St George's Square, Valletta, last Saturday evening looked like the venue for a mega Maltese political mass meeting, with one huge difference - the stars about to take the stage were world-class musicians and the audience who were fortunate enough to be there had paid a pretty penny to acquire a seat, albeit not a very comfortable one. Then there were the "perks" - the glass of champagne which greeted you when you were really dying for a glass of water after your long trudge across Valletta if you were lucky enough to find a parking space: an empty gift bag and a promised programme on your seat which was not to be found when you got there and the ensuing anxiety to procure one from an obliging usher who had wisely put some aside as an emergency measure.
9 p.m.: fanned by a cool breeze and with our breath back, all 3,000 or so of us were more or less ready for the concert of summer; I put all thoughts of my unorthopaedic chair aside, and concentrated on the event which I had been looking forward to for months: a tribute concert to Luciano Pavarotti starring tenor Joseph Calleja accompanied by what was supposed to be the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra, changed at the eleventh hour to the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra to the baton of the dynamic conductor Brian Schembri, and including the extremely valid participation of Ukrainian soprano Nataliya Kovalova and Romanian baritone George Petean.
9:15 p.m.: Joseph Calleja is in very fine form, wooing audiences with his rare treasure - a voice of gentle beauty and natural fluency, with Cavaradossi's famous aria Recondita Armonia from Act 1 in Puccini's Tosca. I had to reconcile myself to the fact that my field of vision allowed me to see the "stars" from small plasma screens unstrategically placed to facilitate matters, but I could hear more than well, thanks to the inevitable use of a mega-miked sound system indispensable in the circumstances. The people's idol took to the stage again at the end of the first half of the programme with the immortal highlight La donna è mobile from Verdi's Rigoletto Act 3, the best known moment of the whole opera where the Duke is settling down for an evening's drinking and whoring in a half ruined tavern where he has been lured by Maddalena.
The rest of the first half of the programme, with the exception of Silvio's and Nedda's love duet from Leon Cavallo's Pagliacci, was dedicated entirely to Verdi.
Ms Kovalova and Mr Petean were a delight to listen to here as in the rest of the programme, providing pillars of vocal strength which Mr Calleja could rely on and delivering their arias with élan and panache.
Verdi deserved pride of place in this part of the programme as the most important operatic composer of the 19th century who broke the mould of the stereotyped bel canto of his time, putting song to the service of music drama and producing one masterpiece after another. The first interpretation by
Ms Kovalova, which consisted of the great show-stopper È strano .... sempre libera from the end of Act 1 of La Traviata, revealed a Violetta musing that Alfredo might just be the redeemer of whom she has dreamt.
Mr Petean made his impressive entry with Renato's great monologue Alzati!... Eri tu... from the first scene of the third act of Un ballo in maschera in which the music bursts from him in savage key shifts that vividly convey his torment and uncertain allegiances. This was immediately followed by the Overture to Nabucco, where interest naturally shifted to the conductor and his tight control over the orchestra which was absolutely spot-on, subtly extracting the necessary timbre and tone according to the exigencies of the score.
The second half kicked off with the baritone's superb prologue to Pagliacci, a realistic representation of lower-class characters in the context of "a bleeding slice of life", to quote Tonio in the very Prologue.
In the history of opera, composers have announced their aesthetic programmes to the public either in the form of a foreword to a published score or as a separate explanatory publication.
Leon Cavallo set his aesthetic programme to music and attached it to Pagliacci as a prologue. Toni confides to the audience the poet's intention of presenting real people with real feelings within the framework of the Commedia dell'arte. But in the loveliest melody in this prologue - an andante triste - Leon Cavallo indicates that the composer himself is hiding behind the clown's mask.
From then on it was Puccini all the way; the most popular of all operatic composers, Puccini conquered all the major houses around the world around the turn of the century, and more humble places like St George's Square last weekend. Soprano Kovalova rose admirably to her role of Butterfly in which she poignantly confides to Suzuki her dream of her disloyal husband's return in Un bel dì from Act 2 of Madama Butterfly, in which Puccini focuses on the heroine with unprecedented concentration, leading inexorably to the tragic denouement.
Mr Calleja made a welcome return to the concert platform with Donna non vidi mai, de Grieux's musing over Manon's beauty and his awakening love for her from the first act of Manon Lescaut. Before the final two duets from La Bohème we were treated to the Tregenda from Puccini's first opera Les Villi, a brilliantly orchestrated excerpt evoking a very pregnant atmosphere. Mr Calleja obviously thrilled everybody in his joint performance first with Mr Petean when, in the roles of Rodolfo and Marcello respectively, they revealed their true feelings for Mimi and Musetta in O Mimi, tu più non torni, and next with Ms Kovalova when, overcome with emotion in their roles of Rodolfo and Mimi, they sang of their love at first sight in the first act of La Bohème.
