Next Concert in Cambridge

Hello everybody, 

my trip to Edinburgh was fantastic - the concert went well (it was a real pleasure to perform for such an attentive audience at the Edinburgh Society for Musicians), and we had a lot of fun!

Now it's time to start preparing for our next concert in Cambridge: on Saturday 4th of May at 6 pm at the Downing Place URC, we will present a new Italian Opera programme! Soprano Naomi Rogers will join Ralph Woodward and me to perform a selection of arias and duets from some of the most loved Italian operas - Verdi's Traviata, Puccini's Bohéme and Donizetti's Elixir of Love.

Don't miss out on this extraordinary evening of music and emotion - book your tickets now and prepare to be captivated by the breathtaking performances at A Night of Opera in Cambridge!

Happy New Year!

Today I got back to the UK, ready to resume with my lessons and for a new year of concerts!

The first concert of 2024 will also mark my debut in Scotland: in just a bit more than two weeks, together with Ralph Woodward, we will travel to Edinburgh to perform again Schubert's Winterreise. I have a feeling that the cold of the North will help me to find new interpretative ways to my Winter Journey!

So on Saturday 27th of January, we will perform for the Edinburgh Society of Musicians:

Check out their website https://www.edinburghsocietyofmusicians.co.uk/events

See you soon!

Last concerts of 2023

 Hi everybody!

Christmas is approaching, and I'm getting ready for my last concerts of 2023 - one here and a couple back home in Italy.

On Friday 15th at 7 pm at Chatteris Parish Church I will be part of the line-up for the Concert for Hope, an event to raise funds for East Anglia Children Hospice and Hospices of Hope in Ukraine. I will be singing some Italian Opera arias and a few songs with Ralph Woodward at the piano. For more info and tickets click here.

 

A few days after this concert I'm heading to Italy: my friends Anna Viola, Silvia Regazzo, Michele Bravin and the amazing guys of Orchestra da Camera di Pordenone are waiting for me to perform in two Christmas Concerts - at the church of the town where I grew up, Lignano Sabbiadoro, and in another town not far from home. I will sing some sacred music and Christmas carols. After that - 2 weeks of holidays before coming back to the UK and start working again with my students!

Merry Christmas!!

Concert at the Andover Music Club

Hey everybody!

I got back a couple of days ago from Italy, a very quick trip home for a concert at a very interesting festival, as this year's main theme was madness! Together with pianist Federico Lovato we performed some Lieder by Schubert and Schumann, some opera arias by Donizetti, and Verdi, and the ultimate tenor mad scene: the end of Britten's Peter Grimes!

Now it's time to get ready for my next concert in the UK, as next week I'll be performing again with Ralph Woodward at the Andover Music Club in Hampshire. On Thursday 23rd November we will bring our Italian Journey programme to The Lights, the local auditorium.

Stay tuned for more news!

Great Britten in Cambridge!

 Hi everyone,

as anticipated in my last post, I look forward to my next concert in Cambridge with pianist Ralph Woodward! On Friday 10th November at 7 pm at Downing Place URC, joined by mezzo-soprano Bridget Hardy, we will present Great Britten, a night dedicated to Benjamin Britten and his songs.

The concert will start with a few of his folksong arrangements (The Salley Gardens, The Last Rose of Summer, Come you not from Newcastle? and many others), sung by both Bridget and me. We will then perform one short cycle each: I will sing the fiery and passionate Michelangelo Sonnets, the setting of seven poems by the Italian painter, sculptor, and architect Michelangelo Buonarroti, written in 1942 for the tenor Peter Pears, Britten's lifelong partner; Bridget will give her voice to the Cabaret Songs, gorgeous witty setting of W.H. Auden's poems, including the well-known Tell Me the Truth About Love.

Finally, the three of us will perform Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac, the touching scene from the Old Testament as found in the dramatic Chester Miracle Play. I will be Abraham, Bridget Isaac, and together, singing in rhythmic unison, the other-worldly sound of the Voice of God.

