Second symphonic appointment of the Maggio Carnival Festival: Saturday 21 January 2023 at 8 pm, in Zubin Mehta Hall, Ingo Metzmacher on the podium conducting the Orchestra del Maggio. On the bill the compositions of Ludwig van Beethoven, Gustav Mahler and Franz Schubert.

Soloist in the Mahler performances will be the mezzo-soprano Michèle Losier.

Florence, January 19, 2023 – After the inaugural symphonic concert on January 13, the Maggio Carnival Festival – dedicated to the figure of Faust and Goethe – awaiting the opera debut with La finta semplice at the Goldoni Theater, continues with the second concert scheduled in the Festival program. Maestro Ingo Metzmacher returns to the podium of the Maggio, in the Zubin Mehta Hall, on January 21, 2023 at 8 pm, less than a year after his last concert on March 5, 2022.
On the lecterns of the Orchestra del Maggio a full-bodied programme: opening Fidelio, overture op. 72b by Ludwig van Beethoven, the last of the four overtures created for Fidelio, was composed by Beethoven in 1814 on the occasion of the third and final version of the only work composed by the genius from Bonn; follows Fünf Lieder nach Rückert for voice and orchestra by Gustav Mahler, based on the lyrics of Friedrich Rückert, a late-romantic poet who provided him with inspiration for the Kindertotenlieder and precisely for the Fünf Lieder nach Rückert for voice and orchestra; the execution is entrusted to the voice of the mezzo-soprano Michèle Losier. The concert closes with the monumental Symphony n. 9 in C major D. 944, Die Große (The great) by Franz Schubert, which owes its name not only to the enlargement of the orchestra, but also to its language already oriented towards late romantic solutions.

We thank Intesa Sanpaolo for the support

The same programme, in the same order of execution, is also proposed for the two important stages of the tournée next week which will touch Las Palmas and Tenerife on 26 and 27 January 2023, respectively at the Auditorio Alfredo Kraus and at the Auditorio de Tenerife. With maestro Metzmacher and the Orchestra del Maggio as voice in the five lieder, one of the most acclaimed baritones of his generation and of recent years: Thomas Hampson. The famous artist returns to collaborate with the Teatro del Maggio just over a year after Così fan tutte, staged between August and September 2021 under the direction of Ádám Fischer and directed by Sven-Eric Bechtolf.

Ingo Metzmacher, one of the most appreciated and esteemed conductors on the international scene, returns to the Maggio podium for the second symphonic appointment of the Carnival Festival: the maestro has linked his name to that of the Maggio since June 17, 1994 when he made his debut on the occasion of a symphonic concert in which he performed the Requiem by Hans Werner Henze. Since the beginning of his career Metzmacher has stood out for his innovative programs and for having passionately dedicated himself to the music of the 20th century and in particular that of the early 20th century, to familiarize listeners with the new sonic perspectives of those compositions: and his attention was focused precisely on the search for this new sound. Currently artistic director of the KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen in Hanover, Ingo Metzmacher was General music director of the Hamburg State Opera from 1997 to 2005; principal conductor of the De Nationale Opera in Amsterdam from 2005 to 2007 and principal and artistic conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester in Berlin from 2007 to 2010. The maestro has also conducted operatic productions in many of the leading international opera houses, including : State Operas in Berlin and Vienna; Covent Garden in London; Royal Theater of Madrid; La Scala in Milan, Opéra de Paris and Zurich Opera; and has led such renowned orchestras as the Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker, Concertgebouw Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Russian National Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Orchester de Paris and BBC Symphony Orchestra. His extensive discography includes live recordings of his world-famous New Year’s Eve concerts, conducted in Hamburg from 1999 to 2004 under the title Who’s Afraid of 20th Century Music?; the complete Hartmann Symphonies with the Bamberger Symphoniker; the world premiere recording of Henze’s “Ninth Symphony” with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Messiaen’s Éclairs sur l’Au-Delà… with the Wiener Philharmoniker.

At his side, during the performance of Fünf Lieder nach Rückert by Gustav Mahler, Michèle Losier, who returns to Maggio a few months after her performance in the role of Der Komponist in Ariadne auf Naxos staged last June conducted by Daniele Gatti and directed by Matthias Hartmann: she studied at McGill University in Montréal and took part in the Merola Opera Program in San Francisco, at the Atelier Lyrique of the Montréal Opéra and at the Juilliard Opera Center in New York. He has obtained numerous scholarships (Jacqueline Desmarais Foundation; Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec; Canada Council for the Arts and Sylva-Gelber Foundation) and won first prize at the “Journées de la Musique Française”. She has sung in major opera houses and international festivals such as the Opéra Comique of Paris, Opéra of Lyon, Opéra of Montréal, Opera of San Francisco, Washington National Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Opéra of Avignon, Opéra Lille, Festival International de Lanaudière and the Edinburgh International Festival. He has collaborated with numerous orchestras (Orchester Symphonique de Montréal, Les Musiciens du Louvre, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Montreal Metropolitan Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Pygmalion) and with famous conductors such as Louis Langrée , Patrick Fourmilier, Emmanuel Plasson, Marc Minkowski, Jérémie Rhorer, Stephane Denève and Kent Nagano. Numerous works have also been tackled, including Faust (Siébel) at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London and at the Metropolitan in New York; Benvenuto Cellini (Ascanio) at the Dutch National Opera; Médée (protagonist) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and at the Lille Opéra; Cendrillon (Le Prince Charmant) at the Liceu in Barcelona and at the Opéra-Comique in Paris; Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Nicklausse and La Musa) in Barcelona and in concert at the Salle Pleyel in Paris; Castor et Pollux (Phébé) at the Théâtre des Champs Élysées and at the Opéra-Comique; La clemenza di Tito (Sesto) at the Vienna Staatsoper and at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels and Così fan tutte (Dorabella) at Covent Garden.