It was quite a lavish evening featuring popular soprano Miriam Gauci with the Orkestra Nazzjonali directed by her husband Michael Laus.
Starting off some 20 minutes late, the public was a bit on tenterhooks but was treated to the first of a series of purely orchestral works which punctuated this evening. The orchestra was on marvellous form, beginning with the overture to Bellini's Norma where a slight imbalance between percussion, brass and the rest of the team was quickly brought to heel and balance was to reign supreme for the rest of the evening. The overture to Rossini's Guillaume Tell was a splendidly colourful exercise, with a superbly smooth and expressive cello section opening the way to further musical delights and sheer excitement and energy. That too marked the Prelude to Act III of Wagner's Lohengrin which was well-paced, crisp, very energetic and under the right kind of control which did not let the evidently sheer excitement of the piece get out of hand. This could be said of the wilder elements in the scoring of the Polovtsian Dances from Borodin's Prince Igor. This would have been even more vibrant in the original choral version, but it was still easy to follow the lush and often langorously exotic melodic line. This came in very well pronounced contrast with the often boldly aggressive rhythmic structure of this piece.
Miriam Gauci's performance during the first half of the evening was uneven. It is a singer's prerogative to choose whatever the singer wants to sing, which goes too for the order and style of the selected pieces. Casta diva from Bellini's Norma is not the best piece to begin with and at first I missed the singer's trademark of absolutely effortless clarity. As the piece wore on it improved somehow but the overall effect was rather disappointing. Neither was Ritorna vincitor very convincing at first. Ever well-phrased, yet it was really with Numi, pietà del mio soffrir that the piece really hit home. In her concluding piece Ms Gauci projected herself and her art more forcefully, with a fine rendering ranging convincingly from the poignant and reflective Tacea la notte palcida to its brilliant epilogue Di tale amor che dirsi.
Some amplification in the second half could have backfired. In the sense that a singer, while more clearly heard, is more exposed and vulnerable. There was no fear of that. Of the four operatic excerpts sung by Ms Gauci she proved that in pieces like the ones from Madama Butterfly (Un bel di vedremo), Tosca (Vissi d'arte) and Gianni Schicchi (O mio babbino caro) she still reigns supreme in the best that phrasing, crystalline timbre, legato, and control could produce and offer. Without any hint of chauvinism one must say that Ms Gauci is one of the finest Puccinian sopranos ever. Each and every one of the above excerpts, in its own different way, sent a tingle and a shiver down my spine. Too bad (if at all possible) if I were the only one thus affected! Suicidio from Ponchielli's La Gioconda, was expressive enough in that every word and phrase told a lot but not it was not backed with enough dramatic force.
A measure of the singer's versatility was provided with her singing of Denza's FuniculG, funiculà which ended the concert with a great flourish. However, there were some encores like the classic song Non ti scordar di me, the second half of the Brindisi from Verdi's Rigoletto and Gershwin's Summer Time. One may have heard them before but they are always pleasant when interpreted so pleasantly.
Starting off some 20 minutes late, the public was a bit on tenterhooks but was treated to the first of a series of purely orchestral works which punctuated this evening. The orchestra was on marvellous form, beginning with the overture to Bellini's Norma where a slight imbalance between percussion, brass and the rest of the team was quickly brought to heel and balance was to reign supreme for the rest of the evening. The overture to Rossini's Guillaume Tell was a splendidly colourful exercise, with a superbly smooth and expressive cello section opening the way to further musical delights and sheer excitement and energy. That too marked the Prelude to Act III of Wagner's Lohengrin which was well-paced, crisp, very energetic and under the right kind of control which did not let the evidently sheer excitement of the piece get out of hand. This could be said of the wilder elements in the scoring of the Polovtsian Dances from Borodin's Prince Igor. This would have been even more vibrant in the original choral version, but it was still easy to follow the lush and often langorously exotic melodic line. This came in very well pronounced contrast with the often boldly aggressive rhythmic structure of this piece.
Miriam Gauci's performance during the first half of the evening was uneven. It is a singer's prerogative to choose whatever the singer wants to sing, which goes too for the order and style of the selected pieces. Casta diva from Bellini's Norma is not the best piece to begin with and at first I missed the singer's trademark of absolutely effortless clarity. As the piece wore on it improved somehow but the overall effect was rather disappointing. Neither was Ritorna vincitor very convincing at first. Ever well-phrased, yet it was really with Numi, pietà del mio soffrir that the piece really hit home. In her concluding piece Ms Gauci projected herself and her art more forcefully, with a fine rendering ranging convincingly from the poignant and reflective Tacea la notte palcida to its brilliant epilogue Di tale amor che dirsi.
Some amplification in the second half could have backfired. In the sense that a singer, while more clearly heard, is more exposed and vulnerable. There was no fear of that. Of the four operatic excerpts sung by Ms Gauci she proved that in pieces like the ones from Madama Butterfly (Un bel di vedremo), Tosca (Vissi d'arte) and Gianni Schicchi (O mio babbino caro) she still reigns supreme in the best that phrasing, crystalline timbre, legato, and control could produce and offer. Without any hint of chauvinism one must say that Ms Gauci is one of the finest Puccinian sopranos ever. Each and every one of the above excerpts, in its own different way, sent a tingle and a shiver down my spine. Too bad (if at all possible) if I were the only one thus affected! Suicidio from Ponchielli's La Gioconda, was expressive enough in that every word and phrase told a lot but not it was not backed with enough dramatic force.
A measure of the singer's versatility was provided with her singing of Denza's FuniculG, funiculà which ended the concert with a great flourish. However, there were some encores like the classic song Non ti scordar di me, the second half of the Brindisi from Verdi's Rigoletto and Gershwin's Summer Time. One may have heard them before but they are always pleasant when interpreted so pleasantly.