Punto Arte Festival 2023
A Midsummernightsdream - music by Felix Mendelssohn Mendelssohn and Henry Purcell
on a story by William Shakespeare
Conductor - Jan Willem de Vriend
Netherlands festival Orchestra
Concept and director - Eva Buchmann
Assistant-Ruth Becker
Renate Arends / Marina Zyatkova - soprano
Ralf Popken - altus
Pavel Zak - tenor
Maarten Koningsberger - baritone
Wojtek Dzwonkowski - baritone
Ben Hurkmans - dramaturge
Ruth Becker - assistant
Between the 10th and 14th of July The Netherlands Festival Orchestra comes together to realize the most surprising, varied, theatrical and delicious musical festival in and around medieval Volterra.
This was the praising reaction to the splendid and endless nights in the heart of Tuscany during former editions: ‘an unreal and fantastic experience’ or ‘it was dreamlike’.
Well, this inspired us to adjust the festival program. We wish the gardens of Villa Palagione be filled with melodies from Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream and Purcell’s Fairy Queen, both based on Shakespeare’s masterwork. Will the fairy queen Titania this time again fall in love with a donkey?
The trombone is said to be the symbol of the human soul in the first operas. One of the first trombone concertos by Ferdinand David will be played by Jörgen van Rijen. The virtuose trombonist will also perform Arvo Pärt in an adaptation by himself, authorized by the composer. Also Jörgen is giving masterclasses for talented trombone students from all over the world, very interesting for the audience.
Mozart as well was inspired by the night and lets the timpani sound in his serenade Notturna. Did Beethoven have a sense of humor? Most probably yes, given the problems he had with his shoes, his mother and other everyday things. Only 80 kilometers from Volterra Boccherini was born. How fitting his Stabat Mater will sound in this surroundings…
