MAURICE RAVEL (1875-1937)
Alborada del gracioso
Alborada del gracioso (The Jester’s Aubade) is the fourth movement in a set of five from Ravel’s short suite for piano Miroirs (Mirrors). Composed in 1905, the number four regularly appears as part of many pianists’ recital repertoire. Although the Spanish title, Alborada, has no immediate translation it is usually construed as an announcement of dawn, a sunrise song, an aubade. Its flamboyant and inspiring orchestral edition, written by Ravel with his boundless sense of colour, flair and virtuosity, did not make an appearance until 14 years after its initial composition. One BBC critic wrote the  piece “builds to a conclusion, a grand and glorious racket”.
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REMIGIO PEREIRA
Bon matin (Good Morning)
From Remigio’s album, Cadeau du Ciel this song is reverie, a morning serenade where love awakens amidst shimmering rays of the sun dancing upon the water.

CACO VELHO (1920-1971) - Piratini PIRATINI (1906-1953)
Mãe Preta
"Mae Preta" is a poignant fado narrating the plight of an enslaved Black mother who nurses her master’s child while her own suffers in silence. From Remigio’s album Cadeau du Ciel, this interpretation, with vibrant African rhythms and evocative orchestrations, transforms the song’s mournful longing into a stirring testament of pain, dignity, and hope.
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REMIGIO PEREIRA
Fogo do Céu (Fire from the Sky)
Fogo do Céu is an energetic instrumental piece that contrasts blissful joy with fiery passion. Together the guitar and orchestra in dance of intense fervour ignite a blazing celebration of the spirit.
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MANUEL DE FALLA (1876-1946)
El Sombrero de Tres Picos
The Three-Cornered Hat—tuneful, popular and firmly rooted in Spanish folk music—was composed in 1919 by one of the most influential composers of the 20^th Century. Its genesis comes from the ballet Manuel de Falla wrote for the travelling Ballet Russe which performed in Europe between 1909 and 1929. The title comes from the traditional three-cornered head gear worn by the magistrate character in the ballet’s story.

The Andalusian flavour of this music comes from a complete appreciation of Spanish folk traditions. Following a trip to Andalusia, where Falla heard an intriguing tune coming from a broken guitar, he wrote the melody down, eventually incorporating it into the music for the ballet.

The music is suggestive, telling a story of love, jealousy and infidelity complete with an ample amount of frivolity—a miller and his wife evading the absurd advances of a misguided magistrate.
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GEORGES BIZET (1838-1875)
Carmen: Prelude
Undoubtedly one of the greatest operas of the 19^thCentury, Carmen fits easily into a place of honour within the entire operatic genre. Completed in 1874, after several of the composer’s previous failures, the opera was an astounding success despite petty complaints from both orchestra members and singers: “a difficult, unplayable score; women smoking and fighting on stage; its perceived scandalous nature”. Today, of course, most audiences appreciate Bizet’s tonal orchestrations that reflect the work’s Spanish setting, a realism that made operatic history.

The Prelude establishes the opera’s melodies: a beginning festive march defining a sense of excitement; a recognizable Toreador theme introducing Escamillo, the Spanish bullfighter; and finally, the “Allegro Moderato”, heard here, a darker motif introducing a tragic foreshadowing of the characters’ eventual demise.

Carmen: La Fleur que tu m’avais jetée
Better known by its popular name The Flower Song, La Fleur que tu m’avais jetée, sets the stage for one of opera’s great moments: an after-hours tavern where Carmen waits for Don Jose who has ignored a bugle call announcing his immediate return to barracks. Instead, he tries to convince Carmen of his love for her by producing the flower she threw to him months earlier. She dances for him, and his poignant Flower Song, declaring his love, remains to this day as one of the most lyric moments in the entire opera.

"The flower that you had thrown me, I kept with me in prison… I became intoxicated by its fragrance…why did fate put you in my path?” The piece concludes with Don Jose’s plea, “O, my Carmen, je t’aime…” a plea to be released from her spell.

ELTON JOHN (1947)
Circle of Life
On August 9^th,1994 a new Disney animated film, The Lion King, burst across movie screens across the world. The film’s continuous run at the box office—now an amazing 31 years—is due in large part to its opening song, Circle of Life by British composer and vocalist Elton John. Nominated for both Academy Award for Best Song and Grammy Award for Song of the Year, the piece can be thought of in terms of life’s cycles, symbolic representations of birth, survival and death.

