ELY SINFONIA BRINGS GRAND TOUR TO ELY CATHEDRAL
Popular local orchestra to take Cathedral audience on a musical journey through Europe and North Africa, with a hundred and fifty years of romance, opera and film
Ely Cathedral, Saturday 2 October 2010, 7.30pm
A treat is in store for anyone visiting Ely Cathedral on Saturday 2 October 2010, when rising local community orchestra, Ely Sinfonia, takes the audience on an imaginary journey in the footsteps of 19th and early 20th century young adventurers. The orchestra’s Grand Tour takes in France, Italy and Algeria and spans a hundred years of music from classical to jazz, in a programme that includes the overture to Rossini’s opera, “Italian Girl in Algiers”, Berlioz’s “Harold in Italy” (with Brenda Stewart, viola) and Gershwin’s “An American in Paris”.
A limited number of £20 premium tickets are available. These include preferential seating at the front of the Cathedral and a complimentary programme. Other tickets cost £17.50, £12.50 or £10 (reserved), or £5 (unreserved). All tickets are now available from Burrows Bookshop, High St Passage, Ely (Tel: 01353 669759), from Ely Cathedral Box Office (Tel 01353 660349, email box.office@cathedral.ely.anglican.org and online from https://tickets.elycathedral.org.
Written in just 21 days by the 21-year-old Rossini , ”The Italian Girl in Algiers” tells the story of love lost and found, slavery, pirates and even a shipwreck. The overture is still one of his best-known works, full of surprise and contrasts from the very start. Full of energy, sparkle, drama and good humour, it is a fun-filled and charming jewel of an overture.
From the cacophony of taxi horns to a burst of homesickness, George Gershwin’s “American in Paris” conveys, like no other composition, the atmosphere of 1920s Paris as seen by the American visitor. Leslie Caron played the French nymphette opposite Gene Kelly in the film based on the music, and people still listen in awe at the poignant 13 minute ballet sequence that closes the piece.
“Harold in Italy” was originally written at the request of Paganini, who wanted a concerto to celebrate his superb Stradivarius viola. Berlioz’s final composition involves a full-scale orchestra, interweaving with a solo viola that represents Byron’s melancholic Childe Harold as he travels through Italy, encountering brigands, pilgrims and a mountaineer serenading his mistress. The soloist, Brenda Stewart, is already familiar to Ely Sinfonia audiences. She is well-known as a professional viola teacher and performer, as well as being curate to parishes near Huntingdon.