Mandolinist Avi Avital
Next week will see the one Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra concert of the season that will not be auditioning a Music Director candidate. Instead, the ensemble will be led by mandolinist Avi Avital. The program will consist almost entirely of compositions by Antonio Vivaldi in celebration of the 400th anniversary publication of The Four Seasons. As might be expected, the principal violin solo parts will be played by Avital on his mandolin. The four concertos in that collection will be preceded by a “warmup” concerto for the string ensemble, RV 156 in G minor.
The second half of the program will feature soprano Estelí Gomez. She will sing the aria “Le seguitai felice” from the RV 725 “dramma per musica” L’Olimpiade. This opera was first performed in 1734, using a libretto by Pietro Metastasio, which had been used the previous year for an opera with the same title by Antonio Caldara. Indeed, over 50 composers created operas from this libretto, the best known of whom would have been Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, whose opera was performed in 1735! In the spirit of Vivaldi’s Venetian reputation, Gomez will conclude the program with a selection of popular gondola songs.
The San Francisco performance of this program will take place this coming Thursday, November 7, beginning at 7:30 p.m. As usual, the venue will be Herbst Theatre, located at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. Ticket prices range from $40 to $132. City Box Office has created a Web page, which includes a diagram showing where seats are currently available.
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