Roberto Abbado / Violeta Urmana

The two compositions by Hector Berlioz that open the evening, Tristia and La Mort de Cléopâtre, are two early works in which are clearly outlined the funeral themes dear to the author: from Ophelia's Death and Funeral March for the last scene of Hamlet in Tristia, to La Mort de Cléopâtre, where the Egyptian queen invokes the shadows of the great pharaohs to give her the strength to commit suicide. Pictures at an Exhibition, by Modest Mussorgsky, is the most famous work by the Russian composer: originally composed for piano, and later orchestrated by Maurice Ravel, it is a series of ten suites inspired by ten paintings of an exhibition at the Russian Academy of Fine Arts, interspersed by five promenades, the walk from one painting to the next which creates the thematic link.

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ROBERTO ABBADO

Born on December 30, 1954, he is the son of pianist Marcello Abbado and nephew of Claudio Abbado. He studied piano and composition at the Milan Conservatory and continued his training in conducting with Franco Ferrara at La Fenice in Venice and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, where he was the only student who was asked to direct the student orchestra.  He directed his first opera, Simon Boccanegra, at the age of twenty-three at the Sferisterio of Macerata. He was chief conductor of the Munich Radio Orchestra between 1991 and 1998 and has conducted on the podium of the Royal Concertgebouw, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de Paris, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic. He frequently conducts pages of twentieth century music by composers such as Luciano Berio, Salvatore Sciarrino, Luca Francesconi and Fabio Vacchi.

VIOLETA URMANA

Violeta Urmana is a Lithuanian dramatic soprano specializing in German and Italian operatic repertoire. Among her roles are Brünnhilde in Siegfried, Sieglinde inDie Walküre and Isolde in Tristan und Isolde, as well Elisabetta in Don Carlo, Leonora in La Forza del Destino, Lady in  Macbeth and Odabella in Attila. Among the venues where she has performed these leading roles are the Metropolitan Opera of New York, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, the Opéra National de Paris, Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Vienna State Opera, Teatro alla Scala di Milano, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London and festivals in Bayreuth and Salzburg.