Manoel Theatre’s lavish auditorium will tonight be embracing an eclectic mix of pieces, with Maltese baroque compositions featuring alongside masterpieces from the Bach legacy, all performed by youth orchestra Jeune Orchestre Atlantique.

Works by Maltese composers being performed with masterpieces reflects Malta’s identity

The international orchestra assembles young musicians representing about 20 different nationalities.

The concert is funded with the support of the European Commission as part of the EUR Text project within the Cultural Programme.

The programme will include the overture and duet from the opera Pelopide by Maltese-Italian composer Girolamo Abos, which premiered in 1747 in Rome and has never been performed in Malta before.

Scans of the original manuscript have been made available online by the International Music Library Score Project from Canada. Musicologist Frederick Aquilina edited the music to enable both orchestra and singers to perform this work.

The other revival works on the programme are the two arias from the Dixit Dominus of 1756 by Benigno Zerafa. The orchestra will also be performing the Sinfonia in D major by Francesco Azopardi.

“The fact that works by Maltese composers are being performed alongside masterpieces reflects Malta’s identity, where we have absorbed various influences throughout the ages,” artistic director Kenneth Zammit Tabona said.

This juxtaposition of identities continues throughout .

This weekend will see Molière’s satirical tragicomedy Don Juan being performed in Maltese with English subtitles. Under Chris Gatt’s direction, the play leaps to the 21st century where a gentleman’s word is worthless and where questions of humour, ethics and morals are things of the past.

St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta will host one of the main events on Thursday by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, performing pieces by Vivaldi, Handel and Bach.

The French classic music TV station Mezzo will be travelling to Malta to film the concert.