Program

• Rossini: Overture from The Barber of Seville
• Donizetti: O luce di quest’anima from Linda di Chamounix
• Mozart: Una donna a quindici anni from Cosî fan tutte
• Verdi: Prelude to La traviata
• Rossini: Sventurata mi credea from La cenerentola
• Donizetti: Quel guardo il cavaliere from Don Pasquale
• Mendelssohn: Symphony No.4 “Italian”

Tuneful Tidbits

• Rossini and Donizetti were two of the titans of the bel canto style of opera of the early 19th century. Bel canto means “beautiful singing.” The main characters in bel canto operas often have cadenzas (short improvised passages) which allow them to showcase their voices. Other characteristics of bel canto style include long vocal phrases, careful consideration of the alignment of the syllables of the text with the music, and use of portamento – a sort of glissando where the singer slides up or down into a pitch.
• Rossini often recycled music that he had previously written. The overtures to The Barber of Seville and La cenerentola were written for other operas and reused. That’s why Rossini’s overtures usually don’t contain any of the music from the opera.
• Don Pasquale was the 64^th of 66 operas composed by Donizetti. It was written rather quickly and, despite Donizetti suffering from severe illness, is one of the greatest comic operas to come out of the bel canto era. One of the main characters is Dr. Malatesta which translates to Dr. “Headache.”
• Felix Mendelssohn sketched the ideas for his Italian symphony during a trip to Italy in 1830-1831. It’s one of Mendelssohn’s jolliest pieces. The energetic finale is a combination of two Italian dances – the saltarello and the tarantella. According to Italian tradition, the tarantella is danced by the victim of a tarantula bite until they are cured or dead.

Featured Artists

• Greg Hillis, conductor
• Abigayle Williams, soprano