
THE VOICES OF THE DEVIL
Teatro della Grancia
Saturday, August 27, 2016, h 19.00
Bass Andrea Mastroni
Piano Gianni Fabbrini
Gioachino Rossini
L'italiana in Algeri
"Già d'insolito ardore nel petto"
Jacques-Fromental Halévy
La juive
“Si la rigueur et la vengeance”
Georg Friedrich Händel
Orlando
"Sorge infausta una procella"
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Marsch für Konstanze in C major K. 408
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Die Entführung aus dem Serail
"O' wie will ich triumphieren"
Giuseppe Verdi
Simon Boccanegra
“A te l'estremo addio... Il lacerato spirito”
Charles Gounod / Émile Périer
Ouverture et Ronde de Méphistophélès après Faust
Arrigo Boito
Mefistofele
"Son lo spirto che nega"
Giuseppe Verdi
Don Carlo
“Elle ne m'aime pas”
Opera is full of demons. Some are actual personifications of sheer Evil: Mephistopheles, obviously. Others are bloody tyrants, like Philip II in Don Carlo; still others, persecutors: Cardinal Brogni in La Juive, or Jacopo Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra. Then there are the sorcerers, for example Zoroastro in Orlando. Finally, the poor devils, wicked but amusing, sometimes even charming: the Bey Mustafà in L’Italiana in Algeri, the keeper of the harem Osmin in Die Entführung aus dem Serail. The common denominator of these characters is their timbre: that of the bass, sombre, dark, deep. The voice of the devil.
It is to these characteristics that the instrument of Andrea Mastroni is perfectly suited. One of the finest basses of the new generation, he is able to tackle the most demanding coloratura, sinking ominously into the depths of those notes below the stave. His is a vocalism, genuinely rare and particular. Accompanying him at the piano, audiences at Solo Belcanto will again encounter Gianni Fabbrini, that most excellent musician, and a constant presence at the Festival from the first.