Cecilia Bartoli & Rolando Villazón – In Concert for the First Time

Orchestra La Scintilla of the Zurich Opera – Ada Pesch, Concertmaster

THIS CONCERT IS SOLD OUT

Opera superstars Cecilia Bartoli & Rolando Villazón come together for the first time in European nine city tour, including Prague!

---

For the first time, they will join their forces on a concert stage. Their first meeting in an opera production will take place just few months prior to the tour: in August 2015, within the Salzburg Whitsun Festival at Christoph Willibald Gluck’s opera Iphigénie en Tauride. Cecilia will assume the title role while Rolando will portray Pylade, the faithful friend of Ifigenie’s brother Oreste. On the concert tour, the artists will perform the most famous opera arias and duets by Mozart, Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti, and some exciting surprises.

Cecilia Bartoli and Rolando Villazón scarcely need introduction: both are adored by opera connoisseurs and music lovers around the world as well as in Prague; both have been repeated guests of Nachtigall Artists series: World Opera Stars.

Cecilia Bartoli is famed for a unique sequence of concept albums on the Decca Classics label, each spotlighting a particular composer or legendary artist of the past who has become an inspiration for her. As well as celebrating familiar – and unfamiliar – masterpieces by Mozart, Rossini and Vivaldi, she’s both recreated the heady world of her tempestuous 19th century predecessor Maria Malibran and defied conventions of gender by remembering the ultimate sacrifice of the castrato. She has an extraordinary five Grammy Awards to her name, and is a winner of the prestigious Herbert von Karajan Music Prize.

Celebrated for his thrilling voice, electric stage presence and laser-sharp wit, Rolando Villazón makes each of his operatic characters simply irresistable. His outstanding discography ranges from Monteverdi and Mozart to Verdi and Puccini and has been awarded a record nine ECHO Klassik awards. Rolando Villazón has been named Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in his second home France. Next to his high-flying on stage-career, he has forged successful careers as a stage director, novelist and television presenter in Germany, France and the UK.

Both artists will be joined on this tour by Orchestra la Scintilla, the stunning period-instrument ensemble of Zurich Opera.

Program:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)
Overture
Così fan tutte

Si mostra la sorte, KV 209
Concert aria
Rolando Villazón

Chi sà, chi sà, qual sia, KV 582
Concert aria
Cecilia Bartoli

Fra gli amplessi in pochi istanti (Fiordiligi & Ferrando)
Così fan tutte, Act II
Cecilia Bartoli & Rolando Villazón

Gioachino Rossini ( 1792–1868)
Overture
La Cenerentola

Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848)
Inosservato, penetrava ... Angelo casto el bel (Marcello)
Duca d'Alba, Act IV
Rolando Villazón

Gioachino Rossini
Nacqui all’affanno… Non più mesta (Angelina)
La Cenerentola, Act II
Cecilia Bartoli

Gaetano Donizetti
Una parola, o Adina... Chiedi all'aura lusinghiera (Nemorino & Adina)
L’elisir d’amore, Act I
Rolando Villazón & Cecilia Bartoli

Interval

Vincenzo Bellini (1801–1835)
Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra in E flat major
Pier Luigi Fabretti – oboe

Torna, vezzosa Fillide
Rolando Villazón

Gioachino Rossini
Overture
La scala di seta

Gioachino Rossini
Assisa a' piè d’un salice – Deh calma, o Ciel, nel sonno (Desdemona)
Cecilia Bartoli

Eccomi giunto inosservato – Non arrestare il colpo – Notte per me funesta (Otello & Desdemona)
Rolando Villazón & Cecilia Bartoli
Otello, Act III

Subject to change!