The concert will be held under 25th International Festival “Nova Music and Architecture” - Toruń, Kuyavian-Pomeranian 2021

Artists:
Ieva Juozapaitytė (Lithuania) - soprano
Vytautas Juozapaitis (Lithuania) - baritone
Toruń Symphony Orchestra
Dainius Pavilionis (Lithuania) - conductor

Jerzy Snakowski - introduction
 

Programme:
G. Rossini – Overture to the opera The Italian in Algiers
G. Verdi – Overture to the opera Rigoletto
G. Verdi - Aria Rigoletta Cordigani vil razza dannata from the opera Rigoletto
G. Verdi - Duet Gilda and Rigoletto from the opera Rigoletto
G. Verdi –  Overture to the opera Nabucco
B. Dvarionas - Žvaigždutė
V. Klova – Aria Udrys from the opera Pilėnai
A. Dvorak – Aria Rusałki from the opera Rusałka
U. Giordano – Aria Chenier from the opera Andrea Chenier
F. von Suppe – Overture to the operetta Lichte Cavalerie
G. Gershwin - Summertime from the musical Porgy and Bess
R. Leoncovallo - Mattinata
F. Loewe – Suite from the musical My Fair Lady
A. L. Webber – Suite from the musical The Phantom of the Opera

Rigoletto was based on the drama The King Amuses Himself by Victor Hugo. Giuseppe Verdi’s opera begins almost like a masterpiece by another master of the opera theatre – like Mozart’s Don Giovanni. There is a ball in the palace of the Duke of Mantua. The charming Duke, a ‘heartbreaker’, has just seen a beauty in the church whom he hopes to seduce. Rigoletto, the Duke’s hunchbacked court jester who is hated by everyone, observes the entire situation and falls victim to a curse. His daughter Gilda, whom Rigoletto guards like the most precious treasure, saves him from going mad. Gilda falls in love with the breaker of women’s hearts – the Duke and is kidnapped to his palace, but she is not yet aware of what scoundrel she has fallen in love with. Rigoletto demands his daughter back, curses, threatens, falls into despair (air Cortigiani, vil razza dannata). When his distraught daughter tells him of her unhappy love and disgrace, they both cry (the duet Tutte le feste al tempio). Just a few more coincidences and Gilda dies at the hands of her tormentors, having earlier asked her father for forgiveness (duet V’ho ingannato).
There are two more true ‘gems’ – the overture to Nabucco, which in the words of Piotr Kamiński is: “a true festival of simple and effective thoughts, while their unprecedented audacity and originality brings the world to its knees. We will get to know some of them in the overture ...” and the overture to The Italian Girl in Algiers by Gioacchino Rossini.
Frederick Loewe’s musical My Fair Lady to a libretto based on Pygmalion by G. B. Shaw is another variation on the fairy tale of Cinderella, a story about dreams coming true. We move to 19th century London, where the linguist prof. Higgins takes a bet that he will turn a simple florist into a lady. It’s not easy, because the object of the transformation is Eliza, a rough and uncouth girl. The musical teems with great hits such as: I Could Have Danced All Night, On the Street Where You Live, and With a Little Bit of Luck.
When writing the opera Porgy and Bess, George Gershwin made this remark to himself: ‘Melodious. Highest simplicity. Directness”. The opera premiered in 1935. It was played 124 times on Broadway, which is not bad for a work of this genre. But audiences were confused, not knowing whether Gershwin’s piece was an opera or a musical. Today, these dilemmas are irrelevant in the face of such phenomenal interpretations of Summertime as those performed by Billie Holiday or Ella Fitzgerald.
Moreover, the programme includes airs from operas: Antonín Dvořák’s Rusalka (1841-1904), Umberto Giordano’s Andrea Chénier (1867-1948), the overture to the operetta The Light Cavalry by Franz von Suppe (1819-1895) and the suite from the musical The Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber (b. 1948).

Aneta Derkowska, PhD

* NOTE: During the concert we will use sound system. The participant of the event may be exposed to intense sound and high power lighting.

There is no intermission in the concert.
The event will take place in accordance with current recommendations and guidelines.

Please read the rules and comply with the GUIDELINES FOR THE CONCERT PARTICIPANTS. IN CONNECTION WITH THE ONGOING COVID-19 PANDEMIA and completing the statement to be given to you by staff on the day of the concert.