Two concerts at La Fenice Theatre (9 and 11 July) with Diego Fasolis

Two concerts at La Fenice Theatre (9 and 11 July) with Diego Fasolis

Diego Fasolis directs Händel

It will be a musical ‘fun’ all Handelian, full of festive tones and joy, the concert proposed by the Teatro La Fenice in the appointments of Thursday 9 and Saturday, July 11, 2020 at 19.00: Diego Fasolis, one of the most popular master of the current panorama, will conduct the Orchestra of the Teatro La Fenice in two of the most famous and beloved pieces of the Saxon composer, the Water Music (Music on water) and the Royal Fireworks Music (Music for fireworks).

The concerts will alternate with the debut of Ottone’s new production in Antonio Vivaldi’s villa (performed on July 10, 12, 14 and 15), also entrusted to Fasolis’ baton.

The programme features two masterpieces by Georg Friedrich Händel, composed at the beginning and end of his successful London career. After his youthful Italian stay, which ended triumphantly with Agrippina represented in Venice in 1709, Händel became Kapellmeister of the Elector of Hanover in 1710 and then moved permanently to London in 1712. Two years later, when Queen Anne died, the Hanover Elector became King of England under the name of George I, and in 1717 Händel had the opportunity to compose for him one of the three suites later collected under the name of Water Music.

And if the event that inspired Water Music was part of the tradition of water festivals on the Venetian model, clearly French-inspired, with reference to the festivals of Versailles, was the ceremony at the origin of the Music for the Royal Fireworks, the last work composed by Händel for the House of Hanover.

A great feast, which lasted almost nine hours, was in fact organized to celebrate the peace of Aachen on April 27, 1749, which in October 1748 had put an end to the war of Austrian succession, confirming, among other things, the succession of Hanover in Great Britain.

Despite the few economic and territorial advantages that came to England from the peace treaty, George II wanted to celebrate the dynastic triumph with a great show that, prepared for many months, attracted thousands of visitors to London.

Händel was commissioned to compose the music for the ceremony, performed by a thunderous ensemble of 56 wind and percussion instruments (the strings and harpsichord were also introduced in the printed score) and consisting of an Overture that resonated just before the beginning of the fireworks, three movements intended to comment on some of the pyrotechnic figures (Bourrée, La paix and La réjouissance), and two concluding Minuets.

Tickets for the concerts (from € 10,00 to € 60,00) can be purchased at the Vela Venezia Unica sales points of Teatro La Fenice, Piazzale Roma, Tronchetto, Ferrovia, Piazza San Marco, Rialto line 2, Accademia, Mestre, by telephone (+39 041 2424) and online at www.teatrolafenice.it. The public is invited to check the details of the timetable and dedicated access on the ticket purchased.

About Diego Fasolis

Recognized worldwide as one of the reference interpreters of historically informed music, he combines stylistic rigor, inspiration and virtuosity. He studied in Zurich, Paris and Cremona, obtaining four diplomas with distinction. He began his career as an organ concert performer, performing several times the complete works of Bach, Buxtehude, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Franck and Liszt.

In 1993 Diego Fasolis was appointed permanent director of the vocal and instrumental ensembles of Swiss Radio and Television with which he produced a monumental production with two hundred and fifty titles from the Renaissance to the 20th century.

Since 1998 he has directed I Barocchisti, an ensemble with historical instruments he founded together with his prematurely deceased wife Adriana Brambilla, to which he dedicated a charity foundation in 2013 to support young musicians.

He has collaborations as guest conductor with leading formations and with the most important voices on the international scene. In particular, she has collaborated with mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli on large-scale projects, audio and video recordings and concert tours.

Since 2012 she has performed regularly at the Salzburg Festival with concerts and operas from Palestrina to Rossini, from Händel to Schubert.

In 2016 the Teatro alla Scala entrusted him with the creation of an orchestra with original instruments, which he conducted in Händel’s Triumph of Time and Disillusionment and in Händel’s Tamerlano with Plácido Domingo.

Also in 2016 he took up the legacy of Nikolaus Harnoncourt, performing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony three times at the Musikverein in Vienna with the Concentus Musicus Wien and the Arnold Schönberg Chor.

In 2011 Pope Benedict XVI awarded him an honorary doctorate for his commitment to the interpretation of sacred music. He boasts an impressive discography comprising more than one hundred and twenty titles with which he has obtained numerous gold records, Grand prix du Disque, Echo Klassik and several Grammy Awards nominations.

In April 2018 Diego Fasolis conducted Orlando furioso by Vivaldi at the Fenice, the same year he performed Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice in Paris and Versailles, Le Comte Ory in Zurich, La clemenza di Tito in Lausanne, Così fan tutte at the Regio in Turin, Il barbiere di Siviglia in Lugano, La finta giardiniera alla Scala, L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Staatsoper in Berlin and again Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Staatsoper in Hamburg.

In 2019 he conducted the first performance in modern times of Ferdinando Paër’s Agnese at the Regio in Turin, Dorilla in Tempe alla Fenice, Lo sposo di tre e marito di nessuna by Cherubini at the Maggio Musicale, Gli amori di Teolinda by Meyerbeer and Orphée et Eurydice in Lausanne. This year he played Il turco in Italia alla Scala and Die Zauberflöte in Muscat.