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"A TASTE OF ROSSINI"
A  pre-concert reception for subscribers and donors

Revelations, dazzle and merriment abound with culinary themes and a sampler of Rossini's greatest vocal and instrumental works

The Close Encounters With Music's 27th season opens Saturday, October 13, 6 PM at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center celebrating the 150th anniversary of the death of the great Italian composer Gioachino Rossini with an evening illustrating the wide range of his majestic, hilariously wicked and sparkling music--arias and duets from Tancredi, Adina, Cenerentola, and selections from his brilliant piano music Péchés des vieillesse (Sins of Old Age) composed at the end of his life.  The enchanting contralto Emily Marvosh is joined by soprano Sonja Tengblad ("crystalline tone and graceful musicality--Boston Globe) in a romp through vocal works, that will also include the glorious Barcarolle by Jacques Offenbach, whose music Rossini championed.  Pianist Roman Rabinovich, winner of the 2008 Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv, presents some of the fiendishly challenging Péchés that reveal a portrait of a bon vivant who pushed humor, gastronomy--and technique--to their limits. A finishing flourish will be a performance of a string quartet written originally at the tender age of twelve!

Rossnin's bons mots ("I know of no more admirable occupation than eating" is just one!) are as legendary as his 40 operas, as were his caustic wit and outrageous humor. At his Paris home and later at his villa in Passy, he gave superb gourmet dinners attended by many of the greats of the musical and literary world of the mid-19th century. 

The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians sums up Rossini's superstar status: "No composer in the first half of the 19th century enjoyed the measure of prestige, wealth, popular acclaim or artistic influence that belonged to Rossini. His contemporaries recognized him as the greatest Italian composer of his time." And we'll give Rossini the last word: "Eating, loving, singing and digesting are, in truth, the four acts of the comic opera known as life, and they pass like the bubbles of a bottle of champagne. Whoever lets them break without having enjoyed them is a complete fool."

or call The Mahaiwe Box Office at 413-528-0100 
  
A Taste of Rossini Reception
A Special Event for Subscribers and Donors
A PRE-Concert Reception, October 13 at 4:30 PM
The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center's Reception Hall

CEWM s ubscribers and donors are invited to savor a private reception before this concert.

Which piece by Rossini might make the perfect side dish to the main course of his operas? He wrote a few musical hors d'oeuvres in his old age, pieces about anchovies, cornichons, raisins and nuts, dry figs, radishes and butter, which will be sampled on the musical menu as well as at a "Taste of Rossini!" reception for all subscribers and donors preceding the concert.  This is also an opportunity to experience Tournedos Rossini, which he invented together with legendary Parisian chef Marie Antoine Carême.

For more information or 
to subscribe visit  
 
     
THE 2018-19 CONCERT SEASON
October 13 - June 8


Saturday, October 13, 6 PM, The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
A ROSSINI EXTRAVAGANZA!

Saturday, December 8, 6 PM, The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
MOZART AND SCHUBERT--MARZIPAN AND THE "TROUT" 

Saturday, February 23, 6 PM, Saint James Place
HAYDN SEEK-- DISCOVERING THE HUMOR AND WIT IN PAPA HAYDN
 
Saturday, March 23, 6 PM, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
RUSSIAN TROIKA-- PROKOFIEV, RACHMANINOFF AND STRAVINSKY
 
Saturday, April 13, 6 PM, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
THE AMERICAN BRASS QUINTET
 
Saturday, May 18, 6 PM , Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
THE ESCHER QUARTET--BARBER, MOZART, SCHUBERT QUINTET
 
Saturday, June 8, 6 PM , Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
GALA: LIKE FATHER-IN-LAW, LIKE SON-IN-LAW--
ANTONIN DVORAK AND JOSEF SUK

or call The Mahaiwe Box Office at 413-528-0100