On the occasion of the Malta Arts Festival, the impressive courtyard of the Grand Masters Palace will host an equally prestigious event on 1 August at 9pm. A leading Swedish orchestra will be conducted by a foremost Austrian director in a concert of popular classical music featuring Malta’s own soprano Lydia Caruana and a rising star tenor from the Ukraine.
Dmytro Popov is the second prizewinner of this year’s world-famous Placido Domingo’s “Operalia”. After taking part in Verdi’s Traviata with the renowned stage director Jonathan Miller in Norway in September 2004, Popov has never looked back. He was immediately engaged for the role of Alfredo by the Norwegian National Opera and thereafter for the role of De Grieux in Manon Lescaut.
His major performances include Kuragin in Prokofiev’s War and Peace, Lensky in Tchaikovsky’s Eugeny Onegin and Vodemon in Iolanta, Vladimir in Borodin’s Knaj Igor, Lykov in Rimsky – Korsakov’s Tharen’s Bride and, in his more popular repertoire, he has played the Duke in Verdi’s Rigoletto, Enzo in Ponchielli’s Gioconda, Pinkerton in Puccini’s Madame Butterfly and Don Jose in Bizet’s Carmen.
He is now the leading soloist of the Ukraine National Opera in Kiev. The Berwald Symphony Orchestra, made up of members of the Stockholm Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Manfred Honeck, will accompany the soloists in a popular repertoire of works by Gounod, Verdi, Puccini, Bernstein and Tchaikowsky.
Soprano Lydia Caruana needs no introduction to the Maltese audience especially after her highly successful performance with veteran tenor Jose Carreras last month as well as her participation at the Andrea Bocelli concert in December. Lydia’s popularity is also rising rapidly on the international field following her recent success with Joseph Calleja at the much-acclaimed Rathauskonzerte Series in Regensburg, and earlier this year with the Musici dell’Accademia at the Accademia di Bologna.
Manfred Honeck, who will be returning to Malta after his highly successful performance in The Blessing of Europe in May 2004, will conduct the Berwald Symphony Orchestra made up of leading musicians of the Stockholm Radio Symphony Orchestra. Since his last appearance in Malta, Honeck has pursued his star-studded career with unceasing success. Suffice it to mention that only recently the world famous Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra announced the appointment of Manfred Honeck as its Music Director for the next three years.
Honeck began his career as a musician with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in 1983, first as a violinist and then as a violist over a 10-year period. It was there, while performing under some of the world’s most important and respected conductors that he chose to begin his career on the podium. Honeck recently concluded his tenure as Music Director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, a position he held from 2000 to 2006.
In addition to his new position with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Honeck is also Music Director Designate of the Staatsoper of Stuttgart and Principal Guest Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic. His guest engagements have included the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks in Munich, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester of Berlin, the Gewandhausorchester of Leipzig, the Staatskapelle of Dresden, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre Philarmonique de Radio France, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic USA.