Din l-Art Ħelwa’s 45th anniversary concert

Din l-Art Ħelwa marked its 45th anniversary with a recital by soprano Lydia Caruana, who was accompanied by pianist Elizabeth Leonardi.

The recital was hosted by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and his wife Kate at Auberge de Castille. As the Prime Minsiter was to say later during his speech at dinner served after the recital, the Cabinet Room, where the recital was held, is used to different sounds emanating from within its confines.

Indeed, with portraits of past prime ministers ‘looking in’ on the event, this was an unusual occurrence. It is a sign of the respect and regard in which Din l-Art Ħelwa is held country-wide.

The success of the evening was due to many factors, chiefly the hard-working organising committee, the OPM, the sponsors and members and friends whose support was reflected by their presence.

Elske Wilton generously donated one of her paintings, which was silently auctioned during dinner.

It goes without saying too that the two performers and their finely balanced teamwork were crucial to it all. The role of the accompanist is always a very important one and Leonardi, who is also an accomplished soloist in her own right, was the right kind of supportive and sympathetic partner to Caruana.

The young pianist also delighted the audience with two solos, these being Rota’s The Legend of the Glass Mountain and an arrangement of a Russian gypsy folk song based on the original for two guitars.

Caruana started with Voi che sapete from Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, which served as a warm-up and prelude to what proved to be one of the best renderings of the evening, L’air des bijoux from Gounod’s Faust.

There was a smooth switch to the more delicately scored but still very emotionally powerful Io son l’umile ancella from Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur.

The difficult chromatic build-up to the piece’s climax moved on well and only in the very final note was there some hint of uncertainty of pitch.

Quando m’en vo’ from Puccini’s La Bohème was sung with great heart and there was a lot of flair in the Csárdás from Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus.

Pity that after handling the latter piece’s coloratura so well the very last note was rather approximate and brusque. Tu che mi hai preso il cor from Léhar’s Il paese del sorriso was among the best rendered pieces, with great charm and ease.

Gastaldon’s jewel, Musica Proibita, and Arditi’s mainly coloratura and coquettish Il bacio were also well rendered. By then, Leoncavallo’s Mattinata, which sopranos enjoy usurping from the tenors, had been interpreted pretty well, only to end with a bit of a note of uncertainty.

Knowing how hardworking Caruana is, one feels she will pay some attention to polishing her higher reaches. One has to say too that her middle and lower registers grow stronger and mellower and are extremely pleasant on the ear.

The singer’s feeling for Léhar was excellently voiced in the other piece of his which she sang, this time from the opera Giuditta, the well-known Meine Lippen sie küssen so heiss.

Her widely known love for Vienna shone in Sieczynski’s warm Wien du stadt meiner Traüme, after which she sang a series of pieces in English very successfully .

These were Loewe’s I could have danced all night from My Fair Lady, the patter-rich These are a few of my favourite things from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music and With a song in my heart from Rodgers and Hart’s Spring is here.

The very end came with two encores, Harold Arlen’s Over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz, and iż-Żerniq from Charles Camilleri’s Ħames Kanti Popolari.