180619 – Toronto Concert Orchestra

Tenor, Romulo Delgado, has been an audience favourite since our first summer. Hear his ringing voice in ’O sole mio, Core ‘ngrato, E lucevan le stelle, Nessun dorma, Granada, Malaguena and many more!

PROGRAMME

[Intermission]

Approximate Timing | 2:20, 3:30, 2:00, 2.00, 3.00, 2:30, 2:20, 4:00, 3:30 [20] 2.05, 3:30, 4:00, 2:50, 4:30, 4:30, 3:30, 2:30

Conductor | Kerry Stratton
Tenor | Romulo Delgado

PROGRAMME NOTES
Prepared by TCO's Assistant Conductor, Surinder S. Mundra

When it comes to opera, it may be said that tenors have some of the most musically diverse and exciting roles. Whether it is the morally loose Duke of Mantua in Verdi's scintillating opera, Rigoletto, or the love-struck painter who pines and swoons over the angelic Tosca, the tenor is required to draw upon his technically and artistically vast arsenal, while reflecting humanity's greatest preoccupations: love, lust and all else related. And yes, it is always expected to get a few of those audience-anticipated "tenor high notes"... Watch out sopranos!

Tonight's program includes some of the most memorable and beloved tenor arias ever. Granada, Bésame Mucho, and Dein ist mein ganzes Herz need no introduction. Granada, written by Mexican composer, Agustin Lara seduces the listener to the exoticism of the city after which it is named. We are at once bewitched by its spell. Bésame Mucho, penned in 1940 by another Mexican romantic, Consuelo Velázquez, speaks of the need to be kissed. According to Velázquez herself, she wrote the song as a woman who had never been kissed. Apparently, pre-marital kissing was considered a sin back then. Thank goodness times have changed!

Dein ist mein ganzes Herz , from Franz Lehár's popular operetta, the Land of Smiles, is Prince Sou-Chong's most overwhelmingly gorgeous aria. The character's optimism gleams in Lehár's rich setting. The lyrics are about a man in delight. They describe the love he feels for a woman who is his ideal of perfection.

If there ever was a character who we might both love and despise all at once, it could very well be the Duke of Mantua, in the opera Rigoletto. The character resolves to never succumb to any one woman's beauty in the emotionally charged aria, Questo o quello. In another aria, La donna è mobile, he dismisses women as flighty. While we can't forgive this seedy character, we feel a pervasive urge to fall for his alluring singing, courtesy of Giuseppe Verdi's genius in melody writing. The duke may very well be a fiend, but he's a suave and seductive one.

Thankfully, tenor roles do not always call for moral ruthlessness. The utterly hopeless song, Core n'grato is a lover’s lamentation about a man’s abiding love not reciprocated.

Throughout the programme, the listener is treated to movements from one of opera’s arguably greatest composers, Georges Bizet. L'Arlésienne, considered incidental music to the play of the same name, is anything but incidental. In fact, the very spirit of opera may well be distilled in Bizet's great work. Written in 1872, the composer pulls all the stops using flutes, piccolos, oboes, bassoons, saxophones, all the brass, a harp, and a whole slew of strings to boot. We are at once treated to an emotional roller coaster.

It could be said that if you love life, then you must love opera. At any rate, the music presented promises to stir passions inside you, that may even surprise you. Who knows, you may end up discovering your own inner operatic self.

TENORISSIMO!

Week 3 | Casa Loma Symphony in the Gardens Series