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Angela Gheorghiu at Tuscan Sun Festival 2012


Angela Gheorghiu and Saimir Pirgu in Florence.

Tuscan Sun Festival 2012- Gala Concert with Angela Gheorghiu

Florence, Italy, Teatro della Pergola, 2012, june 12th

 

Angela Gheorghiu, soprano

Saimir Pirgu, tenor

Eugene Kohn, conductor

Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

 

 

Program:

Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail – Ouverture

Haendel: Rinaldo – Aria of  Almirena “Lascia ch’io pianga”

Verdi: La Traviata – Duet of Violetta and Alfredo “Parigi, o cara”

Massenet: Werther – Aria of Werther “Pourquoi me réveiller”

Berlioz: Ouverture du Corsaire

Gounod: Romeo et Juliette – Duet of Juliette and Romeo “Va! je t’ai pardonné”

 

Angela Gheorghiu With Saimir Pirgu,

Mascagni: Le maschere – Sinfonia

Catalani: La Wally – Aria of Wally “Ebben? Ne andrò lontana”

De Curtis: Duet “Non ti scordar di me”

Bernstein: West Side Story – Aria of Tony “Maria”

Loewe: My Fair Lady – Aria of  Eliza Doolittle “I Could Have Danced All Night”

Ponchielli: La Gioconda – La danza delle ore

Puccini: La bohéme  – Duet of Mimi and Rodolfo “O soave fanciulla”

 

Angela Gheorghiu With Saimir Pirgu, Barrett Wissman and Nina Kotova

FLORENCE: A “Gala evening” marks Angela Gheorghiu’s debut in Florence: strange as it may seem, the Rumanian diva had never performed in the Italian city before. This concert was part of the Tuscan Sun Festival, that usually takes place in small town of Cortona (less of 100 Km from Florence) but this year, for its 10th anniversary, has moved to Florence hoping to gain visibility in this most prestigious location. Moreover, the event made a collaboration possible between this Festival and Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Theatre, also if it took place in Teatro della Pergola; actually, the MMF Orchestra has accompanied the two protagonists.

Undoubtely, the hearty party-like atmosphere and the popular program “Three tenors”-like (or, referring to something familiar to italian music lovers, like old “Martini e Rossi Concerts” sponsored in the Fifties by the famous drink company) had a certain influence on the artistic outcome for some of the arias performed. A very popular program for a very refined manifestation like the Tuscan Sun Festival, this is the strange dichotomy that we must report
. Skilled conductor Eugene Kohn completed his task with a not more than adequate results from the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra, apparently unenthusiastic, in a program that went from Haendel to Bernstein, where also the ensemble alone had its number with more or less well known works.

Accompanying the two soloists, Eugene Kohn showed no special idea or refinement and apart from some moments where cohordination with the singers was not perfect, he was in the whole very fast but effective enough. The worst came with the orchestral pieces, some of which were musically implausible.

Charming and elegant, Angela Gheorghiu started very carefully with a famous Haendel’s aria, rather problematic in its rendition, also because her voice was still cold and needed to be adjusted. The Rumanian soprano was hereafter more relaxed, showing participation and charm. In the high notes her voice sounds shining but with some effort, but it’s really poor in harmonics in the middle and low register. With this limitation in mind, one wonders why she so often sings the aria from Wally, whose structure is clearly uneasy to her.

Gheorghiu found her better moments in Romeo and Juliet and My Fair Lady, where she has easily recreated the lightness of the elegant writing of this very enjoyable page.

Albanian tenor Saimir Pirgu, slightly above thirty years of age, has a voice with beautiful colours and good pitch. Apart from some notes that don’t sound very well sustained, he uses it with intelligence and awareness, and he’s able to find a good diction.

Pirgu’s voice  sounds always with something of “mediterranean” in it, which lets him lend a quite personal touch to the French repertoire. Spontaneity, fluency of his singing and awareness of his possibilities are his greatest qualities, and it will be highly interesting to listen to the artistic and interpretative development of his vocality in the next decades.

The two artists sang also some encores: Lauretta’s aria from Gianni Schicchi for Gheorghiu, and “La mia letizia infondere” from Verdi’s Lombardi alla prima crociata for Pirgu. Together they performed the obligatory Grand Finale with a two voiced Granada
.

This evening was also the occasion to bestow on Angela Gheorghiu the titel of “Artist for Peace” from UNESCO. In the whole it was a nice concert, not memorable, but greeted with warmth by the few people in the audience: probably most of the opera lovers in Florence didn’t come because of the very high tickets prices.

www.tuscansunfestival.com/

Review by Fabio Bardelli

translation from italian to english Bruno Tredicine

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