City of London Sinfonia

PROGRAMME: Excerpts from: Rossini Semiramide; Guillaume Tell Donizetti Lucrezia Borgia; Roberto Devereux Bellini Il pirata; Norma ~ Interval ~ Rossini Stabat Mater PERFORMERS: Anne Sophie Duprels soprano Yvonne Howard mezzo-soprano Anthony Gregory tenor Blaise Malaba bass John Andrews conductor Dominic Ellis-Peckham chorus master Opera Holland Park Chorus City of London Sinfonia Acclaimed for its annual summer season of repertoire from verismo rarities to new commissions and insightful reinterpretations of well-known works, Opera Holland Park returns to Cadogan Hall in a Passiontide performance of Rossini’s Stabat Mater. Pathos and drama combine in the composer’s setting of the mediaeval hymn to the grieving Virgin Mary, a worthy successor to the intimate baroque masterpieces of Pergolesi and Domenico Scarlatti since its 1842 premiere in Paris. The first half of the programme contrasts the Stabat Mater with music from Rossini’s tragic operas Semiramide (1823) and Guillaume Tell (1829), Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia (1833) and Roberto Devereux (1837), and Bellini’s Il Pirata (1827) and Norma (1831), exploring the connections between the three great bel canto composers across two decades of extraordinary invention.