Opera stars for Manoel concert in first-ever 'simulcast' with US

Bryn Terfel, the famous Welsh baritone, Austrian mezzo-soprano Angelica Kirschlager, Italian soprano Gianna Corbusiero, American soprano Maureen O'Flynn, French tenor Marc Hervieux and our own Joseph Calleja and Miriam Gauci, are among the operatic stars who will be giving an unprecedented concert at the Manoel Theatre on May 28.

It is unprecedented because it will be the first time ever that the Richard Tucker Foundation of the United States will hold its annual celebrity concert outside the United States, and precisely at Malta's Manoel Theatre. Also, the concert will be simultaneously telecast to a 3,000-strong audience in Washington, DC.

This concert came about thanks to the close friendship between John Lowell, who recently ended his tour of duty as Malta's Ambassador to the United States, and Michael R. Sonnenreich, a member of the board of directors of the Richard Tucker Foundation and a childhood friend of its president, Barry Tucker, son of the great American tenor (1913-1975) after whom the foundation is named.

Since it was set up in 1975, the foundation - which is based at the Lincoln Centre in New York - has given financial assistance to more than 1,000 young American opera singers to help them further their careers. It also provides performance opportunities, and holds an annual award for the most promising singer. Another aim is to promote appreciation of opera and the world of music in general.

Mr Lowell, before being appointed Ambassador, had served for ten years as chairman of the Manoel Theatre, and it was through his love of opera that he got to know Mr Sonnenreich in Washington, DC.

Mr Sonnenreich, until last July, was chairman of the Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Centre, which has tenor Placido Domingo as its general manager. And it was at Mr Lowell's urging that Mr Sonnenreich eventually persuaded Mr Tucker and the foundation's board to hold the concert in Malta.

Mr Sonnenreich, an attorney who became a successful businessman and owner of pharmaceuticals companies, was in Malta last week to finalise arrangements for the concert, which he will attend together with Mr Tucker and their spouses.

The concert will be under the patronage of the President of the Republic and Mrs Fenech Adami and its proceeds will go entirely to the Community Chest Fund.

Mt Sonnenreich will be financing the costs of the "simulcast", which means that the Washington, DC, audience will be attending a matinee performance at 1.30 p.m., because of the time difference. However, they will be handed copies of the same programme which will be available to the Manoel audience, but they will also be treated to a 10-minute documentary about Malta, which is an excellent idea seeing that the island is hardly known in the US.

Mr Sonnenreich assured me that the Washington, DC, audience will receive high-definition sound and images; the telecast will be using four cameras (three static and one handycam) for the best possible effect.

The May 28 concert, then, will be an excellent publicity boost for the island, showcasing its many attractions and its Manoel Theatre, which Mr Somenreich inevitably calls "a jewel".

The National Orchestra will be augmented to 56 elements and will be under the direction of Eugene Kohn, from the Metropolitan Opera of New York.

The programme will be a mix of American music (including hits from Broadway musicals) and operatic arias. "It will be a different kind of peformance. We want to get people excited about the beauty of the voice," Mr Sonnenreich commented.

Mr Lowell said that the concert is being supported also by Air Malta, which will be flying the participants from various airports in Europe, the Corinthia Palace Hotel, which will be providing accommodation, and Anadarco Petroleum, a US firm with interests in Malta.

Incidentally, Joseph Calleja - whom Mr Sonnenreich saw last November when he sang at the Metropolitan in New York - will be singing Rigoletto at the Washington National Opera in Spring 2008. Needless to say, Mr Sonnenreich counts on being there.