ICO 2023 season – Sundays @ 1pm

Sunday 3rd December 1.00pm @ Sherwood State School, cnr Oxley and Sherwood Rds, Sherwood

Conductor – Greta Hunter

Soprano – Eline van Bruggen

Tenor – Reuben Abbott

Welcome to our concert of vocal favourites and orchestral delights, the last of our Sundays @ 1pm series for 2023. Featuring two extraordinary vocalists, soprano Eline van Bruggen and lyric tenor Reuben Abbott, who will perform arias from famous operas by Mozart, Donizetti, Pucinni, Giordana and Lehár, and interspersed with orchestral pieces, Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro Overture, Fauré’s Pavane, and Delibes’ set of six majestic airs. Feel the power of love through seductive song and joyful dances of the day, where a rich sense of humanity shines out.

Program

Mozart – The Marriage of Figaro:

• Overture
• Un moto di gioja
• Al desio di chi t’adora

Donizetti – Bella siccome un angel from Don Pasquale

Puccini – Questo amor from Edgar

Giordano – Amor ti vieta from Fedora

Fauré – Pavane

Lehar – Lippen schweigen from The Merry Widow

INTERVAL

Delibes – Le roi s’amuse. Suite of airs and dances for orchestra, interspersed with vocal works

• Gaillarde
• Pavane
• Scène du bouquet
• Lesquercarde
• Deh vieni non tadar from Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro
• Madrigal
• Vielle chanson
• Passepied
• Final

Greta Hunter – Conductor

Greta Hunter is a Brisbane based conductor and flute specialist. She holds a Bachelor of Music (BMus(hons)) from the University of Queensland, majoring in flute performance, and currently studies Orchestral Conducting with the Cardiff International Academy of Conducting and Mark Shapiro (The Julliard School). 

Greta holds the position of conductor with the Indooroopilly Chamber Orchestra (ICO), where she connects players to great orchestral works most often from the 18th – 20th centuries. With ICO, Greta creates valuable opportunities for outstanding young musicians to rehearse and perform concertos and solo works with a full orchestra. She is equally at home with choral music and is currently the musical director of Songshine Choir. Greta also works with school and community youth ensembles as well as being regularly invited to guest conduct other instrumental and vocal ensembles around Brisbane.

Greta is a flute specialist tutor at St Peter’s Lutheran College (Indooroopilly) and Westside Christian College. She is passionate about developing technique and musicianship and incorporates a multidisciplinary approach to her teaching, where she utilises and combines flute pedagogy with vocal pedagogy. Greta incorporates this approach to develop technique and musicianship for flutists and choristers alike and has seen significant positive benefits across both disciplines.

Greta is driven by the underlying philosophy that everyone deserves to experience meaningful music making. Through her work as both a conductor and flute specialist tutor, Greta guides people to explore the possibilities of expression through music and ultimately to engage with music in a deeper and more meaningful way.

Eline van Bruggen – Soprano

Born in The Netherlands into a family of professional musicians, Eline has always shown a passion for performing. She started with Suzuki Method at the age of four and is a proficient flautist as well as vocalist.

This year, Eline toured to Longreach and Winton with Opera Queensland for the Festival of Outback Opera and performed as a soloist at the Brisbane Festival. She received third prize for the Open Classical Art Song section at the Queensland Vocal Competition and was selected as a finalist for both the Ethel Osborn Prize and the Margaret Nickson Prize for Voice and Piano in 2023.

Her operatic roles include Ciboletta in Eine Nacht in Venedig and Erste Knabe in Die Zauberflöte in The University of Queensland’s complete productions, as well as Frasquita in Carmen, Crobyle in Thaïs, Ida in Die Fledermaus, and Poppea in L’incoronazione di Poppea in staged concert excerpts.

Eline attended the Cuskelly College of Music Summer School Opera Program earlier this year, where she learned from internationally recognised vocal coaches. She has performed as a guest with the Brisbane Chamber Choir for Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and in the mass choir for the Verdi Requiem with the University of Queensland Symphony Orchestra.

Having recently completed her second year of study under the tutelage of Sarah Crane, Eline looks forward to sharing this program with you today.

Reuben Abbott – Lyric Tenor

Lyric Tenor, Reuben Abbott is currently in his fourth year at UQ, pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Music and Secondary Education. His passion for singing was discovered during his time in school choirs, where he attended the state finals of Choral Fanfare as both a chorister and soloist.

After successfully auditioning for The UQ Voice program, Reuben began his vocal training under the tutelage of renowned Dr. Shaun Brown. He has had the privilege of performing in numerous concerts and events, including notable roles such as the shoemaker in UQ’s production of Gianni Schicchi, the understudy for Marco in the same production and the understudy for Count Guido in the recent production of Strauss II’s Eine Nact in Venedig.

Reuben’s talents have also been showcased as the understudy for Dr. Falke in UQ’s Orlovsky Gala, as a tenor soloist with the Queensland Youth Baroque Ensemble performing Bach Cantata 182, as a Chorus Member in Opera Queensland’s captivating performance “Songs of Love and War”, UQ’s Beethoven 9 and Verdi’s Requiem, as well as “A Heart Less Heavy”. He has also made appearances in concerts and recordings alongside the Lucem Vitae Singers.

Program Notes – Orchestral Works

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791)

Marriage of Figaro Overture

In 1782, the French playwright, Beaumarchais, offered private readings to King Louis XIV of his comedy of manners, The Marriage of Figaro. Instead of being pleased, the monarch decided the story was “detestable and must never be produced.” The irreverence was simply too much. As “forbidden fruit,” the play became the rage of the aristocracy, and it surfaced repeatedly in secret productions (one even including the King’s wife.) Like the King, Napoleon also sniffed danger in the plot, and he declared that the play was “the revolution already in action.” The Austrian government echoed the danger and banned the play from its borders. In 1784, the play was presented publicly in Paris to great acclaim, and within a year, Germany had twelve translations on hand. The Marriage of Figaro was unquenchable.

After searching through hundreds of plays for an opera buffa, Mozart decided this was just the ticket. With the librettist Lorenzo da Ponte, the pair produced the opera Marriage of Figaro in only six weeks. The Overture was completed only two days before the opening on May 1, 1786.

The music opens with bustling notes, like whispers of gossip which gain momentum. Ultimately, these fragments gel into an energetic theme which romps happily throughout the Overture. Moods shift like quicksilver; a comedic helter-skelter atmosphere prevails; and there is no rest. At one point, Mozart had considered a contrasting slow tune for oboe but deleted the idea. Allowing the Overture to run with its madcap nature, uninterrupted by any structural corseting, provided the perfect introduction and preparation for the hilarious opera. It has always delighted audiences as a separate concert piece for hundreds of years.

Program notes: Marianne Williams Tobias –

https://www.indianapolissymphony.org/backstage/program-notes/mozart-overture-to-le-nozze-di-figaro/

Gabriel Fauré (1845 – 1925)

Pavane Op.50 (1887)

French composer Gabriel Fauré is probably best known today for his Requiem and this elegant Pavane. Eschewing the heavy scoring of Wagner, Fauré preferred the gentler romantic French traditionalism passed on from his teacher Saint-Saens. Featuring the flute in its seductive low register, Pavane exemplifies this more conservative approach and was dedicated to Fauré’s patroness Countess Greffulhe. Pavane became quite popular, and Fauré made a piano arrangement in 1889.

The bulk of Gabriel Fauré’s music – whether piano, chamber, vocal or orchestral – conveys the impression of a personal and private statement, an intimate conversation between the composer and his muse. Throughout his life Fauré’s ideal was to create chamber music; the grander forms, opera, symphony or concerto, were not for him. His music is admirably suited for performance in private homes or small halls. But the elegance and ease of much of his work belies the painstaking effort that went into the composition. Fauré was not one to wear his heart on his sleeve.

Program Notes: Elizabeth & Josehp Kahn

https://ashevillesymphony.org/program-notes/MW7May11/index.htm

Léo Delibes (1836 – 1891)

Le Roi S’Amuse

Victor Hugo wrote the play “Le Roi S’Amuse” (The King Amuses Himself) in 1832. Loosely based on historical figures, the plot involves a court jester to the king who schemes to help the king obtain a new mistress. The jester’s daughter is seduced by the king; upon discovering a plot to murder the king, she sacrifices her life for him. The play was banned in 1832 after just one performance (government censors believed that the play insulted the current king of France). Some 20 years later, the plot of “Le Roi S’Amuse” became the basis for Verdi’s Opera Rigoletto.

When the play was finally revived in 1882, the noted composer Léo Delibes wrote a ballet sequence of six charming dances and antique airs to be included as incidental music. They consist of a grand opening Gaillarde; a stately Pavane; a melodic Scène du Bouquet; Lesquercarde, a spritely tune; a sweet Madrigal; a wistful Passepied; and a final reprise of the Gaillarde.

Program Notes: The Broadway Bach Ensemble

https://www.broadwaybach.org/musical_work/le-roi-samuse/

Vocal Répertoire

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791)

The Marriage of Figaro (composed in 1786)

Mozart’s chaotic whirlwind of mistaken identities, twists and turns, is a comedy that takes place on a single crazy day – the wedding of Figaro and Susanna. It tells of how these servants, Figaro and Susanna, succeed in getting married, foiling the efforts of their philandering employer, Count Almaviva, to seduce Susanna and teaching him a lesson in fidelity. From the first notes of the famous overture through to the Count’s lesson in marital fidelity, Mozart’s musical invention conveys a story in which the women are portrayed as wiser, shrewder and more civilised than the men. Considered on of the greatest operas ever written, it is a cornerstone of the repertoire and appears consistently among the top ten of the most frequently performed operas. The work is described as being one of the supreme masterpieces of operatic comedy, whose rich sense of humanity shines out of Mozart’s miraculous score.

Program notes: English National Opera – https://www.eno.org/operas/the-marriage-of-figaro/

Gaetano Donizetti (1797 – 1848)

Don Pasquale

Don Pasquale in three acts was composed very quickly by Italian composer, Donizetti, and premiered in Paris in 1843. The cast was handpicked from the most famous singers of the day. Donizetti knew their vocal and dramatic abilities and trusted them with challenging material. Though Don Pasquale is a buoyant delight for the audience, it is formidable work for the performers. Don Pasquale, like Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, epitomises Italian opera buffa or comic opera. Filled with bright and colourful vocal writing and skilful depiction of plot and character, a clever leading lady, her winsome admirer, an old buffoon who hopes to outwit them, and a conniving fellow who takes the young lovers’ side. Donizetti was a master at pleasing his audiences.

Program notes: Britannica – https://www.britannica.com/topic/Don-Pasquale

Giacomo Puccini (1858 – 1924)

Edgar (composed in 1888)

Italian composer, Puccini, one of the greatest exponents of operatic realism, also produced La Boheme, Tosca, Madama Butterfly. His second opera, Edgar is based on a story from a French play by Alfred de Musset, in which the hero burns down his own house to show his contempt for his fellow countrymen. He makes off with the hysterical and sacrilegious gypsy Tigrana, but then grows tired of their illicit liaison and yearns for Fidelia, the girl next door back in the Tyrol. After a victorious battle, he has his armour sent home, and in disguise as a monk, watches his own funeral. At the last moment, as he prepares to escape with Fidelia, the seductress Tigrana stabs her to death. Puccini retained an affection for the score and made several revisions of it, the final one as late as 1905.

Program notes: Gramophone – https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/puccini-edgar-1

Umberto Giordana (1867 – 1948)

Fedora

Umberto Giordano’s Fedora will never rank with the likes of Andrea Chénier in the operatic canon, but the Italian composer’s second most popular work still gets performed from time to time. The work, which premiered in 1898, was based on the Sardou play of the same name. Giordano was actually rejected by Sardou when he requested permission to adapt the opera, mainly due to his relative status as an unknown at the time. However, after the success of Andrea Chénier, the composer finally got his chance to create the opera. The most famous passage in the entire opera is brief tenor aria “Amor ti Vieta” in which Giordano encapsulates the power of love elegantly.

Program notes: Operawire – https://operawire.com/opera-profile-umberto-giordanos-fedora/

Franz Lehár (1870 – 1948)

The Merry Widow

Hungarian composer, Franz Lehár is mainly known for his operettas, of which the most successful and best known is the comic operetta in three acts, The Merry Widow. It centres on the relationship between the wealthy young widow, Hanna, and Danilo, who has an appetite for wine and women. As this delightful tale of a woman’s quest for love unfolds, their burgeoning romance is hampered by mishap, intrigue and comedic misadventure.

Program notes: English National Opera – https://www.eno.org/operas/the-merry-widow/

Indooroopilly Chamber Orchestra

Flute

Hayley Bryant

Kymberley Jones

Midori Matsumura

Clarinet

Ryan Evans

Colleen Rowe

Bassoon

Jarrah Newman

Kirsten Wilson

Horn

Nicole Blackett

Paul Brisbane

Bob Townsend

Keyboard

Aisha Schreiber

Timpani and Percussion

Janine Kesting