 Folie et amour ? On prévoit Lucia, les Puritains, la Somnambule, Anna Bolena… Pas du tout : le titre concerne… Berlioz ! qui unit, dit-on, le génie à la folie dans ses œuvres inspirées de Shakespeare. La part du lion revient aux cinquante-huit musiciens de l’orchestre de Bâle, dirigé par Ivor Bolton. Pièces interprétées : l’ouverture du roi Lear, la scène d’amour de la symphonie dramatique Roméo et Juliette, puis Rêverie et caprice, avec en soliste la coréenne Soyoung Yoon, mélodieuse, délicate, aérienne à souhait. Pour le chant, il n’a droit qu’à la grande scène lyrique la Mort de Cléopâtre, confiée au mezzo-soprano Vesselina Kasarova, véhémente dans les révoltes des grands accents dramatiques berlioziens, abordant avec aisance les graves dignes d’un contralto, autant que murmurant, si l’on peut dire, les confidences fragiles d’une âme troublée qui descend dans la mort. On attend Grands pharaons, nobles Lagides, et on le re-découvre, en somptuosité. Avec pareille interprète, on aurait souhaité la mort de Didon dans les Troyens où elle doit faire merveille. Toujours insatisfait, le mélomane berliozien ! Le chef emmène avec autorité son imposant orchestre, tempêtueux, passionné mais aussi … romantiquement rêveur. Belle réussite. (Danielle Porte) «My life is a novel which interests me very much», Hector Berlioz allegedly once said to a friend. For this reason in 1848 – at the age of 45 – he began writing his memoires. When the work was published posthumously in 1870 the public was astonished by the candour and literary prowess with which Berlioz described the course of his life. Vesselina Kasarova was born in Stara Zagora (Bulgaria) and began playing the piano at the age of four. After training as a concert pianist and gaining her diploma, she studied singing with Ressa Koleva at the Music Academy of Sofia, and was already as a student singing major roles at the National Opera. She has given concerts and recitals throughout Europe, the USA and Japan. Vesselina Kasarova holds the title Kammersängerin of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich as well as of the Vienna State Opera. Ivor Bolton is chief conductor of the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, with whom he has appeared annually at the Salzburg Festival since 2000, and on tour (including at the 2006 BBC Proms in London), and with whom he has already built up an extensive discography including a critically successful series of Bruckner Symphony recordings. He will take up the position of Music Director of the Teatro Real Madrid in September 2015 and is also Chief Conductor of the Dresden Festival Orchestra. The Sinfonieorchester Basel is one of the oldest and most important orchestras in Switzerland. It is rooted in the north-west of Switzerland and at the same time enjoys a more than regional as well as international radiance. The Sinfonieorchester Basel is always again demonstrating anew its excellent quality, whether it be in its own concert tiers, in the Theater Basel or in guest concerts at home or abroad.
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