A Concerto all-Italiana is being held on Saturday 1 June at the Manoel Theatre on 1 June at 7.30pm, with special guest opera singer Baritone Orazio Mori, who will participate in an ‘Omaggio a Giuseppe Verdi’ marking the composer’s 200th birthday.
The programme includes several other famous Italian songs and selections from popular operettas.
Mori will perform arias such as ‘Pari siamo’ and ‘Cortigiani vil razza dannata’ from Rigoletto; ‘Morte di Rodrigo’ from Don Carlo; ‘Pieta', rispetto,amore’ from Macbeth, and ‘Eri tu’ from Un Ballo in Maschera. The curtain-raiser will be the ‘Preludio’ from Verdi's ‘La Traviata’, performed by Orazio Mori's daughter, pianist Mro Debora Mori, from Milan's Concervatorio Giuseppe Verdi.
Orazio Mori has a unique international career having sung in the world's leading opera meccas of La Scala, Arena di Verona, Metropolitan, Teatro La Fenice, Covent Garden, Opera de Paris, Philadelphia; Seville; Mumbay (India), Berne; Florence; Catania; Palermo; Peking; Barcellona, conducted by the world's leading conductors Riccardo Muti, Zubin Mehta, Georges Pitre,Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Carlos Kleiber, Riccardo Chailly and Claudio Abbado, together with opera tenors Luciano Pavarotti, Jose Carreras, Alfredo Kraus and Placido Domingo. Mro Debora Mori will open the concert by playing Verdi's ‘Preludio’ from La Traviata.
His repertoire includes also the operas La Boheme; Luisa Miller; La forza del destino; Aida; La fanciulla del West; Boris Godunov;La Traviata; Barbiere di Siviglia; Otello; L'elisir d'amor; Le nozze di Figaro; Don Pasquale; Il viaggio a Reims; Don Giovanni; Manon Lescaut and others.****
Verdi's special Tribute will be followed by several classical Italian songs that include ‘Ti voglio tanto bene’ of 1937 and ‘Non ti scordar di me’ of 1935, both by Ernesto De Curtis; ‘Lolita - Serenata Spagnola’ by Arturo Buzzi-Peccia in 1908; ‘Reginella’ by Libero Bovio of 1927; ‘Musica Proibita’ by Stanislao Gastaldon of 1881; ‘Parlami d'amore Mariu' ‘ (1932) and ‘Lucciole Vagabonde’ of 1927 by Cesare Andrea Bixio; ‘Voglio vivere cosi' ‘ by Giovanni D'Anzi of 1942 and ‘Chitarra romana’ (1934) by Eldo Di Lazzaro.****
The concert’s second part will be dedicated to the Operetta, with selections ranging from ‘Frou frou del Tabarin’ to the duetto ‘Ah! come si sta ben’ from La Duchessa del Bal Tabarin by Carlo Lombardo; the selections ‘Hurra' Hurra' ‘; ‘Ma senza donne’ and ‘Canta un coro d'angioletti’ from ‘La Principessa della Czarda’ by Emmerich Kalman;.
Giuseppe Pietri's Addio Giovinezza contributes two popular selections - ‘Perche' non so’ and ‘Ah! di contesse suol gentil’. Carlo Lombardo and Virglio Ranzato's Cin ci la' takes centre stage with the beautiful aria of the ‘Bambola’, and from ‘Il paese dei campanelli’ another beautiful aria ‘Quando il giorno muor’. Other highly requested selections are from Franz Lehar's and Carlo Lombardo's joint composition of La Danza delle Libellule - ‘Vorrei potergli il cor rubar’ (interpreted by tenor Andrea Bragiotto and soprano Barbara Fasol), and the everlasting ‘Fox delle Gigolettes’ so popular with local operetta patrons (being performed by comedian Walter Rubboli and soprano/soubrette Tiziana Scaciga della Silva).****
The operetta gran finale will include famous and lively selections from ‘The White Horse Inn’, ‘The Merry Widow’ and ‘La Principessa della Czarda’. The concluding encore will be a trip (Giro d'Italia) through Italy's most famous melodies from various regions (Rome, Naples, Milan, Romagna, Florence.
By general request from operetta lovers, comedian and ‘cantattore’ Walter Rubboli, ‘capocomico’ of the ‘Compagnia delle Operette del Laboratorio Lirico Europeo ‘ of Milan, will perform Raymond Ventura's versatile and entertaining piece of ‘ Tutto va ben, Madama la Marchesa’ and a parody re-proposition of Ettore Petrolini's ‘Tanto pe' canta’ re-arranged by the famous Italian comedian Ciccio Ingrassia
Presentations on the evening will be made by Albert G Storace.
The Concerto all-Italiana is presented by Fiesole Artistic Productions in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute and the Embassy of Italy.
Booking from the Manoel Theatre on 21246389; website: www.teatrumanoel.com.mt; email: [email protected]