Here you can listen to a small preview of the programme and here you can get your ticket.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Holidays and... more Britten!

Hi everybody!

I'm writing from Italy, where I'm finally spending some relaxing free time with my family and friends after some concerts in the last 10 days. The last one was a concert performance in Lignano Sabbiadoro of Puccini's Madama Butterfly, where I was joined by my school days old friend baritone Giorgio Caoduro, and mezzo Silvia Regazzo, soprano Sara Pegoraro and pianist Alessandra Sagelli.

I'll be on holiday for the next few weeks, before coming back to England to start teaching again and work towards my next concerts. The first one will take place in Cambridge on Friday 10th November, when mezzo Bridget Hardy, pianist Ralph Woodward and I will be waiting for you for an all-Britten night - a group of gorgeous folksong arrangements, the fiery Michelangelo Sonnets, the bluesy Cabaret Songs and the heartbreaking duet canticle, Abraham and Isaac.

Visit https://bit.ly/greatbrittencambridge to get your ticket!

A Night of Opera in Ashley

Hi!

On Saturday 15th July at 7 pm, I will sing at this fundraising concert organised by the lovely people of St Mary's Church in Ashley accompanied by my friend Cedric Ghevaert.

We will perform Opera arias by Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini, Bizet, and Meyerbeer, salon pieces by Tosti and also a couple of Musical Theatre numbers!

Get your ticket from https://bit.ly/operainashley

I look forward to seeing you there!

Britten's Serenade

Hi everyone,

the recording of my last concert in Italy is online!

As I said in my last post, at the end of April I went back to Italy to perform Benjamin Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings with Guglielmo Pellarin, Orchestra San Marco and conductor Eddi De Nadai. I'm so happy I had the chance to sing such wonderful music, one of the most beautiful pieces Britten wrote for the voice of Peter Pears! I'm pleased I can share the recording of our performance with you:

If you want, please have a look at my YouTube channel: you'll find more of my performances and a few recordings of my singing teacher bass Alfredo Mariotti and other singers I love.

Hope you enjoy!

Spring Update!

The last few months have been quite eventful!

First of all, at the end of January, I had a super quick trip to Edinburgh to celebrate Burns Night! We got the tickets for the last concert of the Burns&Beyond Festival with Kinnaris Quintet and singers Julie Fowlis and Karine Polwart. It was great to be again in Scotland!

The highlight of February was the visit to the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge. Composer Luka Venter and poet David Bottomley are writing an opera about marine biology and lantern fish and visited BAS to get some first-hand info and gain some precious knowledge to proceed with their work, so my friend Jen (who is a researcher at BAS) invited me to join the party! It was an amazing day and I got to meet not only two very interesting artists but also some amazing scientists!

Luka, David, me, Jen & Lorena

At the beginning of March, I had my concert with Ralph Woodward in Cambridge: Italian Journey. We performed for a packed hall and I was very happy to share the Italian music with which I grew up for an English audience. It was particularly moving for me to sing, as an encore at the end of the concert, a popular song from my region, the touching melody of Stelutis Alpinis. Here you can listen to an extract:

Also, you can enjoy a short bit from Girometta, a very nice and funny Italian song:

The biggest event of the month - and indeed of my whole life - happened at the end of March (to be precise, at the very last few minutes of the month): my first daughter Nora Elizabeth arrived, and stole Mummy's and Daddy's hearts - and their sleep as well!

After only a few weeks, feeling a bit guilty for leaving home already, I went back to Italy to join horn player Guglielmo Pellarin, Orchestra San Marco and conductor Eddi De Nadai for my first concert as a dad! We were to perform Britten's Serenade for tenor, horn and strings and I was very excited because it was my first time singing it. Britten's music holds a special place in my heart. I've been lucky to perform in his native Lowestoft with my friend and gorgeous singer Stephanie Lewis and in Aldeburgh in the church where he and Peter Pears are buried. Now, performing the Serenade is a dream coming true. And I couldn't ask for better companions for this new musical journey!

