Mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli, one of the most successful classical artists of her time, is a passionate musical explorer who regularly uncovers thrilling but little-known chapters of music history. This time her in-depth research takes her on a fascinating expedition into the world of castrato singers. The legendary art of the castratos continues to exert a strong fascination today, and, despite the great human sacrifice it exacted, this extraordinary period justifies the new assessment that she delivers.
Eden – Joyce DiDonato sings in Olympia
In the heart of Olympia, the same place where the first Olympic games were held and the Olympic torch is ignited, American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato performs EDEN. Captured on film for the first time, her internationally acclaimed tour and CD concept is more than just a concert program: EDEN not only invites the audience to reflect on the power and beauty of nature, but also to recognize our responsibility for our planet. In several emblematic locations on the ancient site of Olympia, DiDonato interprets pieces
from Cavalli to Handel and from Mahler to Charles Ives together with the ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro under the baton of Maxim Emelyanychev, featuring musicians from all around the world.
Gardiner conducts Berlioz and Elgar
The Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France joins forces with conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner and violist Antoine Tamestit for a concert featuring Italy and putting two composers in the spotlight: Hector Berlioz and Edward Elgar. With Harolde en Italie, Hector Berlioz invokes transalpine landscapes. Shaped by the period when the composer was resident at the Villa Medici, this symphony in four parts gives pride of place to the viola, played here by Antoine Tamestit – “one of the two or three greatest current performers” (Diapason). In the South (Alassio), composed between 1903 and 1904 by Edward Elgar, is still about Italy, pastoral atmosphere and Byronic colours. Brilliantly complex, this work, written in record time, is one of the peaks of romantic music. Let us travel a little deeper into Edward Elgar’s melancholy with his Sospiri. This adagio for strings composed at the dawn of the First World War is captivating in its romanticism and passion.
Paris Concert March 2007 – Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón
The tension is palpable at Paris’ Théâtre des Champs-Elysées this 28th of March 2007. Anna Netrebko is not only making her debut in France, but she is making it with Rolando Villazón. The ‘dream couple’ of the opera world is about to bring its incomparable charm and magnetism to France’s ‘mélomanes.’ And the result is nothing less than phenomenal: ‘An unforgettable evening, rich in emotions, which many spectators will look back on with nostalgia one day and say: ‘I was there!’. No matter where they appear, Netrebko and Villazón inevitably work their magic on the audience, whether it consists of hundreds or, when broadcast on TV, of millions. For their Paris concert, the duo chose a broad selection of chiefly late-romantic works – the style for which their voices seem to be tailor-made..