DISS 2015: Vivaldi Opera: Catone in Utica

Catone Fabio Antoniello
Emilia Julia Sitkovetsky
Cesare Rhiannon Llewellyn
Marzia Anna Harvey
Arbace Emily Owen
Fulvio Katie Hainbach

Adrian Chandler violin/director
Robert Howarth continuo
Richard Williams director

Dartington Baroque Orchestra
7.45pm
£18.50 reserved / £14 unreserved / Under 16s £9.25 reserved / £7 unreserved

A semi-staged performance of Vivaldi's powerful, virtuoso opera of Roman intrigue, politics and passion. First performed in 1737, Catone in Utica was deemed a masterpiece, replaying Cato’s the last stand with the Roman Republic's army at Utica in North Africa, against Julius Caesar’s emerging empire. Corruption, heroism, justice and messy compromise are all here in Vivaldi’s spine-tingling score, with ravishing colatura lines and orchestral brilliance. This performance is sung in Italian with surtitles.

Born on Merseyside, Adrian Chandler studied modern and baroque violin with Rodney Friend and Catherine Mackintosh. Whilst a student at the RCM he founded the ensemble La Serenissima with whom he has since performed numerous solo recitals and Vivaldi concerti in major festivals such as Spitalfields, Chelsea, Southwark, Cheltenham, Lake District Summer Music, Lichfield, Bruges, South Bank Early Music Festival and York Early Music Festival, as well as in concert series in Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Malta, Mexico, Spain and the UK.

Robert Howarth has led a number of tours with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, including Messiah in Spain and Moscow, the Monteverdi Vespers 1610 (recorded for OAE Released), The Glory of Venice – Gabrieli and contemporaries – and Bach Lutheran Masses. He has conducted Handel’s Messiah with the Hallé, Apollo and Daphne with The St James Baroque Players, and Bach Cantatas with the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra. He joins forces at Dartington with Adrian Chandler, the highly acclaimed violinist and leader of La Serenissima.

Part of the Dartington International Summer School concert and event programme.

For more information visit http://www.dartington.org/whats-on/event/?id=87398