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Rolando Villazón Championing Luciano Berio’s Transcriptions of Verdi’s 8 Romanze

Dec. 03, 2012

Rolando Villazón Championing Luciano Berio’s Transcriptions of Verdi’s <em>8 Romanze</em>

World famous tenor Rolando Villazón has become a new found champion of Luciano Berio’s transcription of Giuseppe Verdi’s 8 Romanze for tenor and orchestra.  The tenor presents the work on three different occasions in the coming months. The first of this series of performances comes as part of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra’s New Year’s Gala in Baden-Baden, Germany. Villazón then reprises the performances on March 19 and March 26 with the Vienna Philharmonic under Fabio Luisi and the Staatskapelle Berlin with Daniel Barenboim, respectively.

Completed in 1991, Berio’s transcription sets Verdi’s mini “scenes” within a new cultural context of musical references as a way of examining the impact of Verdi’s music 150 years later. Berio wrote at the time:

It is my belief that these eight romances for voice and piano can be considered as true studies, in embryonic form, for scene, arias, and cabalettas of Verdi operas. In fact they contain echoes of “Nabucco”, “La forza del destino”, “Don Carlo”, and even an entire phrase, “Tacea la notte placida” from “Il trovatore.” I have set the eight romances in a respectful and subtle web of musical references which comments, with the hindsight and distance of 150 years, on the relationship of Verdi’s language, style and manner with time as it passes.


For precise performance information, visit www.staatsoperberlin.de, www.wienersymphoniker.at, and www.festspielhaus.de.

Learn more about Luciano Berio and his music at www.universaledition.com.

Giuseppe Verdi
8 Romanze (1991)
transcribed by Luciano Berio for tenor and orchestra
2.2.2.2-2.2.2.btba-timp.perc-hp-str
25’

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