Abraham Borg
On Saturday 8 November, the Classique Foundation organized a concert of operatic music at the Aurora Theatre in Victoria, Gozo, with the participation of soprano Norma Fantini, tenor Luciano Ganci and the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Joseph Debrincat. This was the seventh concert which this cultural organization has produced since its inception in the year 2000.
The evening's programme was a varied and very interesting one, featuring works by Giuseppe Verdi (the Overture from La forza del destino and the aria for tenor from Luisa Miller), Gaetano Donizetti (tenor's aria from Lucia di Lammermoor), Alfredo Catalani (La Wally, aria for soprano), Georges Bizet (the Entr'acte in Carmen), Giacomo Puccini (soprano's romanza, Vissi d'arte in Tosca, Act I duet in Madama Butterfly, the tenor's romanza in Act III of Tosca, and the duet from Act I from La bohème), Hector Berlioz (Marche Hongroise from La damnation de Faust), Gioacchino Rossini (Overture from Guillaume Tell), Amilcare Ponchielli (romanza for tenor, Cielo e mar, from La Gioconda), Arrigo Boito (romanza for soprano from Mefistofele), Umberto Giordano (Andrea Chenier, aria for soprano) and Camille Saint-Saëns (Bacchanale from Samson et Dalila).
Verdi's Overture from La forza del destino introduced this well-presented and beautiful concert which was very much appreciated by the numerous audience which attended in spite of the inclement weather. The Malta Philharmonic Orchestra did great justice to this splendid overture which Verdi composed in 1869, as well as to the other purely orchestral pieces. Without diminishing anything from the Marche Hongroise and the famous Guillaume Tell Overture, which Rossini composed in 1829, and which turned out to be his last opera, followed by 40 years of silence, I found the Saint-Saëns Bacchanale truly superb.
Norma Fantini is not new to the Aurora where she sang Tosca in May this year. Her first aria, the evergreen Ebben? Ne andrò lontano from Catalani's La Wally was well-sung and interpreted. She possesses a beautiful, mellow and expressive voice and infused the necessary pathos in Wally's predicament when she is forced to run away rather than consent to her father's demands and marry the man she does not love. I expected more in Vissi d'arte, especially when she sang with great expression and feeling the romanza of the unfortunate Margherita, L'altra notte in fondo al mare from Mefistofele and La mamma morta, Maddalena's aria from Andrea Chenier.
Tenor Luciano Ganci, in his first appearance in Malta, displayed a beautiful, strong voice with a pleasant timbre. His rendition of the two difficult arias, Fra poco a me ricovero from Lucia di Lammermoor and Quando le sere al placido from Luisa Miller was good and earned him merited applause; he was even better in Cielo e mar from Ponchielli's La Gioconda and carried off excellently the well-know romanza E lucevan le stelle from Puccini's Tosca, much to the delight of the audience.
The two duets for the evening came from Puccini's pen: Bimba dagli occhi pieni di malia from Madama Butterfly, and O soave fanciulla from La bohème. The voices of Fantini and Ganci blended well; it was indeed a pity that the tenor failed to reach the final high C, in O soave fanciulla.
Two well-loved encores - O mio babbino caro and La donna è mobile, brought this eminently successful concert to a close amid loud and merited applause. A word of praise is due to the Classique Foundation for the excellent programme, and to Joseph Debrincat who showed an excellent knowledge of the operatic repertoire, conducting the orchestra with skill and practically from memory.