180814 – Toronto Concert Orchestra

Dazzling divas, soprano, Tonia Cianciulli, and mezzosoprano, Beste Kalender, will enchant you with the passion of Ah! guarda sorella from Mozart’s Così fan tutte, the fireworks of Rossini’s La Cenerentola, and the sublime longing of Puccini’s Un bel dì. We couldn’t possibly present a program like this without Mozart’s Sull’aria from The Marriage of Figaro and the great Flower Duet from Léo Delibes' opera, Lakmé.

CONCERT SPONSOR

PROGRAMME

François-Adrien Boïeldieu | Le Calife de Bagdad - Ouverture
Jacques Offenbach | Belle nuit, o nuit d’amour, Barcarolle from "Tales of Hoffmann"
Charles Gounod | Faust Ballet Music: Les nubiennes
Georges Bizet | Habanera from "Carmen"
Charles Gounod | Faust Ballet Music: Adagio
Alfredo Catalani | Ebben? Ne andro lontana from "La Wally"
Charles Gounod | Faust Ballet Music: Danse antique
Léo Delibes | Flower Duet from "Lakmé"

[INTERMISSION]

Gioachino Rossini | La Cenerentola - Overture
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Ah! guarda sorella from "Così fan tutte"
Charles Gounod | Faust Ballet Music: Variations de Cléopâtre
Gioachino Rossini | Non Piu Mesta from "La Cenerentola"
Charles Gounod | Faust Ballet Music: Les troyens
Giacomo Puccini | Piangi? Perche?...Un bel di vedremo from "Madama Butterfly"
Charles Gounod | Faust Ballet Music: Variations du miroir
Vincenzo Bellini | Mira, O Norma from "Norma"
Charles Gounod | Faust Ballet Music: Danse de Phryné
Gioachino Rossini | Duetto Buffo di Due Gatti
Victor Herbert | Art is Calling For Me from "The Enchantress"

APPROX. TIMING | 8.0, 3.8, 2.6, 4.8, 2.6, 4.1, 2.6, 7.0 [20] 8.5, 5.0, 2.6, 3.8, 2.6, 4.9, 2.6, 7.0, 2.6, 3.5, 5.1

Conductor | Kerry Stratton
Soprano | Tonia Cianciulli
Mezzosoprano | Beste Kalender

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

There is a strange and curious relationship between performer and composer. It suggests a possible tension between re-creative art, and creative art. Rossini seemed to have little patience for the cult of the diva whose pretensions got the better of her. He once wrote, “To fulfill his[her] part properly, the singer needs only to be a capable interpreter of the ideas of the composer, trying to express them to full effect and bring them out in the clearest light...in short, the composer and the poet are the only serious creators. Some skillful singers occasionally try to show off with additional embellishments; and if this is to be called creative, well and good; but it is a form of creative work which is quite often unsuccessful and frequently spoils the composer’s ideas, robbing them of the simplicity of expression they were intended to have.”

This view of one of the greatest operatic composers ever to have lived seems rather severe. After all, not all composers shared Rossini’s view. Those musical geniuses would certainly have been aware of their dependence on the operatic singer (or any kind of musician) to communicate and transmit their musical compositions and ideas to the world.

Moreover, throughout history audiences while appreciative of the composers’ works, have always seemed mystified and awestruck by the music through the performers' renderings as intercessor; even today, listeners around the world encounter the great classical masterworks through the realizations of those great orchestras, soloists, and operatic singers.

Yet, it is onerous on the part of the performer to convey and distill the essence of the composers' musical intentions. So, what makes a dazzling diva? Of course, it is certainly the diva's sensitivity to, and awareness of the role she plays. But, an urtext rendering, with no more and no less than what is written would be almost too computer-perfect, cold and sterile. Such performances would lose the audience's interest with an absence of the intrigue and attractiveness of that elusive human element.

Arturo Toscanini, one of the greatest and famous conductors who premiered many of today's operatic standards once wrote of the great operatic singer, Marian Anderson, that voices like hers came around only once in a century. F. Paul Driscoll, editor-in-chief of Opera News said of Anderson's portrayal of Ulrica, in Verdi's Un ballo en maschera, "The role of the sorceress is something that depends a lot on the charisma of the performer, the ability to suggest a world beyond what you are seeing in front of you, and that's what Marian Anderson did every time she walked onstage."

Tonight’s programme showcases those painfully beautiful dramatic operatic roles performed by soprano and mezzo-soprano. In these tumultuous works by Mozart, Rossini, Gounod, Bellini, Puccini, Delibes, and others, we find ourselves enthralled by, and immersed in the world of opera which reflects the very essence of humanity: living, rejoicing, suffering, and loving. Whether it is Fiordiligi and Dorabella in Ah! guarda sorella, singing of a pained and blissful love for a soldier, or the yearning for an existential transformation from sorrow to happiness in Non più mesta, or all of the rest of tonight's music, we hear and love the melodies so much because they touch the very core of our hearts through the dazzling performances of those artists!

To that end, It is not surprising that tonight’s programme not only celebrates the great towering genius of those wonderful operatic musical minds, but revels in the cult of the operatic diva, and indeed all performers who bring to birth music that would otherwise simply remain lifeless on printed page!

DAZZLING DIVAS

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