Ferruccio Furlanetto In Recital
World-renowned Italian bass and winner of the 2015 Opera News Awards Distinguished Achievement in Opera Award, Ferruccio Furlanetto is returning to Sydney to perform a two-concert series for Opera Australia, featuring German and Russian Art Song.
Accompanied by Ukranian pianist Igor Tchetuev, Furlanetto, who delighted Sydney’s opera fans with his performance as Philip II in Don Carlo for Opera Australia in 2015, will sing two different programmes.
The first, Schubert’s Winterreise is a setting of 24 poems by Wilhelm Müller which takes the listener on a journey of introspection and self-discovery. Originally written for a tenor voice, it has been sung in Sydney by bass-baritones, notably Matthias Goerne, Ryan McKinny and Morgan Pearse, but rarely by a bass. True to Schubert’s artistry, the writing treats the piano and the voice as equal partners painting a sonic soundscape of bleakness and winter.
The second concert explores Russian art song, a repertorie that is rarely heard in Sydney. Rachmaninov brings his lyrical, nationalistic, late-Romantic style to his song-writing, drawing on tangible and intangible aesthetics of nature and emotions. This second performance features Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death, a quartet of songs (Lullaby, Serenade, Trepak and The Field Marshall) which Furlanetto has in fact recorded on the Mariinsky label with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra. The recital also explores other famous songs from Mussorgsky’s Art Song anthology. (See below).
Furlanetto debuted at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan in 1979, in a production of Verdi’s Macbeth, conducted by Claudio Abbado. His roles include both Don Giovanni and Leporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Philip II in Verdi’s Don Carlos, Figaro in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Gremin in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Zaccaria in Verdi’s Nabucco, Méphistophélès in Gounod’s Faust, Orestes in Strauss’ Elektra and the title role of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov. He has graced the stages of the world’s major opera houses and concert halls, amongst them, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Opéra de Paris (Bastille), the Vienna Staatsoper, the Tel Aviv Opera, and the Royal Opera House in London, the Royal Albert Hall and the Vienna Musikverein.
CONCERT NO.1, 27 Sept. Schubert, F – Winterreise
CONCERT NO.2, 29 Sept. Rachmaninov, S – Songs include Fate/ A dream /The lilacs /In the silent night/ How fair this spot/ I was with her/ This time/ Stay don’t leave me /Spring waters
Mussorgsky, M – Songs include The leaves are sadly rustling /For you the words of love/ Song of the old man /The night/ The winds are howling/ Songs and Dances of Death
There will be a translation of Furlanetto’s repertoire printed in a free program
Tickets from $59 (fees may apply)/ Group and concession prices available for most performances/ Student Rush available for most performances: $50 (fees may apply)
Bookings: Opera Australia Box Office (02) 9318 8200 or www.opera.org.au
