Opera Tickets Italy

The esteemed British conductor, Alpesh Chauhan, graces the Venetian stage of the Gran Teatro La Fenice in a performance of three inspiring orchestral pieces. Chauhan serves as the Music Director of the Birmingham Opera Company and also performs the role of Principal Guest Conductor with the highly regarded Düsseldorfer Symphoniker. This concert sees him tackle works by Bedřich Smetana, Zoltán Kodály and Jean Sibelius in a fascinating programme that lends itself to his talents as well as those of the acclaimed La Fenice Orchestra.

The concert opens with Smetana's Vltava, also known as The Moldau in English, derived from its German name. This is a symphonic poem that depicts the movements of the Vltava River which flows from the mountains of Bohemia through the Czech landscape that Smetana would have known well during his lifetime. The work is often regarded as a deeply patriotic one: Smetana had a great love for his homeland, after all. Although some excerpts were aired in public earlier, the piece, which was written from 1874 onwards, was first performed in full on 5 November 1882 in Prague at Zofin Palace.

The programme continues with Dances of Galánta by the Hungarian composer Kodály. It was commissioned by the Budapest Philharmonic Society to mark its 80th anniversary and the ensuing piece was first performed on 23 October 1933. Based on folk dance music of the Galánta region, this lively orchestral piece suggests Kodály’s reflections on the sounds of his childhood. He grew up in this part of what is now Slovakia. The music is arranged in five sections and uses the traditional verbunkos style of music, which calls for a fast-and-slow structure, a custom so typical of folk tunes from the area.

Sibelius' Symphony No. 2 in D major op. 43 is the concert's finale. This work was begun in 1901 while the composer was in Italy, not long after he had enjoyed the successful premiere of his revised – and highly patriotic - Finlandia, one of Sibelius' most popular pieces to this day. The Second Symphony premiered on 8 March 1902 in the Finnish capital, performed by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. Arranged in four movements, the symphony opens in D major before shifting to D minor for the second movement. A vivacious scherzo follows in B-flat major before the final movement, which has a Romantic style to it, returns to D major, the symphony's original key.

Under the skilled baton of the much-admired Chauhan, these three powerful compositions will enrapture audiences at Venice's La Fenice Opera House, a venue that's synonymous with dramatic performances.