At a time when my work as a conductor of symphonic works is taking me around Europe to lead some exceptional orchestras, I consider it a great honour to be conducting the programme selected with the Göteborg Opera Orchestra entitled “Italian Emotions”. Firstly, because the term “Italian”, which is also my nationality, has been chosen to combine three such very different compositions as Tchaikovsky’s Capriccio Italien, Fontane di Roma by Respighi, and the fourth act of Ponchielli’s opera La Gioconda. The first composition presents us with hints of Rome that the Russian composer transformed into an exhilarating piece with which I’m expecting to create ‘fireworks’ with the Swedish orchestra. Respighi’s symphonic poem dedicated to some of Rome’s fountains is a wealth of more subtle, schematic inspiration. I recently recorded “Italian Perspectives” (Pentatone) where I included the Trittico Botticelliano; Respighi plays an important role in my work conducting symphonic music. I include a lot of his music whenever possible, because I believe the time has come to put an end to any reservations or indeed ostracism surrounding this brilliant musical poet. Finally, with the support of an excellent cast featuring the rising star from Sweden, Åsa Jäger, who will sing in the title role, I’m conducting the final act of La Gioconda exactly one hundred and fifty years after it premiered at Teatro alla Scala in Milan. I see this as a stylistically sophisticated tribute because, in a concert performance, certain operas or parts of operas, amongst them La Gioconda, gain from the opportunity of being ‘mined’ from a musical perspective, and are in a way enhanced, with the singers given the chance to perform primarily as musicians. Ponchielli’s mysterious, profound, Venetian atmospheres, together with Arrigo Boito’s exceptionally refined libretto, demonstrate the capacity of late nineteenth-century Italian opera to break with old conventions and to convey an almost dreamlike vision of the future which never fails to move the audience.

📷 Simone Falcetta