Vive la France! Opens The Season For The Balmain Sinfonia
The Balmain Sinfonia conducted by Gary Stavrou opens its 2015 season with an all-French program of music by Bizet, Berlioz and Franck which features Australian mezzo-soprano Ellen Malone.
Bizet’s L’Arlesienne Suite No. 1 showcases his remarkable gifts for melody, orchestration, rhythmic energy and his ability to capture regional flavors. The incidental music for a 1872 production of Alphonse Daudet’s play, it dramatizes the unrequited love of a peasant, Fréderi, who falls desperately in love with a woman from Arles.
Berlioz’ Les Nuits d’ete is a collection of beautiful, extraordinary songs which will be sung by Ellen Malone.
Cesar Franck’s Symphony in D Minor was inspired by the French tradition as well as the music of Liszt and Wagner – themselves masters of thematic transformation, novel orchestral effects and bold new forms.
Sinfonia founder and conductor Gary Stavrou noted – before being taken to task for including Cesar Franck in an all-French program: “I’d point out that, although he was born in Liege (now Belgium), Franck lived most of his life in Paris and was professor at the Paris Conservatoire; so, near enough!”
Mezzo-soprano Ellen Malone, holds her Bachelor of Music in performance from ANU and her postgraduate Diploma in Performance from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Ellen has performed in opera, oratorio, cabaret and recital. Ellen has released her first CD, a duet album For Two Equal Voices recorded with Judith Malone. She has performed several major song cycles for mezzo-soprano, including Brahms Zigeuner Lieder for which she was awarded the Margaret Smiles Award for most outstanding vocalist. Ellen was recently the soloist in De Falla’s El Amor Brujo at the Conservatorium of Sydney.
The programme: Bizet: L’Arlesienne Suite No. 1/ Carmen selection/ Berlioz: Les Nuits d’ete/Franck: Symphony in D Minor
Mezzo-soprano: Ellen Malone/Conductor: Gary Stavrou
Tickets $25 / $20 concession at the door
Book at www.balmainsinfonia.com or 9181 3929
