Fabio Luisi

L'oratorio Paulus di Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy nasce nel 1832 come reazione scandalizzata alle rappresentazioni di Robert le Diable di Meyerbeer. Il libretto dell'opera è ispirato agli episodi della vita di Paolo di Tarso narrati negli Atti degli Apostoli, partendo dal martirio di S. Stefano fino alla morte. È possibile che l'idea di un oratorio sulla figura di Paolo, spesso trascurata in campo musicale se si escludono  gli inni della liturgia gregoriana e ambrosiana, sia venuta dall'esperienza personale e familiare di Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: la storia di conversione dell’ebreo Saulo nel cristiano Paolo ha dei punti di contatto con la conversione della famiglia ebraica dei Mendelssohn alla confessione luterana, con l'adozione del cognome Bartholdy. Eseguito per la prima volta con enorme successo il 23 maggio del 1836, Schumann scrisse: «Il Paulus è arte e non maniera. Qui tutto si percepisce: forma e figura, Bach e Händel e, tuttavia, non si avverte nella musica imitazione o citazione dei suoi ispiratori».

Program

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
Paulus, oratory for soloists, choir and orchestra op. 36

Artists

Conductor
Fabio Luisi

Choir director
Lorenzo Fratini

Orchestra, Choir and Children's chorus of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

Soprano
Valentina Farcas

Bass I
Roman Trekel

Tenor
Christian Elsner

Mezzo-soprano
Anke Vondung

Bass II
Diego Barretta

 

FABIO LUISI
Grammy and ECHO Klassik Award-winner Fabio Luisi serves as General Music Director of the Zurich Opera and Principal Conductor of the Metropolitan Opera. He launches a new appointment as Principal Conductor of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra (DNSO) this season. Luisi led Mahler’s Ninth to launch 2016-17 at the DNSO, which he rejoins for more Mahler symphonies and Wagner with Deborah Voigt in Copenhagen and California. He returns to California to lead the San Francisco Philharmonic, and concludes his six-year tenure at the Met with Don Giovanni and a new production of Guillaume Tell. At the Zurich Opera, he takes the podium for a new staging of Das Land des Lächelns; revivals of Don Carlo, Un ballo in maschera and Lohengrin; and Philharmonia Zurich programs that include a German tour with Anne-Sophie Mutter and an interdisciplinary production of Verdi’s Requiem. Rounding out the season are concert appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, NHK Symphony, Filarmonica della Scala, Munich Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, and Opera di Firenze, where he assumes the role of Music Director next spring. As former Chief Conductor of the Vienna Symphony, Luisi was honored with the orchestra’s Golden Bruckner Medal and Ring. Other previous appointments include General Music Director of Dresden’s Staatskapelle and Sächsische Staatsoper, Artistic Director of Leipzig Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, Music Director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Chief Conductor of the Tonkünstler-Orchester in Vienna, and Artistic Director of the Graz Symphony. Luisi received a Grammy Award for his leadership of the last two operas of Der Ring des Nibelungen, when Deutsche Grammophon’s DVD release of the cycle, recorded live at the Met, was named Best Opera Recording of 2012. His extensive discography also features operas by Verdi, Salieri, and Bellini; symphonies by Honegger, Respighi, and Liszt; works by Franz Schmidt and Richard Strauss; and an award-winning account of Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony. In 2015, the Philharmonia Zurich inaugurated its Philharmonia Records label with his accounts of Berlioz, Wagner, and Rigoletto, to which they recently added his rare recording of the original version of Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony. A native of Genoa, Luisi was awarded the Grifo d’Oro for his contributions to the city’s cultural legacy. Off the podium, he is a passionate perfume maker; sales from his one-person operation, flparfums.com, benefit the Luisi Academy for Music and Visual Arts.

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