“Happy New Year from the La Fenice Theater to the whole world”: it was the English conductor Daniel Harding who wished him a happy birthday, live on television on Rai 1, at the end of the traditional New Year’s Concert, now in its twenty-second edition. Alongside maestro Harding, at the fifth Venetian New Year’s Eve, on stage, acclaimed by the audience, the two soloists, the soprano Mariangela Sicilia and the tenor Francesco Demuro.
The triumph for the Orchestra and Chorus of the Fenice, impeccable in their masterful performances of the pieces, came with the most famous toast in the history of opera, “Libiam ne’ pleased calici” from Giuseppe Verdi’s “Traviata”, culminating with a fireworks display. A good six minutes of applause were given by the audience at the end of the concert to Harding, Sicilia, Demuro and the orchestral musicians.
The musical program opened with the performance of Symphony no. 5 in C minor op. 67 by Ludwig van Beethoven, which was followed by a series of arias and choral passages from the most beloved operatic repertoire, from “Va, pensiero, sull’ali dorate” from Verdi’s “Nabucco” to “Padre Augusto” from “Turandot” by Giacomo Puccini. During the live television broadcast, the live images of the concert were interspersed with the choreographies created for the occasion by Marcos Morau for the Aterballetto artists. Also in the lineup is the symphony from “Gazza ladra” by Gioacchino Rossini, the chorus by Ruggero Leoncavallo taken from “Pagliacci” “Din, don, trova vespero”; the Puccini songs, performed respectively by the tenor and the soprano, “Recondita armonia” from “Tosca” and “Donde lieta exit” from “Bohème”; the instrumental pieces from the intermezzo of Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari’s “Quatro rusteghi” and the “Farandole” from the second suite of George Bizet’s “Arlésienne”. Finally, two great classics of the melodramatic repertoire were proposed, once again interpreted by the soprano and the tenor, “Je veux vivre dans le rêve” from “Roméo et Juliette” by Charles Gounod and “Nessun dorma” by Puccini.
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