We were transported to Italy momentarily on Friday when four women from the “Italian ensemble sweet journey” held their audience spellbound for over an hour. The performers were Fiorella Mattiuzzo on the piano, Manuela Manfio on the violin, Clinzia Del Col the first soprano and Antonella Geacomin the mezzosoprano. All four were very vibrant and basically performed chamber music. Their musical repertoire ranges from famous arias and duets to operas and operettas and contemporary composition – Their repertoire is also enriched by famous romances associated with traditional Italian folk music including Neapolitan song from the beginning to the end of the 1900s. The musicians have had the honour to perform in Italy and abroad. In 2008, 2009 and 2010, the group visited Pakistan to raise funds for “Smile Again” and the United Nations Day for Women in Pakistan.
The unique and interesting thing about this group is that all musicians are women. The opera programme started with “O solemio”, which was beautifully rendered, being a traditional Neapolitan song. It continued on to “Diciteneellovuje”, another traditional song and then “Te voghio assaje”. Then they performed the classic opera “Una vole poca fa” by Rosselini. In between, the violinist beautifully played “In Mercato persiano”. Manuela Manfio was very good at it. She described a busy marketplace through camel drivers and beggars. A beautiful princess enters the marketplace and stays to watch jugglers and snake charmers – a caliph passes through the market and interrupts the entertainment, after which the princess leaves the marketplace and the nuances are very efficiently expressed by the violinist.
She was really worth hearing as she also played the valzer “Le on de del danubio”.
The Blue Danube, which was originally composed by Strauss, passes through the old Austrian and Hungarian empires and beckons the romantics to dance and live it up. Bellini’s Casta diva was performed with artistry by Clinzia Del Col. But the masterpiece that was rendered by Mezzo Soprano was “Les Oiseanx de La Charmille” – an opera fantastique by offenbach. Antonella Geacomin brought a mechanical doll to life and sung like a robot and also acted like one during her performance. The audience loved her beautiful notes as well as her comical expressions. The pianist was also exceptional as she was in harmony with the soprano and the violinist. The Medley was performed by both the vocalists together along with tambourines and was a lovely piece by Verdi – “The Danza Ungherese”.
Clinzia Del Col then performed “Le Sirene del ballio” by Lehar. Her personality brought the opera to life. “Libian me lieti Calici” and “Va pensierio” by Verdi were performed with great sensitivity by the sopranos. Towards the end was a goodbye song “Con te partiro”, a lovely conclusion to the evening by the performers, who were given a standing ovation. ITALIAN OPERA: Italian opera is both, the art of opera in Italy and opera in the Italian language. Opera was born in Italy around the year 1600 and Italian opera has continued to play a dominant role in the history of the form until the present day. Many famous operas in Italian were written by foreign composer, including Handle, Gluck and Mozart. Works by native Italian composer of the 19th and 20th centuries, such as Rissini, Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi and Puccini, are amongst the most famous operas ever written and today are performed in opera houses across the world.
Romantic opera, which placed emphasis on the imagination and the emotions, began to appear in the early 19th century, and because of its arias and music, gave more dimensions to the extreme emotions which typified the theatre of the era. In addition, it is said that fine music often excused glaring faults in character drawing and plot lines Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868) initiated the Romantic period. His first success was an “opera buffa” (comic opera), La Cambiale also wrote serious, Otello (1816) and Guillame Tell (1829). Rossini successors in the Italian bel canto were Vicenzo Bellini (1801-35), Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) and Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901). It was Verdi who transformed the whole nature of operatic writing during the course of his long career. His first great successful opera, Nabucco (1842), caught the public fancy because of the driving vigour of its music and its great choruses. Va, pensiero, one of the chorus renditions, was interpreted and gave advantageous meaning to the struggle for Italian independence and to unify Italy. The writer is working as a fashion and media consultant with the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan.
