Recently confirmed for performance in 2013. The opera, Les Vêpres Siciliennes, in its rare, original French version, will be performed as part of Bilbao’s “Tutto Verdi” cycle, in which all the works by the great Italian opera composer will be performed. Vêpres, composed for the Opéra in Paris, was composed after Verdi had completed “la Traviata,” “Rigoletto,” and “il Trovatore,” and ushered in his final period of expansion and mastery, with such works as “Un Ballo in Maschera,” “la Forza del Destino,” “Don Carlos,” and “Aida.”
Mr. Mauceri is a member of the Verdi Institute’s advisory board and has conducted many of the composer’s operas. He lead the British premiere of the critical edition of “Rigoletto” in London as well as the American premiere of “Un Ballo in Maschera” in Pittsburgh, and created a performing edition of “La Forza del Destino” for Scottish Opera. His work on the structural use of tempos in Verdi’s operas has led him to be published internationally.
Mr. Mauceri made his Spanish debut in Bilbao in 2010, with Carlisle Floyd’s opera, “Susanna.” Bilbao was founded in the 14th century as a commercial hub on the northern coast of Spain. In the mid-twentieth century, it suffered potential economic ruin due to the loss of its ship building and iron industries, and has been transformed by committing itself to being a city of the arts, with the building of the world-famous Guggenheim Museum of Contemporary Art (designed by Frank Gehry), along with a new opera house/convention center, a rapid transit system system and bridges designed by world famous architects.
Bilbao is planning four performances February 15, 19, 22 & 26, 2013, with rehearsals beginning on January 28, 2013.
Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Das Wunder der Heliane (The Miracle of Heliane) is being re-released 20 Feb 2012 in the EU, on 13 March 2012 in North America.