Appointment with Petrenko and the S. Cecilia Orchestra in Rome and Milan

Return to the S. Cecilia Orchestra of the conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, Kirill Petrenko: an occasion of great interest. The summer festivals begin, such as the opera festival at the Arena di Verona, which opens with 'Nabucco'; and the one that Cremona dedicates to its great fellow-citizen Claudio Monteverdi. In Trieste, on the other hand, there is an infrequent chance to see the amusing satire of 'Candide', which Leonard Bernstein adapted from Voltaire's novel of the same name.

On 12-13-14 at the Parco della Musica the exceptional presence of Kirill Petrenko with the Orchestra di S. Cecilia. The conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic from 2019 presents Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante per fiati K 297b, soloists the first parts of the Orchestra; Brahms' First Symphony follows.

Another date on the 15th at La Scala.

From 13th to 29th June the 42nd Monteverdi Festival, with two new opera productions, a world premiere, concerts, meetings and open lectures, for a total of more than thirty appointments. Monteverdi's 'Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria' (Ulysses' return to his homeland) opens; in dialogue on the 27th and 29th with 'L'Ercole amante' (The Loving Hercules) by his pupil Francesco Cavalli. On the 11th, Gluck's 'Orpheus and Eurydice' will also be heard in concert form, with mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli and soprano Melissa Petit.

Cecilia Bartoli - Opera de Monte Carlo, Photo: Fabrice Demessence

At the Teatro Verdi, the comic operetta 'Candide' by Leonard Bernstein, from 13 to 22 June. Special occasion to see this funny and brilliant show. Bernstein and the famous playwright Lilian Helman were struck, in the sad years of McCarthyism, by the satire expressed in Voltaire's masterpiece, the philosophical novella 'Candide ou l'Optimisme', in which he rails against all kinds of constituted authority. The variety of styles typical of Bernstein is here taken to virtuosity. Conducted by Kevin Rhodes; in the title role is the young Enrico Casari and playing the complex character of the Old Lady is the happy presence of Madelyn Renée.