VERDI: Sinfonias and Overtures [CD de audio] Orchestra Regionale Filarmonia Véneta, Verdi and Marko Letonja

Giuseppe Verdi is among the most influential composers of the 19th century, not only for his constant exploration of political themes within a cultural context. This was a time and place where opera mattered, and staging themes of family tension and social unrest was a vital catalyst for his country's turbulent progress toward unification. The preludes and overtures to his operas serve different functions depending on the nature of the main work and when he wrote it. This extensive selection encompasses the potpourri style overtures to I masnadieri and his first great triumph, Nabucco, displaying the unforgettable melodies in a parade of expressive light and shadow. The brief preludes to Aida and Otello are more designed to set the scene for what follows by building without anticipating the tension of the tragedy; and finally there are the fully worked out grand schemes of the overtures to La forza del destiny and I vespri siciliani, which in their almost symphonic incorporation of the opera's themes into an independent narrative design are worthy of the example of Beethoven whom Verdi so revered. . Marko Letonja is artistic director and principal conductor of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. He has conducted the German and Italian opera repertoire at several of the great European houses, including La traviata in Berlin, Nabucco in Dresden and The Makropoulos Case at La Scala, Milan. Its Verdian pedigree is assured; like, of course, that of the native musicians of the Orquesta Regionale Filarmonia Veneta.