Opera Tickets Italy

Venice's Gran Teatro La Fenice welcomes Alevtina Ioffe, the Moscow-born conductor who serves as the Chief Conductor of the Bern Opera, for a concert programme featuring music by two great Russian composers, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Sergey Rachmaninoff. Taking to the podium to conduct the esteemed La Fenice Orchestra, Ioffe studied choral conducting, classical vocal and piano at the Moscow State Conservatory, before moving on to forge an international career that encompasses both the opera and the symphonic repertoires.

The programme opens with Tchaikovsky's Capriccio Italien, Op. 45, a fantasy that the composer wrote in his forties. A mature, mid-career piece, it premiered on 6 December 1880 in Moscow. Tchaikovsky conceived it while he was living with his brother, Modest, in Rome, during that year’s Carnival. They were staying in a hotel located near the barracks of the Royal Italian Cuirassiers. The bugle calls from the nearby barracks, the city’s hubbub and the folk songs and dances he heard during his stay inspired the composer for his work and explain its Italian title. Tchaikovsky only completed the work after he returned to St Petersburg in the latter part of 1880.

Tchaikovsky's Suite No. 4 in G Major, Op.61, follows. Known as Mozartiana, the suite was written in 1887 as a tribute to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to mark the centenary of his opera Don Giovanni. Suite No. 4 consists of four movements based on works by Mozart. The first, second and fourth movements are Tchaikovsky’s orchestrations of three of Mozart’s piano pieces, while the third is an orchestration of Liszt's piano transcription of a Mozart’s motet. Suite No. 4 was first performed on 26 November 1887, with the composer himself conducting, at a concert of the Russian Musical Society in Moscow.

The concert concludes with Rachmaninoff's Symphony No 3 in A minor, Op.44. Written while the composer was based in the United States, the symphony's debut took place on 6 November 1936, performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra. Rachmaninoff's final symphony wasn't eagerly received by critics at the time. The composer thought that it would be rediscovered in the future - just as Schumann’s Violin Concerto had been – and go on to be regarded as a success. Certainly, modern audiences are likely to respond well to the symphony's bold finale. It drives the work to its conclusion with great energy at first, before giving way to a splendidly orchestrated fugue.

With three highly respected pieces by two of the greatest Russian composers and a superb conductor, this concert at Venice's La Fenice Opera House is sure to provide an evening of richly expressive orchestral music.