Orchestra San Marco

Me, Eddi De Nadai, Gugliemo Pellarin

Now, I have a couple of quiet months - if dealing with a 5 weeks baby can ever be quiet - before all the summer concerts!

Italian Journey - A Night of Opera in Cambridge

 My next concert in the UK will take place in Cambridge and I will be joined one more time by Ralph Woodward, a great pianist and a very good friend. Together, we will take the audience on an Italian Journey, an operatic trip to Rome, Venice, Mantua, and Naples in the company of Puccini, Verdi and Donizetti and their host of tenor heroes. And then we will perform enchanting salon pieces by Respighi, Tosti, and others, to admit us to a more intimate world with songs of love and devotion.

The concert will take place on Saturday 4th May at 6 pm at Michaelhouse Centre in Cambridge - save the date and visit this link to get your ticket!

Here you can get a little preview of the programme of the concert.

See you then!

Happy 2023!

Hi guys, here I am again!

I closed my last post dreaming of my soon-to-begin holiday but... music managed to sneak its way right in the middle of it! I was about to spend 10 wonderful days in Croatia, worrying only about swimming, eating, and not getting a sunburn, when the phone rang: "Hi Alessandro! Last minute concerts! We have the opportunity to repeat in Croatia two programmes we did earlier this year! Will you join us??". So I said, "actually, I'm going to Croatia for my holidays, you know...".

"Oh, come on - said the voice on the phone - everything's ready, you just need to show up on the day and have a quick rehearsal before the concert, please...". Luckily the concerts were close to where I was about to go, so, in the end, I said why not! These events turned out pretty fun - especially the one in Rijeka, where I had the chance to sing, accompanied by a big band, also something quite out of my usual repertoire: Cheek to Cheek, My Way... I had a good time and Claudia wasn't annoyed we had to hit the pause button on our holiday and she enjoyed the concerts as well!

Later, in October, I went back to Italy for the last part of the European Project which had brought me to Athens in May: I met again in Pordenone old and new friends from Italy, Portugal, Greece, Serbia, and Montenegro to perform the now completed show "Bravo Bravissimo!", about the life and the music of Gioachino Rossini. I enjoyed a lot being part of it and we are now working to find opportunities to repeat it in the future.

On my return to England, Ralph Woodward and his Fairhaven Singers were waiting for me for two concerts in Cambridge. The first one was a moving Schubertiade at Cambridge URC, where I sang a few Lieder with Ralph at the piano and the beautiful Intende Voci for tenor, oboe, choir and piano 4 hands. For the second one, we moved to the magnificent Queens' College Chapel, where the choir performed some stunning masterpieces such as Nänie by Brahms and Ode to Death by Holst, and together we repeated Schubert's Intende Voci. Here's a pic from the rehearsal:

Between the end of November and early December, I had something different on my plate: a couple of trips to the studio recording!

First one in Cambridge: my ex student Nicholas asked me if I wanted to join him in recording the very popular aria Nessun dorma from Turandot by Puccini - as a duet. Nicholas is more of a rock singer, but gifted with an amazing voice, and we had not meet each other in a very long time as he now lives in another part of the country, so I happily accepted his proposal! It was great to find Nicholas keeping well - and the sound engineer had fun as well, used as he was to pop singers rather than operatic tenors! Anyway, here you can listen to what we did together - I hope you enjoy it!

My second appointment in a studio was in London, where I kicked off the recording sessions of a new composition written by Bob Stuckey on the poems by Anthony Howell. This is an exciting work, involving singers and performance artists, inspired by the great Basilica in the Roman town of Aquileia, not far from the place where I was born. Putting together all the parts of this huge work will be a tough job - for now we are getting a recording of the musical part, but I can't wait to start working with the performance artists!

But time flies, and soon the moment arrived to go home again (but not before meeting Ricky Gervais during a walk in snowy Cambridge!) and perform for the traditional Christmas Concert in my town. I invited my closest musical friends to join me on this occasion, and we had a wonderful time with the music of Mozart, Bach, Handel, and a few traditional Christmas carols!