New Year's Eve in Warsaw is feted with parties and events all over the city. Yet none are so highbrow as the New Year's Eve Gala at the National Opera House. For one night only a selection of Chopin's favourite arias and opera duets ring in the New Year
The character of the concert was inspired by a bold statement by Witold Gombrowicz in his Diaries: "I prefer Chopin coming in from an open window to Chopin with all that chicanery of a concert stage." The arias and duets of Vincenzo Bellini, Gaetano Donizetti, Gioachino Rossini, Giacomo Weber and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart round out the programme for the evening, forming a subjective selection of
Chopin's personal favourites, as if "from an open window".
The evening aims to bring to life George Sand's assertion that:
The day will come (…) when the whole world will learn that his genius, just as vast, complete, and wise as that of the greatest masters whose works he assimilated, retained an individuality even more sophisticated than Sebastian Bach's, even more powerful than Beethoven's, even more dramatic than Weber's
The concert at the National Opera House features Aleksandra Kurzak, a regular performer of the New York Metropolitan Opera and London Royal Opera House, Sylvie Brunet, who is familiar to audiences of Milan's La Scala and the Paris Opera, and Alexander Gergalov, one of the prominent figures of the MET and other leading opera houses. The conductor is Marco Boemi, while the evening's hosts are Anna Seniuk and Andrzej Lapicki.
Performers:Aleksandra Kurzak - soprano
Sylvie Brunet - mezzo-soprano
Antonio Gandia - tenor
David Sotgiu - tenor
Alexander Gergalov - baritone
Rafał Siwek - bass
Conductor: Marco Boemi
Chorus Master: Bogdan Gola
Chorus and Orchestra of the Polish National Opera
The complete programme:
Part 1
Gioachino Rossini - Overture to The Thieving Magpie
Gioachino Rossini - Cavatina "Di tanti palpiti" from Act 1 of Tancredi
Gioachino Rossini - Amenaide and Tancredi's duet from Act 2 of Tancredi
Vincenzo Bellini - Overture to Capuleti e Montechi
Vincenzo Bellini - "Suoni la tromba" duet from I Puritani
Gaetano Donizetti - "Regnava nel silenzio" from Act 1 of Lucia di Lammermoor
Gaetano Donizetti - "Miei buon amiche" from Act 1 of Daughter of the Regiment
Gaetano Donizetti - Chorus No. 16 "Che interminabile" from Act 3 of Don Pasquale
Gaetano Donizetti - "Sulla tomba che rinserra" from Lucia di Lammermoor
Part 2
Giacomo Meyerbeer - Bacchanalia from Act 3 of Robert le Diable
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Zerlina and Don Giovanni's duet "La ci darem la mano" from Don Giovanni
Gioachino Rossini - Basilio's aria "La calunnia" from Act 1 of Il Barbiere di Siviglia
Gioachino Rossini - Duetto buffo di due gatti
Gioachino Rossini - Figaro's aria "Largo al factotum" from Act 1 of Il Barbiere di Siviglia
Vincenzo Bellini - "Qui la selva" chorus from Act 2 of La Sonnambula
Vincenzo Bellini - Elvino's aria "Tutto e sciolto..." from Act 2 of the opera La Sonnambula
Gaetano Donizetti - Overture to Don Pasquale
Gaetano Donizetti - sextet from Lucia di Lammermoor
The New Year' Eve Gala at the Grand Theatre - National Opera House takes place on December 31, 2010 at 20:00.
Source: press materials
Grand Theatre - National Opera House/Teatr Wielki - Opera Narodowa
pl. Teatralny 1, 00-950 Warszawa
Director: Waldemar Dąbrowski
Artistic Director: Mariusz Treliński
tel. (+48 22) 692 02 00
link*www.teatrwielki.pl*http://www.teatrwielki.pl/en/events.html****