Cantons-de-l’Est >> Brome-Missisquoi >> Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal - Festival Bel Canto
Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal - Festival Bel Canto
From august 15 to 24, 2008
Bel Canto Festival
The Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and its music director, Kent Nagano, announce that a festival will be taking place devoted to bel canto (“beautiful singing”). The festival, which will be held from August 15 to 24 in the historic village of Knowlton, is a presentation of the OSM and Rome's Accademia Nazionale Santa Cecilia in association with Bombardier.
What is bel canto?
The origins of bel canto are virtually indivisible from those of opera in Italy. From Jacopo Peri's Euridice (1600) to Bellini's Norma (1831) by way of works by Cavalieri, Caccini, Monteverdi, Rossini, Donizetti and a number of lesser known composers, the art and science of “beautiful singing” evolved according to principles and techniques handed down over the centuries by the greatest performers to a handful of carefully selected students, the trustees of an invaluable treasure. The predominance of bel canto in Italy (and its influence right across Europe) obviously had important repercussions on vocal music written after 1845 – the first name that comes to mind being that of Verdi.
Bel canto enjoyed a new golden age during the first third of the 19th century when Rossini (1792-1868), Donizetti (1797-1848) and Bellini (1801-1835), smitten by classical ideals, lent their incomparable melodic gifts to the most beautiful voices of their time, fostering a virtuosity always at the service of expression. Soaring cantilenas, cascades of coloratura, runs, trills and other vocal fireworks – the most endowed singers found their abilities glorified by the pens of these composers of genius. Inspired by the magnetism and the personality of their performers, and laying the foundation for a veritable cult of the diva or divo par excellence – in the best sense of the terms – they devoted their creative talent to that most beautiful of instruments, the one that conveys with greatest eloquence the passions and torments of the soul: the human voice.
Closer to our era, the words bel canto evoke, for lovers of the vocal arts, a sort of Eden restored. Maria Callas, Joan Sutherland, Montserrat Caballé, Luciano Pavarotti, Marilyn Horne and Renata Scotto in the second half of the 20th century succeeded in restoring a lost art its letters patent, while in our time June Anderson, Sumi Jo and Jennifer Larmore have been some of the heirs to this great tradition.
Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal - Festival Bel Canto
Lac Brome
Québec, Canada
www.osm.ca/belcantofr
Phone : 514-842-3402
Toll free : 1-888-842-9951
Fax :
Schedule
From August 15 to 24, 2008.
August 15: Jennifer Larmore and Antoine Palloc.
August 16: June Anderson and relève of l'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Kent Nagano and OSM.
August 17: Norma of Bellini, Kent Nagano and OSM
August 18 to 21: Operamania
August 22: Sumi Jo sing Mozart, Donezetti et Bellini, Kent Nagano and OSM
August 23: Gino Vannelli
**The complete program is available on the website.
Rates
Some events are free.
Paying events: tickets starting at $ 48.
Activities on site
Concerts and shows
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