A host of delightful and immensely popular encores, namely the Brindisi from La Traviata, Nessun Dorma, O mio babbino caro, and the evergreen O sole mio, regaled the audience and the end of this wonderful performance which spanned the whole gamut of human emotions. They more than made up for the hitches which need very little to be smoothed out next time round.
It would be great to have a repeat performance between Joseph Calleja and Brian Schembri now that they have struck an enviable performing partnership following several successful endeavours as a team.
9 p.m.: fanned by a cool breeze and with our breath back, all 3,000 or so of us were more or less ready for the concert of summer; I put all thoughts of my unorthopaedic chair aside, and concentrated on the event which I had been looking forward to for months: a tribute concert to Luciano Pavarotti starring tenor Joseph Calleja accompanied by what was supposed to be the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra, changed at the eleventh hour to the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra to the baton of the dynamic conductor Brian Schembri, and including the extremely valid participation of Ukrainian soprano Nataliya Kovalova and Romanian baritone George Petean.
9:15 p.m.: Joseph Calleja is in very fine form, wooing audiences with his rare treasure - a voice of gentle beauty and natural fluency, with Cavaradossi's famous aria Recondita Armonia from Act 1 in Puccini's Tosca. I had to reconcile myself to the fact that my field of vision allowed me to see the "stars" from small plasma screens unstrategically placed to facilitate matters, but I could hear more than well, thanks to the inevitable use of a mega-miked sound system indispensable in the circumstances. The people's idol took to the stage again at the end of the first half of the programme with the immortal highlight La donna è mobile from Verdi's Rigoletto Act 3, the best known moment of the whole opera where the Duke is settling down for an evening's drinking and whoring in a half ruined tavern where he has been lured by Maddalena.
The rest of the first half of the programme, with the exception of Silvio's and Nedda's love duet from Leon Cavallo's Pagliacci, was dedicated entirely to Verdi.
Ms Kovalova and Mr Petean were a delight to listen to here as in the rest of the programme, providing pillars of vocal strength which Mr Calleja could rely on and delivering their arias with élan and panache.
Verdi deserved pride of place in this part of the programme as the most important operatic composer of the 19th century who broke the mould of the stereotyped bel canto of his time, putting song to the service of music drama and producing one masterpiece after another. The first interpretation by
Ms Kovalova, which consisted of the great show-stopper È strano .... sempre libera from the end of Act 1 of La Traviata, revealed a Violetta musing that Alfredo might just be the redeemer of whom she has dreamt.
Mr Petean made his impressive entry with Renato's great monologue Alzati!... Eri tu... from the first scene of the third act of Un ballo in maschera in which the music bursts from him in savage key shifts that vividly convey his torment and uncertain allegiances. This was immediately followed by the Overture to Nabucco, where interest naturally shifted to the conductor and his tight control over the orchestra which was absolutely spot-on, subtly extracting the necessary timbre and tone according to the exigencies of the score.
The second half kicked off with the baritone's superb prologue to Pagliacci, a realistic representation of lower-class characters in the context of "a bleeding slice of life", to quote Tonio in the very Prologue.
In the history of opera, composers have announced their aesthetic programmes to the public either in the form of a foreword to a published score or as a separate explanatory publication.
Leon Cavallo set his aesthetic programme to music and attached it to Pagliacci as a prologue. Toni confides to the audience the poet's intention of presenting real people with real feelings within the framework of the Commedia dell'arte. But in the loveliest melody in this prologue - an andante triste - Leon Cavallo indicates that the composer himself is hiding behind the clown's mask.
From then on it was Puccini all the way; the most popular of all operatic composers, Puccini conquered all the major houses around the world around the turn of the century, and more humble places like St George's Square last weekend. Soprano Kovalova rose admirably to her role of Butterfly in which she poignantly confides to Suzuki her dream of her disloyal husband's return in Un bel dì from Act 2 of Madama Butterfly, in which Puccini focuses on the heroine with unprecedented concentration, leading inexorably to the tragic denouement.
Mr Calleja made a welcome return to the concert platform with Donna non vidi mai, de Grieux's musing over Manon's beauty and his awakening love for her from the first act of Manon Lescaut. Before the final two duets from La Bohème we were treated to the Tregenda from Puccini's first opera Les Villi, a brilliantly orchestrated excerpt evoking a very pregnant atmosphere. Mr Calleja obviously thrilled everybody in his joint performance first with Mr Petean when, in the roles of Rodolfo and Marcello respectively, they revealed their true feelings for Mimi and Musetta in O Mimi, tu più non torni, and next with Ms Kovalova when, overcome with emotion in their roles of Rodolfo and Mimi, they sang of their love at first sight in the first act of La Bohème.
A host of delightful and immensely popular encores, namely the Brindisi from La Traviata, Nessun Dorma, O mio babbino caro, and the evergreen O sole mio, regaled the audience and the end of this wonderful performance which spanned the whole gamut of human emotions. They more than made up for the hitches which need very little to be smoothed out next time round.
It would be great to have a repeat performance between Joseph Calleja and Brian Schembri now that they have struck an enviable performing partnership following several successful endeavours as a team.