Concert
Nico Darmanin, tenorMalta Philharmonic Orchestra, leader Marcelline Agius
dir. Joseph Debrincat
Mediterranean Conference Centre

The Mediterranean Conference Centre’s Republic Hall was almost full to capacity for this event, which was under the patronage of Acting President Dolores Cristina.

By now a well-established New Year event in aid of the Malta Community Chest Fund, this time the Malta Phiharmonic Orchestra was under the direction of Joseph Debrincat. The rapport between director and orchestra yielded good results. The orchestra was on very good form in a selection of popular works which remain so because once they are so well-rendered they never become tiresome.

This was the case in the stately and elegant Polonaise from Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Yevgény Onyégin and the festive and markedly Spanish intermezzo from La Boda de Luís Alonso by Géronimo Giménez.

Charles Camilleri’s brilliantly orchestrated Maltese Dances evoked all too familiar motifs and that dose of local colour warmed up even more the audience’s previous already keen response to the various works performed.

In between these works, the vocal numbers interpreted by tenor Nico Darmanin were equally and increasingly very well-received. The young man has increased in artistic stature. His phrasing is better than ever and so is his breath control, plus his ability to sustain long notes without wavering.

It was a well-chosen selection as was the orchestra’s

Crisp and decisive, he throws his whole heart and head in varied pieces such as the plaintive Una furtiva lagrima from Gaetano Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, the ebullient Dei miei bollenti spiriti from Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata and the passion and soul-searching of No puedo ser from Pablo Sorozábal’s Zarzuela La tabernera del Puerto. Clear diction rendered this and other pieces ever so palatable. There was the romantic José Maria Lacalle García’s Amapola, Ruggero Leoncavallo’s jaunty Mattinata and Jason Bateman’s arrangement of Nicholas Brodzky’s Be My Love.

He remained steadily audible projecting his voice even in conclusions marked forte even for the orchestra. It was a well-chosen selection as was the orchestra’s and which ended with Jacques Offenbach’s alternately lyrical and bubbly satirical take on the gods of Olympus in the overture to Orpheus in the Underworld, which was followed by a swinging encore.

Also, on a positive note, pre-concert security announcements were not relayed at an ear-shattering volume.

Thank you MCC for listening!