Grands Choeurs d'Opéra

Both born in 1813, Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner pushed opera in radically different directions. The German composer turned opera from a medium of entertainment into a respectable dramatic form, and introduced the 'leitmotif' technique, whereby characters’ various psychological states are each assigned a short recurring melodic line. Verdi, on the other hand, used the orchestra as a single harmonious instrument, and as a result his music is somewhat easier on the ears than Wagner’s.

The two composers therefore make interesting bedfellows in a concert that juxtaposes excerpts from their respective oeuvres. The Choeur de l’Opéra national de Paris and the Orchestre des Lauréats du Conservatoire will be handpicking the most memorable choruses from Verdi’s Nabucco, Macbeth, Il Trovatore, Aida and La Traviata, and from Wagner’s Tannhäuser, Lohengrin and The Flying Dutchman. And who knows – if Wagner’s only comic opera, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, makes an appearance, it may prove the missing link between these two giants of the nineteenth century.