in the French capital in 1860 that the premiere of Poniatowski’s another work – Pierre de Médicis – took place. Later they were staged among others in Lyon and Madrid. Poniatowski’s works did not remain in the repertoire after his death, but now this work is being rediscovered.
The second part of the evening will be filled with Italian music. Skillfully combining the drama and singing melodies, the works of Gioacchino Rossini, Vincenzo Bellini, Gaetano Donizetti and Giuseppe Verdi, they have enjoyed enormous popularity and form the basis of opera theatres’ repertoire. This evening, the soloists will be excellent singers: Joanna Woś and Szymon Komasa. The NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra will accompany them and Bassem Akiki will conduct. The presence of artists of this class is a guarantee of the highest performance level.
W.A. Mozart
Le nozze di Figaro Overture KV 492; Hai già vinta la causa and Vedrò mentr'io sospiro – recitativo and aria and Porgi amor – aria from Le nozze di Figaro KV 492; Fin ch’han dal vino – aria from Don Giovanni KV 527; Solitudini amiche i Zeffiretti lusinghieri – recitativo and aria Idomeneo KV 366
J.M. Poniatowski
Don Desiderio Overture; Doux reve de ma vie – aria from Pierre de Médicis; Ella morte un ombra oscura – aria and Dite da ver – duet from Don Desiderio
[45']
***
G. Rossini The Barber of Seville Overture; Come un’ape – cavatina from Cindirella
V. Bellini Qui la voce i Vien, diletto – aria and cabaletta from I Puritani
G. Donizetti Marsz oraz Come Paride vezzoso – cavatina from L’elissir d’amore
G. Verdi Tacea la notte – aria from Il trovatore
G. Donizetti Bella siccome un angelo – aria nad Pronta io son! – duet from Don Pasquale
[45']
Bassem Akiki – conductor
Joanna Woś – soprano
Szymon Komasa – baritne
NFM Leopoldinm Orchestra
Agata Kwiecińska – host