Claudio Scimone

To celebrate the 200th anniversary of André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry’s death, the Opéra Royal de Wallonie brought the composer’s Guillaume Tell back to life in the city of his birth. With a mostly Belgian cast, they offer a brilliant revival of a monument of Walloon music history. Stefano Mazzonis Di Pralafera decided to exaggerate the comic bent of the original libretto by framing the production with exuberantly zany stage sets inspired by circus theater. Marc Laho incarnates the perfect hero (Guillaume Tell) and the sublime Anne-Catherine Gillet his wife (Madame Tell). The opera is set in 13th century Switzerland, and stages patriotic Swiss people’s heroic fight for liberty—with Tell as their chief—against the evil and oppression of the Austrians led by Guesler, the local governor. A superb production of a raucously entertaining opera!

Set in 1960, the year of the Rome Olympics, a 13 year-old boy with aspirations to become an athlete befriends an ageing, disabled bus driver who understands his ambitions.

From the Basilica of Superga in Turin, a symphonic concert conducted by Claudio Scimone. W. A. Mozart, Kyrie in D minor, K. 341, for mixed choir and orchestra. G. F. Handel, Concerto No. 16 in F major, HWV 305a, for organ and orchestra. J. S. Bach, Cantata BWV 76 for soloists, mixed choir and orchestra.

Claudio Scimone and the Solisti Veneti in concert in Nairobi perform music by Vivaldi, Tartini, Rossini, Pasculli, Verdi, Arban, Monti and Morricone whose poignant version of “Nuovo Cinema Paradiso” is heard.