The Italian Embassy in Manama, in collaboration with the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities (BACA), organised the “Tribute to Maestro Giacomo Puccini” concert on the occasion of the centenary of the death of the great Italian composer.
The concert was performed at the National Theatre of Bahrain as part of the “Spring of Culture Festival”, one of the richest and most attended annual cultural festivals in Bahrain. The concert was sold out and saw the participation of the President of BACA, Sheikh Khalifa bin Ahmed bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, of numerous representatives of Bahraini governmental institutions, as well as a large audience of civil society members and Italian music enthusiasts, including students from the “Grazia Deledda” Centre for Italian Language and Culture and young local musicians.
The undisputed stars of the concert were the Italian artists: soprano Desirée Rancatore, tenor Davide Tuscano, pianist Maestro Jacopo Salvatori and the string ensemble of the Massimo Youth Orchestra in Palermo, who paid tribute to one of Italy’s most beloved composers by performing arias and duets from his most renowned operas such as La Bohème, Turandot, Tosca, Madama Butterfly and Gianni Schicchi.
The programme included timeless arias that have made music history, such as Nessun Dorma, Vissi d’arte, Sì, mi chiamano Mimì, E lucevan le stelle, as well as the famous Intermezzo from Act III of Manon Lescaut that opened the concert. The intense programme evoked deep emotions from the audience present in the hall, who showed its appreciation at the end of the concert with a standing ovation.
At the end of the concert, the Ambassador of Italy to Bahrain, Paola Amadei, commented: “In 2023, Italian opera singing was included in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list and this is a source of great pride for Italy. It was a great honour to present a concert of this calibre that promotes the knowledge of Italian opera singing while also paying homage to one of the most prominent Italian composers of all time, Maestro Giacomo Puccini, on the occasion of the centenary of his death. The success among the local audience and the standing ovation at the end of the concert testified not only to the great talent of the Italian artists but also to the appreciation of the Bahraini people for the very rich cultural heritage of our country”.
