A concert on 5 March 2021 at 8.00 p.m. by three outstanding, young yet impressively merited soloists – Iwona Socha (soprano), Łukasz Gaj (tenor), and Adam Szerszeń (baritone) – accompanied by Jerzy Semkow’s Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra, will recall the most beautiful pieces of Italian opera from the Romantic and Neo-Romantic eras. The event is dedicated to all ladies on the eve of their beautiful holiday.

Opera was born under the skies of Italy, and although in the Baroque era it became popular in many countries in its local varieties, for a long time Italy remained the operatic centre, a point of reference and a model for new fashions and trends. Even though not all the composers of works presented this evening were Italian, each in some way referred to what came from Italy – Mozart wrote his most famous operas to Italian lyrics by the excellent librettist Lorenzo da Ponte. We will hear well-known and much-loved examples of this inspired collaboration. The new, Romantic trends in Italian opera manifested themselves in a style whose name says it all: belcanto, which particularly emphasises the beauty, expression and virtuosity of the voice. Gaetano Donizetti was among its masters, and his arias will also be performed. Giuseppe Verdi, whose 120th death anniversary was celebrated this year, also imbued his brilliant works with this spirit. The outstanding artists will present a representative selection of the finest compositions by this great Italian musician.

Verdi’s successors both benefited from his achievements and polemicised with them. They created new trends, including verismo parallel to literary naturalism, which revolves around simple, often sad stories of ordinary people instead of focusing on stilted and pompous figures from distant history or mythology – here Pietro Mascagni, Ruggero Leoncavallo and the great Giacomo Puccini acquired great merits. Even the digressions – pieces composed by the Seine by Gounod and Massenet included in the programme – have an Italian context: both musicians were winners of the so-called Rome Prize, founded for the laureates of a prestigious competition in Paris to enable art students to study in Italy.

Piotr Maculewicz

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

Broadcast on YouTube channel and www.sinfoniaiuventus.pl