Zubin Mehta / Julia Gertseva

Two great Russian composers of the early twentieth century, Stravinsky and Prokof'ev, with two songs inspired by folk motifs of their land. The evening opens with Petruška, a puppet with a wooden body and sawdust head in an unrequited love with the puppet Ballerina. The cantata of Alexander Nevsky, composed by Sergej Prokof'ev, is the version for mezzo-soprano, chorus and orchestra of the soundtrack of the film by Sergei Eisenstein in 1938, when the Russian prince of Novgorod defeats with his cunning the Teutonic Knights at the Battle of Glacier Lake.

Program

Igor' Fëdorovič Stravinskij
Petruška (Петрушка), 1947 version

Interval

Sergej Sergeevič Prokof'ev
Aleksandr Nevskij (Александр Невский), Cantata op. 78 for mezzo-soprano, choir and orchestra

Artists

Conductor
Zubin Mehta

Mezzo-soprano
Julia Gertseva

Choir director
Lorenzo Fratini

Orchestra and Choir of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino