show category: recital

Six years after an extraordinary event, which brought to the attention of the public the anniversary of the great Romanian actor Florin Piersic, through a journey into the fantastic world of Peer Gynt, the actor returns to the stage of the Opera, once again in the pose of the artist who always dreams freely , accompanied by the orchestra that will be under the baton of conductor Tiberiu Soare. In the preamble, selections from the Romeo and Juliet Suites by Sergei Prokofiev open the evening to the world of the imaginary.

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After moving back to the Soviet Union in 1933 after fifteen years of self-imposed exile, Sergei Prokofiev suddenly found a new sense of purpose as a composer. Written in a burst of frenzied activity in the summer of 1935, the ballet Romeo and Juliet nevertheless proved controversial before a note of the music was heard in public. After the directors of the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow read the score and declared it undanceable, Prokofiev, in a cold fury, extracted two suites from the ballet in 1936, suspecting – correctly – that the suites would pique the audience’s curiosity to listen to the work in its entirety.

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Henrik Ibsen wrote the five-act allegorical drama Peer Gynt in 1867 while living in Italy. It tells the story of the fall and subsequent redemption of a Norwegian peasant anti-hero. Unlike Ibsen’s earlier dramas, this one was written in verse and was not originally intended to be performed on stage. However, in 1874 Ibsen changed his mind and wrote to his friend and compatriot Edvard Grieg to ask him if he would compose the music for a production of the play. Flattered to receive the invitation, Grieg immediately accepted. The Peer Gynt Suite brings to the public’s attention the archetype of the free-dreaming artist, the imaginary and the fantastic, being one of the composer’s most popular works, and of his four movements, Morning and In The Hall Of The Mountain King remain the best-loved scores.

Recommended age: 7+

The concert has an intermission and ends around 10.00 pm.