HÀ NỘI — Italian opera singers will perform with the Vietnamese Sun Symphony tonight at the Hà Nội Opera House.

The concert will feature several arias from the opera The Barber of Seville, composed by Gioachino Anotino Rossini.

The concert marks the 45th anniversary of the establishment of bilaterial relations between Việt Nam and Italy, as well as the 72nd National Day of Italy.

Rossini, who lived from 1792 to 1868, was a speedy and prolific composer whose legacy includes nearly 40 operas. It is said that his impact as a composer goes beyond the great number of works he wrote.

The Barber of Seville, a comic opera in two acts, was first performed under the title Almaviva o sia l’inutile precauzione (Almaviva or The Useless Precaution) at the Teatro Argentina in Rome in 1816.

Artists from the Roman Concert Association will perform 10 arias, including such iconic operatic pieces as Ecco ridente in cielo, an aria performed by the character Count Almaviva; Largo al factotum della citta (On the way to the factotum of the city), and Se il mio some saper voi bramate, also a Count Almaviva aria.

The concert will be conducted by maestro Carlo Magni, who studied at the Conservatory of S. Cecilia in Rome. He continued conducting renowned orchestras in Italy and several more around the world after completing his studies in composition. He is also a music producer for film, television, and theatre. 

The Rome-born mezzo-soprano Paola Cacciatori began her music studies in New York. She specialises in the pure bel canto repertoire, was the winner at the International Lyric Competition in Bologna, Italy in 2008, and was a finalist in other contests. 

She graduated from the University La Sapienza in Rome, where she studied vocal technique under the guidance of maestro David Jones and attended master classes with Paolo Coni.

Magni and Cacciatori had previously performed in Việt Nam in 2012. 

Other artists performing in the concert are tenor Francesco Tuppo, baritone Allan Rizzetti, and pianist Fabio Sivestro. They will be accompanied by the newly-established Sun Symphony Orchestra under the baton of conductors Magni and Olivier Ochanine. 

The orchestra was established in 2017 to serve as a cultural jewel of Việt Nam and to represent Việt Nam on the international artistic map. Among the orchestra’s civic goals are to conduct outreach concerts to various areas of the country and to maintain an active Classics Season featuring standard greats from the orchestral repertoire. 

Sun Symphony Orchestra director and principal conductor Ochanine was the 1st prize winner in the 2015 Antal Doráti International Conducting Competition, and has conducted numerous orchestras across the world. He is also the immediate past Music Director of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra.

He had his Carnegie Hall debut in 2016 and was named one of Philippine’s Tatler’s ‘Generation T,’ a list of the Philippines’ top 100 brightest connectors, creative visionaries, influential innovators, and disruptive talents.

The concert will begin at 6.30pm at Hà Nội Opera House. — VNS