A special concert Magical Nights at the Opera, introducing a stellar singing cast featuring three mysterious vocal works by three composers.

 

In 1918, Bohuslav Martinů granted the world two vocal-instrumental compositions. The monumental Czech Rhapsody, which was later conceived as a celebration of the founding of Czechoslovakia and three songs under the common name Magical Nights. Martinů connected the beloved home with - at that time still uncertain - desire for far off lands. In his Magical Nights, the world of Chinese poetry comes to life, which had shortly before that been mediated by Gustav Mahler's songs and almost a hundred years later by Krzysztof Penderecki in his 6th Symphony.

 

During his lifetime, Camille Saint-Saëns made at the time incredible 179 trips to 27 countries, and it is quite possible that he also visited former Persia. However, the impetus for writing the song cycle Persian Night (Nuit Persane) was a collection of poems by Armando Renaud from 1866. Four years later, an impressive cycle of songs with piano accompaniment called Persian Songs (Mélodies Persanes) was created. Although the theme itself encouraged the use of musical elements with an exotic touch, Saint-Saens did not do so and he chose to set one of its most impressive song cycles firmly in a harmonious European environment. Exactly 130 years ago, an instrumented version of several songs called Persian Night (Nuit Persane) was also published, which appears more than sporadically on concert stages and on recordings.

 

Ruggero Leoncavallo left music-loving people one of the opera's most cut diamonds, the one-act Comedians. However, his other opera opuses, such as the excellent adaptation of Bohéma's theme, which was overshadowed by Giacomo Puccini's opera of the same name, also deserve attention. Before Leoncavallo became a constant of veristic opera, he lived through the 1880‘s as an "enfant terrible" in Paris. The symphonic poem for tenor and orchestra May Night (Le Nuit de Mai) based on Alfred de Musset also dates to this period. Leoncavallo set to music a brilliant dialogue between a nameless poet and a voracious muse. The peculiarity of form and musical processing, as well as the unusual instrumentation in some places still refer to Hector Berlioz, but many details already reveal the later unmistakable manuscript of the brilliant Italian.