Maltese baritone Ken Scicluna

The Strada Stretta Concept, under the auspices of the Valletta 2018 Foundation, is tonight presenting Opera Under Stretta Stars, which will see the participation of Spanish tenor and actor Moisés Molín, Maltese baritone Ken Scicluna and pianist Sofia Narmania. The event is under the  artistic direction of Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci.

The programme consists of arias and duets from Verdi’s Don Carlo, Otello and Rigoletto, Puccini’s La Bohème, Tchaikovsky’s Evgeni Onegin, Rachmaninov’s Aleko, Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci and Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana.

Molín, a Spanish tenor and actor, studied in Bologna with Paride Venturi and in St Petersburg, Russia, with Elena Rubin.

Pianist Sofia Narmania 

From 2000 to 2004, he trained as an actor at the Juan Carlos Corazza Actors Studio and, in 2009, he obtained a BA in singing at the Escuela Superior de Canto de Madrid.

He also took part in over 1,000 concerts, performing leading roles in more than 200 opera productions in Spain, France, Austria, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Russia, Japan, Israel, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Greece, Romania, Serbia and Portugal.

Maltese baritone Scicluna has been active in the visual and performing arts scene from an early age. He was one of the youngest presenters of classical and opera radio programmes on local stations. He initially appeared as an actor, and later landed singing roles in theatrical productions. He also scripted, produced and directed three short films in his teenage years. Scicluna was the first-ever Maltese singer to have studied at the Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory in St Petersburg and was accepted in the class of legendary Kirov/Maarinsky tenor, Yuri Marusin.

Spanish tenor and actor Moisés Molín

Pianist Narmania displayed tremendous interest in music from an early childhood and started giving her first concerts at the age of seven. At 10, she won great public acclaim playing Beethoven’s 2nd Piano Concerto and was later invited to continue her music education at the Moscow Pre-Conservatory college.

Her musical development was shaped by her studies at the Moscow Conservatoire, where she graduated with honours in the class of professor Irina Plotnikova.

During her years of education, Narmania appeared on the concert stage as a soloist with many orchestras and gave several recitals in the main halls of Moscow and in other cities of the Russian Federation.

As a soloist, she performed the concertos of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky.

Opera Under Stretta Stars will be held tonight at 8pm at The Splendid, Strait Street, Valletta. Entrance is free. For more information visit https://goo.gl/Bl7TQ4 .