2024 SYMPHONIC SEASON OF THE TEATRO LIRICO GIUSEPPE VERDI DI TRIESTE
From 27 September to 22 December 2024
*******
6th and final Concert
Sunday 22 December 2024 at 6:00 p.m.
Conductor JORDI BERNÀCER
Tenor RICCARDO MASSI
Baritone MARKUS WERBA
Choir master PAOLO LONGO
Choir master of Coro del Friuli-Venezia Giulia MICHELE GALLAS
PROGRAMME
GIACOMO PUCCINI
Messa a quattro voci con orchestra (Messa di Gloria)
Orchestra and Choir by Fondazione Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi di Trieste
In collaboration with FVG Orchestra and Coro del Friuli-Venezia Giulia
After five highly successful concerts, the symphonic season of the Verdi Theatre in Trieste comes to a close with a tribute to Giacomo Puccini at the end of the year celebrating the centenary of his death. The choice has fallen on a rare piece, namely the Messa a Quattro Voci con Orchestra – an early work composed when Puccini was only 21 years old, and which disappeared for a long time. For the occasion, the Verdi Orchestra will be joined by the FVG Orchestra and the Coro del Friuli-Venezia Giulia, led by Spanish conductor Jordi Bernàcer, whose name is well-know and appreciated when it comes to Italian opera repertoire.
On 22 December, Puccini will close the season with the rare Messa a quattro voci e orchestra (also known as Messa di Gloria), conducted by Maestro Jordi Bernàcer, an early work and the 21-year-old composer’s last foray into the sacred repertoire, as the last in a line of five generations of organists (at St. Martin’s Cathedral in Lucca), maestri di Cappella, teachers at the Music Institute and authors of operas and sacred music. The Mass – long forgotten and rediscovered only in 1952 in New York – will certainly intrigue Puccini lovers, reminiscent as it is of the composer’s dark youth, and paving the way for his future extraordinary musical career.
An imposing effort both in terms of scale and the number of people involved, the concert will feature onstage collaboration of the Verdi Orchestra with FVG Orchestra and the Coro del Friuli-Venezia Giulia. The Messa di Gloria, a name it acquired only after it was rediscovered in New York, tells us much about the young Puccini’s early years as a composer, as well as about the ambitions he developed after attending the opulent performance of Verdi’s Aida in Pisa, in 1876.
The performance will feature the talented Riccardo Massi, a tenor coming straight from Aida at the Royal Opera House in London under Carsen’s direction, and Austrian baritone Markus Werba, from nearby Villach, who – since his debut with Strehler’s Così fan tutte at the opening of Milan’s Nuovo Piccolo Teatro – has embarked on a brilliant career that has taken him to the stages of the world’s best theatres.
A rare piece and an excellent cast bring this highly successful season to a fitting close. With its original repertoire and talented soloists, the 2024 symphonic season has been a cultural journey into the German and contemporary musical heritage, taking the Verdi Theatre back to its historical role and to the very roots of its cultural and musical essence.