Maggio Musicale Fiorentino 2015
78th Festival of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino at the Opera of Florence
One event a day, from 27 April to 28 June, 2015, will make the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino one of the longest festivals in Europe. On the 26th, the day before the official inauguration, eight musical bands will perform in various districts of Florence’s from 16.00 to 20.00. The captivating popular music of these bands will fill the squares of the city, which has hosted the oldest music festival in Italy and one of the most important in the world since 1933.
OPERA
Four operas are scheduled for the season, which will open on the evening of 27 April at 19.30 at the Opera of Florence with Fidelio, by Ludwig van Beethoven. Orchestra director Zubin Mehta, opera director Pier’Alli (repeat performances 30 April and 5 May at 20.30 - 3 May at 15.30).
Fidelio will be an Italian and the others global debuts.
From 22 May the Teatro Goldoni of Florence features The Turn of the Screw, Benjamin Britten’s musical version of the horror tale by Henry James, directed by Jonahthan Webb, musical director Benedetto Sicca (repeat performances 28 May, 5 and 7 June at 20.30 – 24 and 30 May at 15.30). Showing on 23 May at 20.30 at the Opera of Florence will be Candide, a comic opera by the great American composer Leonard Bernstein. It will be a new staging directed by his pupil, the dynamic John Axelrod, opera director Francesco Micheli (repeat performances 29 May and 3 June at 20.30). The last opera masterpiece will be performed at the Opera of Florence from 18 June, Pelléas et Mélisande by Claude Debussy, orchestra director Daniele Gatti and opera director Daniele Abbado, co-produced with Teatro Regio of Turin (repeat performances 23 and 25 June, at 20.30 – 21 June at 15.30).
SYMPHONIC CONCERTS
A myriad of symphonic concerts in a program that features sensational names of classical music. The talented Chinese pianist Jin Ju, on 29 April at the Teatro Goldoni, will delight the audience with three phenomenal Sonatas by Beethoven; Zubin Mehta will conduct the Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino on 2 May at the Opera of Florence, directing the Die Schöpfung Hob. XXI:2 for solos, chorus, and orchestra, by Haydn, and on 7 May Symphony no. 3 in D minor for mezzo-soprano, treble voices, and orchestra.
Lang Lang is guest on 4 May at the Opera of Florence for an unmissable recital featuring three Sonatas by Mozart and four Scherzi by Chopin. And another piano star, the great “poet” Murray Perahia, who, with the collaboration of the Amici della Musica, will offer a recital dedicated to Haydn, Beethoven, Franck, and Chopin on 8 May at the Opera of Florence. The London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Valery Gergiev, on 13 May at the Opera of Florence, who will dedicate the entire program of the symphonic evening to Šostakovič. On 17 May at the Teatro la Pergola Federico Maria Sardelli, an absolute authority in the revival of Vivaldi’s musical theater, will conduct an inspiring baroque anthology of arias from Olimpiade, by Giuseppe Maria Orlandini; Adriano in Siria, by Francesco Maria Veracini; and Atenaide, by Antonio Vivaldi, sung by the mezzo-soprano Marina De Liso. Then, yet another unmissable concert: the most famous percussionist in the world, Evelyn Glennie, will perform on 30 May at the Opera of Florence.
MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY MUSIC Two concerts dedicated to the ever-increasing number of contemporary electronic music buffs: Maggio Elettrico I e II with the collaboration of Tempo Reale, on 12 and 13 June at the Limonaia of Villa Strozzi and a major concert for Chorus and Orchestra conducted by Lorenzo Fratini, on 20 June at the Opera of Florence, whose program features Canti di Prigionia by Luigi Dallapiccola and Les Noces by Stravinskij. All concerts of the festivals begin at 20.30.
GRAND FINALE
The festival closes with a lovely solemn event, the Messa di San Giovanni, on 24 June at the Cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore during the religious service dedicated to the patron saint of Florence (with the collaboration of “O flos colende” - Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore), and with a concert at the Opera of Florence on 28 June, by Daniele Rustioni, who will conduct Mahler’s Symphony in C minor no. 2.
