The Cantata in Morte di M. F. Malibran

On Monday 14th August at 11.00 a.m. at the Teatro Sperimentale the programme of concerts will open with our usual appointment with Rossinimania.  In the section dedicated to composers contemporary with Rossini, this year we are proposing an absolute rarity: the Cantata in morte di M.F. Malibran [Cantata on the death of M. F. Malibran] composed in memory of the great singer by Gaetano Donizetti, Giovanni Pacini, Saverio Mercadante, Pietro Antonio Coppola and Nicola Vaccaj to a text by Antonio Piazza.  The Cantata was first performed at La Scala, Milan on the 17th March 1837, a few months after the premature death of the artist after falling from her horse, at only 28 years of age.

The Cantata, never again performed after its Milan prenière, will be performed in the revision by Valeer De Vlam, realized in collaboration with the Centre for the Study of Flemish Music and Labo XIX&XX (Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp).

The performance will be conducted by Diego Ceretta with the Filarmonica Gioachino Rossini and the Chorus of the Teatro della Fortuna.  The singers will be Giuliana Gianfaldoni, Lyaila Almanova, Shachar Lavi, Dave Monaco, Michael Mofidian and Giorgi Manoshvili, who will sing the numbers: Il Cippo di Manchester by Giovanni Pacini, L’inaugurazione by Saverio Mercadante, La Corona by Pietro Antonio Coppola and Il monumento di Milano by Nicola Vaccaj, introduced by Gaetano Donizetti’s Overture.

An introduction to the Cantata will be offered in one of the Incontri [Meetings] organized by the Fondazione Rossini: on Sunday 13th August at 11.00 a.m. at the Museo Nazionale Rossini, Daniele Carnini will introduce Marco Beghelli, Professore ordinario in Musicologia e Storia della Musica at the University of Bologna.  This meeting will also introduce the Cantata in onore del Sommo Pontefice Pio IX, which will be performed on Tuesday 15th August at 4.00 p.m. at the Teatro Sperimentale.

Maria Malibran (Paris, 24th March 1808 – Manchester, 23rd September 1836) made her official theatrical début in the part of Rosina in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia on the 11th June 1825 at the King’s Theatre, London, together with her father Manuel Garcia, Miss Willis, Ranieri Nemorini, Matteo Porto, Domenico Crivelli and Giuseppe De Begnis.  Together with that of Desdemona in his Otello, Rosina was the Rossini rôle that Malibran sang most frequently during her career.  Rossini was, moreover, the composer whose music she would most often interpret.

Information: 0721.3800294 – https://rossinioperafestival.vivaticket.it/