Multi-musical night for Malta Arts Festival

The cross-fertilisation of culture is a salient characteristic of this summer's Malta Arts Festival for this summer and a concert of popular classical music will be no exception.

The vocal and orchestral concert will be held at the Palace courtyard, in Valletta, on August 1 at 9 p.m. and will feature Maltese soprano Lydia Caruana, Dmytro Popov, a rising star tenor from the Ukraine, and the Berwald Symphony Orchestra of Sweden.

Ms Caruana has just performed with world-renowned tenor Josè Carreras in Valletta, following her participation in the Andrea Bocelli concert at Ta' Qali in December. A few weeks ago she also sang with Joseph Calleja at the much acclaimed Rathauskonzerte Series in Regensburg and earlier this year with the Musici dell'Accademia at the Accademia di Bologna.

Mr Popov won second prize in this year's world-famous Placido Domingo's Operalia. After his participation in Verdi's Traviata with the renowned stage director Jonathan Miller in Norway in September 2004, the tenor never looked back. He was immediately engaged for the role of Alfredo by the Norwegian National Opera and then for the role of De Grieux in Manon Lescaut. He is at present the leading soloist at the Ukraine National Opera in Kiev.

The Berwald Symphony Orchestra, made up of members of the Stockholm Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Manfred Honeck, will accompany the soloists in a popular repertoire of works by Gounod, Verdi, Puccini, Bernstein and Tchaikowsky.