Silvestri: Music offers haven and hope for better future
With an impressive dramatics and deep emotion in the expression, yesterday evening the voice of one of the most significant Italian vocals, the soprano Dasia Masiero powerfully echoed in piano accompaniment by the pianist Andrea Campora, also from Italy.
They offered the audience an amazing music journey with a series of arias from the classical opera repertoire, from Verdi to Puccini and Mascagni, but also romances and and classical chamber canzones composed by Francesco Paolo Tosti, Ernesto de Curtis, Stanislao Gastaldon, as well as the popular Enio Moriccone who passed away two years ago, and in 2009 opened the 49th Ohrid Summer Festival.
The concert that captivated the numerous audience in the St Sophia Church was held within the traditional Italian Evening at Ohrid Summer Festival, each year supported by the Embasy of Italy in the Republic of North Macedonia.
Besides the Ambassador if Italy, Andrea Silvestri, host to the evening, there was also the Ambassador of France, Cyrille Baumgartner.
– Some of you may get surprised to see me here, the Ambassador of France in North Macedonia, and not my colleague, Andrea Silvestri, presenting here tonight. There is a reason for that. In May last year the Presidents of Italy and France, two sister nations, united in a century-long history, economic, social and cultural exchanges, signed the Quirinal Treaty in Rome. It is about a historical development of the relations between our two countries, both founding members of the EU, as a reaction to the need to give strong answers in terms of security, economic and social, but also environmental, ensuring a better structured framework for our bilateral relation within the Union. In order to give a symbolic sign for this reinforced collaboration and partnership between the two countries, close to North Macedonia, we decided to exchange the presentations at the Italian and French evening, said the French Ambassador Baumgartner.
The Ambassador of Italy, Andrea Silvestri, announcing the Italian artists, pointed out that music, as a universal language, feeds souls, and is of great importance these years, and as he said, gives us haven and hope for better future.
-Daria Masiero is considered one of the most significant vocals in the contemporary opera panorama. After her early graduation from the Conservatory of Alessandria, she has established herself as a performer of rare refinedness, grace and sensitivity. Thanks to her technical abilities, she can skilfully alter between opera and dramatic elements, with highlighted flexibility enabling to play leading roles in the famous operas by Puccini, Verdi, Bizet, Pergolesi, Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, Mozart, Leoncavallo, Mendelson and Tchaikovsky. Maestro Campora also starts his studies at an early age, obtaining a diploma for piano at the age of 17, and afterwards for composition and orchestra conduction, as well as a Maths diploma. He has worked many years as a professor at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Torino, an as a pianist-accompaniment to opera and choir singers, enabling him to co-operate with world-known artists, said the Ambassador Silvestri, claiming that the already excellent cultural relations between the two countries, and especially with Ohrid as a city of UNESCO, will continue and strengthen in the future.
The stars of the evening, soprano Daria Masiero and the pianist Andrea Campora, were amazed by the Festival and the city.
– I am very happy. When I arrived, I didn’t expect to meet something this beautiful. Very well organized, everything is fantastic here, the church, the acoustics, the organization. I am very grateful for the invitation, said Masiero.
– It is lovely to perform in a church with such acoustics. The piano was amazing. It was my pleasure to be here, added Campora.The music programme of Ohrid Summer Festival continues tonight with the traditional French Evening, with the performance of the Quartet “Agate”.