Maestro Zubin Mehta and the Maggio Orchestra and Chorus go on tour to Bucharest (on August 28 and 29) and Bangkok (on September 2, 2023).

For the first date in Bucharest, maestro Mehta will conduct the Giuseppe Verdi’s operatic masterpiece in concert form: “Otello.” The following day, a symphonic concert with the compositions of George Enescu and Gustav Mahler.

On September 2, at the Thailand Cultural Centre in Bangkok, maestro Mehta will conduct two symphonies by Pëtr Il’ič Čajkovskij.

Florence, August 25, 2023 – After the long-awaited announcement of the new program last August 10 and the summer break, and just a few days before the symphonic concert “Bentornati al Maggio” next September 13 conducted by Zubin Mehta, which festively seals the resumption of activity from September to December 2023, the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino go on tour that puts on a varied program, divided into two evenings in the cities of Bucharest first (August 28 and 29) and one in Bangkok (September 2). On the podium, leading the Maggio Orchestra and Chorus, is conductor emeritus for life Zubin Mehta. The maestro of the Maggio Chorus is Lorenzo Fratini.

The first leg of the tour thus brings maestro Mehta, the orchestra professors and the Chorus artists to Bucharest, to the George Enescu Festival: an appointment that is renewed four years after the Maggio’s last performance in the Romanian capital, again as part of the George Enescu Festival. For maestro Mehta, the evenings of August 28 and 29 also mark exactly 20 years since the emeritus director for life and the Florentine ensemble’s first performance in the Festival, which took place in September 2003.

On Aug. 28, the first day of the tour, Giuseppe Verdi’s Otello, performed in concert form, is scheduled in the “Grand Palace Hall.” the cast, almost entirely similar to that of last May 2023’s Florentine performances – warmly received by both audience and critics and also in that case conducted by maestro Zubin Mehta – consists of Fabio Sartori in the title role, Otello; Luca Salsi as the bishop Jago; Anastasia Bartoli as Desdemona and in her debut as interpreter of this character; Joseph Dahdah as Cassio; Adriano Gramigni as Ludovico; Eleonora Filipponi as Emilia; and Francesco Pittari as Roderigo. Closing the cast are two young artists from the Academy: Eduardo Martínez (Montano) and Matteo Mancini (Un araldo).

The following day, also at the “Grand Palace Hall,” a major symphonic evening is scheduled, which puts on the bill as a tribute to the Romanian composer George Enescu‘s Prélude of Oedipe, to whom the Festival is dedicated, and Gustav Mahler‘s celebrated Symphony No. 2 in C minor, known as Auferstehung (Resurrection). The solo voices during this performance are those of soprano Christine Karg and mezzo-soprano Michèle Losier.

The tour calendar then continues with maestro Zubin Mehta and the Maggio Orchestra engaged – for the first time ever – in another prestigious festival, this time in the capital of Thailand, Bangkok. An appointment of particular institutional importance as well, underscored by the presence of King Rama X and the Queen Consort of Thailand who will be present at the concert and the support offered by the Italian Embassy. For maestro Mehta and the Maggio Professors, on the bill as part of the 25th edition of “Bangkok’s international Festival of Dance and Music,” a program entirely aimed at two symphonic compositions by Pyotr Il’ič Tchaikovsky, with a performance of Symphony No. 4 in F minor op. 36, created between December 1876 and January 1878, and the celebrated Symphony No. 6 in B minor op. 64, the so-called Pathetique, composed at the dawn of 1893, and created from a strictly personal program that the composer did not want to reveal, as his innermost thoughts were concentrated in it.