Fall Classical Music in Florence

On the upcoming agenda, the Orchestra della Toscana (ORT) has a line-up of symphonic concerts in Florence at Teatro Verdi and in various cities of Tuscany. A full range of productions is the realm of the Opera di Firenze, and chamber music the specialty of the Amici della Musica in the intimate setting of Teatro della Pergola.

OPERA DI FIRENZE

For those who love arias, the place to go is the Opera of Florence, home of the renowned Maggio Musicale orchestra and choir. After season’s inaugural work, Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, the autumn program continues with the Italian premiere of a contemporary production from the Far East.

Based on the novel of the same name, Rickshaw Boy, composed by Guo Wenjing and commissioned by the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, debuted in June 2014. The opera is scheduled for October 4 and 5, with orchestra, chorus and soloists from the China.

Mozart’s opera buffa (comic opera) Così fan Tutte will be on stage October 18-27. The story of two young couples testing their fidelity in the third and final collaboration between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, this opera was first performed in Vienna in 1790. The conductor will be Roland Böer, staging by Lorenzo Mariani.

Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi returns to the Opera of Florence for seven performances from December 4-20, conducted by the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino’s music director Zubin Mehta in a production by the Oscar-winning film director William Friedkin. Set in 16th-century Mantova, the tragic story revolves around the dissolute Duke of Mantua, his hunch-backed court jester Rigoletto and Rigoletto’s innocent and beautiful daughter Gilda.

The Maggio Musicale offers a rich program of symphonic and choral concerts as well. For students, there will be productions at the Teatro Goldoni including The Story of the Magic Flute, spanning October 9-16, and To Sing, To Dance, How Opera was Born in mid-November.

ORT

Daniele Rustioni, the orchestra’s music director, opens the ORT season on October 17 with music by French composer Edgar Varèse (1883-1965), Dvorak and Schumann. On November 16, the ORT hosts the Münster Symphony Orchestra with Fabrizio Ventura, conductor and Isabelle van Keulen as violin soloist.

A Christmas Eve concert features Donato Renzetti, who was the principal conductor of the ORT from 1987-1992. An internationally respected specialist in Italian melodrama, he has conducted all over the world, including many times at the Met. With concertmaster Andrea Tacchi, they will spotlight a 1993 work by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies from 1993 entitled A Spell for Green Corn: The MacDonald Dances, a musical blessing of the crops based on an Orkney saying ‘Let not plough be put to acre except a fiddle cross first the furrow.’

AMICI DELLA MUSICA

The award-winning Amici della Musica of Florence is one of the oldest musical associations in Italy, founded in 1920, and offers the city a rich and varied program of chamber music and solo recitals of the highest artistic quality each year. The 2015-16 season will begin on October 20 with a special concert featuring the Italian Youth Orchestra conducted by Stanislav Kochanovsky featuring Russian works.

The concerts will appeal to listeners with varied tastes in music, with a series featuring the string quartet, the solo piano, and for lovers of vocal music, a series entitled ‘L’arte del canto” (the art of singing). During the last week of October there will be performances by Russian pianist, Arcadi Volodos, playing Schubert and Brahms, and an evening of Rossini with the baritone Paolo Bordogna accompanied by none less than the great master of the piano, Bruno Canino.

Continuing with vocal music, in November bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni will sing an evening of chamber songs accompanied by the pianist Wolfgang Rieger. Audiences can look forward to the multiple-Emmy Award-winning Emerson String Quartet on November 16 and 17. The Selmer Saxharmonic, a 12-member saxophone orchestra, will give a personalized rendition of arrangements written for them of music by composers ranging from Handel to Nino Rota (November 30).

The captivating piano duo of the sisters Katia and Marielle Labèque perform works from their new cd Sisters on December 5. The album is a personal account of music that has had a special meaning for them from their childhood throughout their professional journey. Mitsuko Uchida, another exceptional pianist, together with the young Quartetto Ebene, will spotlight Schumann’s masterpiece the Quintet op. 44 in Eb major on December 13. Like the Opera di Firenze and ORT, the Amici’s musical offerings continue until May 2016. (anne lokken)