"A Midsummer Night's Dream": Tuesday 23 July at 9 pm at the Cavea
"Estate al Maggio"
A new appointment in the Maggio Cavea, our rooftop: on Tuesday, July 23rd 2024, at 9 pm, maestro Hankyeol Yoon returns to lead the Orchestra and Choir of the Maggio Musicale.
On the program “Ein Sommernachtsraum” (A Midsummer Night's Dream) by Felix-Mendelssohn Bartholdy.
Soloists Letizia Bertoldi and Olha Smokolina; the narrator voice is Davide Gasparro.
The Teatro del Maggio thanks Sammontana for the ice creams offered to the public
Florence, July 19th 2024 – After the success of the freshy first performance of Il barbiere di Siviglia (on stage until July 24th), the “Estate al Maggio” (Summer at Maggio), an event included in the “Estate Fiorentina 2024” program, keeps on going: scheduled in the Cavea del Maggio, a symphonic choral concert which finds the protagonist on the podium - just a few months after the concert in Mehta Hall which saw him achieve great public and critical success - maestro Hankyeol Yoon leading the Maggio Orchestra and Choir.
A new appointment therefore on the rooftop of the Teatro del Maggio - Tuesday July 23rd 2024 at 9pm - which has proven not only to be a truly fascinating place for shows but also a cool evening stratagem to be able to attend the Maggio shows under the breeze of the Florentine evening. On the bill Ein Sommernachtsraum (A Midsummer Night's Dream), incidental music for soloists, choir and orchestra op. 61 by Felix-Mendelssohn Bartholdy.
The master of the Coro del Maggio is Lorenzo Fratini.
Hankyeol Yoon is among the most popular chopsticks on the international scene; At a very young age he has already won numerous awards and prizes, including - recently - the prestigious "Herbert von Karajan Young Conductors Award", alongside the prizes obtained as a composer, he was in fact awarded at the "Luciano Berio International Composition Competition" in Rome in 2020 and at the “TonaLi Composition Competition” in Hamburg in 2018; Maestro Yoon will also make his debut next August at the Salzburg Festival.
Soloists of the concert are two artists from the Accademia del Maggio: Letizia Bertoldi, on stage in the part of Berta these days in Il barbiere di Siviglia and Olha Smokolina, recently in the cast of Il trovatore brought with great success to the very recent tour in Slovenia.
The narrator of the show is that of Davide Gasparro, the Maggio “house acting voice” who returns after the successes of L'italiana in Algeri for schools in the spring of last year and the most recent show in October 2023 in part of the cycle “C'è musica & musica”.
On the programme, therefore, one of the most famous compositions by Felix-Mendelssohn Bartholdy, namely A Midsummer Night's Dream: after having attended a performance of the original work by William Shakespeare, in 1826 the very young Mendelssohn made the decision to transform in music that fairytale world; the first performance took place on 14 October 1843 at the Neues Palais in Potsdam.
The program:
After attending a performance of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, in 1826 the very young Mendelssohn made the decision to translate that fairy-tale world inhabited by supernatural creatures into music. The idea was translated into a four-hand piano piece to be played with her sister Fanny, which was then orchestrated and transformed into a concert overture, published as op. 21. In the frame of the overture the theatrical story is already summarized: the four chords intoned by the woodwinds create a climate of waiting, when the swarming of the strings immediately transports us into the enchanted world of the fairies, where every sound gesture has the flavor of the dream. Mendelssohn was well aware of the exceptional nature of this youthful work of his, so much so that fifteen years later, called by King William IV of Prussia to create the incidental music for the same Shakespearean piece, he resumed the overture to match it with the new pages composed for the on this occasion, thirteen numbers including instrumental, vocal and melody pieces. For the incidental music, in addition to the orchestra, Mendelssohn employs two female solo voices and a female choir. After the aforementioned overture it is up to a Scherzo to accompany the listener into the fairy-tale universe of Puck and his companions among the flickers of the woodwinds that punctuate the rapid melody of the strings. The Lied with choir sung by the Elves who invoke sleep for Queen Titania is instead built on a graceful melody with a popular flavor in a berceuse rhythm. Fascinating and full of enchantment are the exclusively instrumental Intermezzo and Nocturne, which with their particular timbral mixtures underline the romantic climate of the composition. After the famous Wedding March, A Midsummer Night's Dream ends with the almost literal reprise of the overture; this time, however, the fast quavers entrusted to the strings no longer have the function of the theme but act as a background to the melody sung by the choir of the Elves, guaranteeing unity and internal coherence to the composition.