Monte Carlo Simuluations For Options

Bellini’s penultimate opera was received unenthusiastically at its premiere in 1833, and has never attained the popularity of Norma. Early this century it disappeared completely until revived in 1935, as part of the centennial commemoration of the composer’s death. In recent years, its tragic heroine, the wife of a Milanese duke, falsely accused of infidelity and executed at her husband’s command, has been portrayed by such notable bel canto specialists as Joan Sutherland, Leyla Gencer and June Anderson. This dramatically vigorous and well-constructed work contains some of Bellini’s finest and most characteristic melodies, among them a ravishingly beautiful trio, ‘Angiol di pace’. Its neglect for so many years is difficult to comprehend.

Ermione is one of Rossini's greatest operas. The libretto by Andrea Tottola based on the tragedy by Racine, Andromaque, is one of the richest Rossini ever set, for Tottola in boiling down Racine retained the essence of the play without producing the silliness which so often characterizes bel canto librettos. Possibly, it was the atrength of the libretto that inspired Rossini to write his most profound and innovative opera. He is uncompromising on his demands on the singers. The opera also makes huge demands on the producer since there are major roles for at least three first-class tenors as well as extremely demanding music for a soprano, a contralto or mezzo soprano and a bass. The orchestral and chorus demands are also very high.

Maestro Marek Janowski, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and the Transylvania State Philharmonic Choir present Giuseppe Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera (1859), together with a stellar cast, headed by Freddie De Tommaso (Riccardo), Lester Lynch (Renato) and Saioa Hernández (Amelia). Un ballo in maschera is Verdi’s tragicomic masterpiece, in which the composer skilfully switches gears between the light and tragic, as well as between his earlier and more mature style. As such, it is both an entertaining and highly sophisticated work.