Leesa Daniels writing in the British pop music magazine Smash Hits gave Circle of Life four out of five: "He (Elton John) has managed to create a beautiful song, that, once you've seen the film, will reduce you to a big blubbering buffoon. The song is grand, majestic and deeply touching.”

REMIGIO PEREIRA
Don’t You Fall
From Remigio’s album, Cadeau du Ciel a song about the tormented soul wrestling with inner conflict. It expresses the weariness to release pain and fear, capturing the moment between resistance and a surrender to love.

RICHARD SRAUSS (1864-1949)
Dance of the Seven Veils (Salome)
The Dance of the Seven Veils is music made famous in Salome, an opera by Richard Strauss; it also appears prominently in Oscar Wilde’s 1894 play of the same name. In exchange for her seductive dance before her step-father King Herod, the biblical princess Salome demands the head of John the Baptist. Strauss’s music for the dance becomes increasingly more frenzied, described as “brilliantly effective”, characterized by an agitated waltz motif. At its premiere the Dance was considered the Most decadent scenes ever devised for the stage. Analysts have interpreted the veils as the seven layers of Salome’s descent into madness, her increasingly insane demand for the head of John the Baptist

The Dance is a central moment in the opera when Herod grants the young biblical Salome’s demand, but finally overcome with loathing and disgust, he orders Salome sent to her death.

REMIGIO PEREIRA
Dies Irae (Day of Wrath)
Dies Irae composed for OP tells the story of the Day of Wrath when God separates the wheat from the tares.  The trumpets sound announcing His wrath with galloping horses of the apocalypse amidst fire and brimstone for whom the bell tolls, as echoes of Psalm 23 bring comfort to those who believed.  


LUCIO DALLA (1943-2012)
Caruso
This poignant ballad is characterized by a lyrical melody, a song intended to explore two distinct aspects of Caruso’s life: his incredible fame and talent as a celebrated tenor, but also his self-acknowledged sense of loneliness and isolation in the knowledge of impending death—the essence of life itself.  As if to illustrate this the song evokes a strong sense of sadness, of longing and loss, without doubt one of the most endearing and popular songs Italy has gifted to the Neapolitan genre.

The origins of the song are poignant. Dalla had journeyed to Sorrento, staying in the same hotel that Caruso had visited years earlier. The event inspired him to write the song Caruso based on the hotel employees stories about Caruso’s repeated visits to the hotel over the years. According to Dalla, ‘the song came to him almost magically, capturing the sorrow and longing of Caruso's final moments”.
Note: Caruso died in Naples in 1921. He was 48 years old.

Richard STRAUSS (1864-1949)
Der Rosenkavalier Suite, arranged by Marco Parisotto
Richard Strauss’ glowing and lush 1910 opera is one of his most admired compositions. Filled with splendorous melodies and opulent orchestration, it is based on the bitter-sweet story of “Marschallin”, an aristocratic woman, and Count Octavian, her 17-year-old lover. The period is around 1740 Vienna, during the time of Empress Maria Theresa. The music is in a rich late Romantic 19th century style, with intoxicating waltzes perfuming the score throughout the opera.

More than three decades later, Strauss consented to an orchestral suite of his Rosenkavalier score. The Suite was presumably compiled by Artur Rodzinski, director of the New York Philharmonic at the time. During this turbulent period of WWII, Strauss was not able to be present for the premiere, and, experiencing financial difficulties, he nonetheless agreed to its publication in 1945.

The performance this evening is a personal arrangement of the Rosenkavalier Suite by our Music Director, Marco Parisotto.

EDUARDO DI CAPUA (1864-1917)
O sole mio
This Neapolitan song, so familiar to audiences, celebrates the beauty of a day full of sunshine and the joy of love. The melody is simple, captivating and expressive, incorporating elements of Spanish folk music. Its pervasive appeal has given it a global recognition as one of Italy’s most famous songs, a testament to its timeless beauty.

It was written in 1898 by composer Eduardo di Capua, but interestingly the first English version never emerged until 1915 when several thousand miles away three Tin Pan Alley musicians heard it and turned it into a solid hit. It has since been recorded, rerecorded and performed in countless venues world wide by such luminaires as Dean Martin, and Tony Bennet.