A tour to the “Heart of Europe”

On 27 May the orchestra will be giving one concert as part of the Dresden Music Festival, being run this year with the theme “The Heart of Europe” and presenting the music of Austrian, Czech and Hungarian composers in addition to folk melodies from those regions. The tour programme includes Béla Bartók’s ballet suite The Miraculous Mandarin, Richard Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben and Arthur Honegger’s Cello Concerto, the solo to be performed by internationally acclaimed German musician Jan Vogler. The concert will take place at the Semperoper, one of Germany’s oldest theatres which was named after the architect Gottfried Semper.

The following day the orchestra sets off for Salzburg to appear at a festival there celebrating the Holy Trinity. On 28 May at the Großes Festspielhaus there will be a concert programme entitled “Cleopatra orientale.” Cecilia Bartoli, making her debut this year as the Salzburg Festival’s Artistic Director, selected various depictions of the legendary Cleopatra in world music as its theme. The Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra will be performing works by Anton Rubinstein, Sergei Prokofiev, Jules Massenet and Charles Gounod. Moreover, there will also be a premiere of Rodion Shchedrin’s work Cleopatra and the Snake for orchestra and soprano which was commissioned by the festival. Due to Anna Netrebko being ill, the solo will now be performed by Cecilia Bartoli and Mojca Erdmann. Also performing that evening will be actors Chulpan Khamatova and Yevgeny Mironov and Mariinsky Theatre bass Alexei Tanovitski.