At 6 p.m., at the Grosses Festspielhaus:

LA GIOCONDA, by A. Ponchielli – PREMIERE

Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome

Antonio Pappano : Musical direction

Olivier Mears : Director

Anna Netrebko: La Gioconda

Agnieszka Rehlis: The ICCS

Jonas Kaufmann: Enzo Grimaldo

Tareq Nazmi: Alvise Badoero

Eve-Maud Hubeaux: Laura

Luca Salsi: Barnaba

Nicolo Donini: Zuane

During his lifetime, Amilcare Ponchielli was considered the most important Italian composer along with Verdi. Posterity may have been less radiant than for Verdi’s “Busetto’s Swan”, but the fact remains that the opera La Gioconda (first performed at La Scala in 1876) has never left the stage. Inspired by Victor Hugo’s play Angelo Tyrant of Padua, the story is set in 17th-century Venice. With a beautiful Italianness, Ponchielli delivers particularly characteristic arias, to which is added the famous Ballet of the Hours used in the cinema in Disney’s Fantasia. It is a joy to hear an opera in which the four roles have so many moments of anthology, and it is even more so when these roles are fulfilled by an extraordinary cast: Anna Netrebko (Gioconda), Jonas Kaufmann (Enzo), Luca Salsi (Barnaba) and the wonderful French mezzo Eve-Maud Hubeaux (Laura). The musical and dramatic team inspires the most beautiful promises: Oliver Mears is a famous director in Great Britain and the conductor Antonio Pappano has shown countless times how familiar he is with the Italian operatic repertoire.

At 7 p.m., at the Grosses Festspielhaus:

BOCCHERINI / BERIO / PONCHIELLI / DE SABATA / RESPIGHI

Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome

Antonio Pappano: Musical direction

– L. Boccherini, L. Berio: La ritirata notturna di Madrid

– A. Ponchielli: Elegia

– V. From Sabata: Juventus

– O. Respighi: Fontane di Roma, Pini di Roma

Fascinating and too little known Italian music of the twentieth century! At the head of his Orchestra of the Académie Sainte-Cécile, maestro Antonio Pappano corrects this injustice in the repertoire with a program of profound originality. Is it because Italian composers most often devote themselves to opera that their symphonic works are more rarely performed?A century earlier, Amilcare Ponchielli triumphed on the operatic stage but saw his beautiful Elegia for orchestra relegated to the shadows. If Victor De Sabata‘s Juventus remains unlikely, it is more because De Sabata is known as a great conductor, adored by singers such as Maria Callas, somewhat obscuring his own compositions. Listening to his play Juventus will be an authentic discovery. Concluding this formidable programme, Pappano conducts the two undeniable “hits” of modern Italian music: the exuberant Fountains of Rome and the spectacular Pines of Rome that Ottorino Respighi dedicated to the Italian capital.

At 7 p.m., at the Grosses Festspielhaus:

CHORAL CONCERT / MESSA DA REQUIEM, by G. Verdi

Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome

Choir of the Accademia Santa Cecilia in Rome

Antonio Pappano: Musical direction

Masabane C. Rangwanasha: Soprano

Judit Kutasi: Mezzo-soprano

Jonas Kaufmann: Tenor

Michele Pertusi: Bass

G. Verdi: Requiem

It has often been said that the Requiem is Verdi’s most beautiful opera. And why not? Although it uses the text of the Catholic liturgy, the Requiem is not religious in the strict sense of the term. The entire work is indeed marked by death and terror, making this vast symphonic and choral fresco a sublime humanist protest. It is indeed the passions of man, their beauties and their terrible strengths, that Verdi sings with incomparable tension. This prodigious musical monument will be performed by a high-flying vocal team: Judit Kutasi, Michele Pertusi and star Jonas Kaufmann. Recent winner of the prestigious BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, South African soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha will be a true revelation. An admirable opera conductor, Antonio Pappano with his Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, finds in Verdi’s Requiem a score worthy of his lyrical temperament and expressive genius…

At 7 p.m., at the Grosses Festspielhaus:

CONCERT ORCHESTRAL II – H. Berlioz / B. Martinů

Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome

Jakub Hrůša: Conductor

Pinchas Zukerman: Viola

– H. Berlioz: The Roman Carnival

– B. Martinů: The Frescoes of Piero della Francesca, H. 352

– H. Berlioz: Harold in Italy, op. cit. 16

Pinchas Zukerman is one of the greatest violinists in history. But it is on the viola, the other instrument that he masters to perfection, that the Israeli musician performs tonight. On the programme is one of the absolute masterpieces of the Romantic repertoire, the sublime Harold in Italy, in which Berlioz offers the viola pages of dripping lyricism. Led by Jakub Hrůša, a Czech conductor with a meteoric rise and promise to be the musical conductor of the world’s greatest orchestras, the programme also highlights Italy’s prodigious influence on composers. In addition to Berlioz’s dazzling Roman Carnival, the Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome presents the exuberant and little-known Frescoes of Piero della Francesca by Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů. A work inspired by Italian Renaissance painting and carried by a sumptuous orchestration. Magnificent!