Maestro Zubin Mehta at the head of the Maggio Orchestra in China

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by Opera Charm Team

June 19, 2024

Maestro Zubin Mehta, at the head of the Maggio Orchestra, leaves for a prestigious tour that brings the Maggio back to China more than 10 years after the last time.

Five concerts in all: the first two dates are at the 'Grand Theatre' in Tianjin on 19 and 20 June, and three dates are scheduled at the 'National Centre for the Performing Arts' in Beijing on 21, 22 and 23 June.

Just a few days after the closing concert of the 86th Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Festival, triumphantly welcomed by a sold-out Mehta Hall, conductor emeritus Zubin Mehta, at the head of the Maggio Orchestra, embarks on a return to China more than ten years after his last visit.

Thus begins the Maggio Orchestra’s announced and important tour of China with five prestigious symphony concerts in two stages. The first two are scheduled for 19 and 20 June at the ‘Grand Theatre’ in Tianjin, the city where the Maggio Orchestra is arriving for the first time.

On the orchestra stands Frédéric Chopin’s Concerto No. 2 in F minor op. 21 for piano and orchestra and Antonín Dvorák’s Symphony No. 7 in D minor op. 70 for the concert on 19 June, while a programme entirely centred on the compositions of Ludwig van Beethoven is scheduled for the evening of 20 June: opening with the Concerto in D major op. 61 for violin and orchestra; closing the performance is the celebrated Symphony No. 7 in A major op. 92.

Immediately after the performance on 20 June, Maestro Mehta and the orchestra, accompanied for this second stage by the Superintendent Carlo Fuortes, will set off for the Chinese capital, Beijing, where the Maggio, Mehta and the orchestra, especially after the Turandot performed in the Forbidden City in 1998, enjoy great fame and respect, for three eagerly awaited concerts in the imposing ‘National Centre for the Performing Arts’; the concerts are scheduled for 21, 22 and 23 June.

Performances on 21 and 23 June will include Frédéric Chopin’s Concerto No. 2 in F minor Op. 21 for piano and orchestra and Antonín Dvorák’s Symphony No. 7 in D minor Op. 70; while Ludwig van Beethoven’s Concerto in D major Op. 61 for violin and orchestra and Symphony No. 7 in A major Op. 92 will be performed in the concert on 22 June.

Soloist at the piano in the concerts on 19, 21 and 23 June is Vanessa Benelli Mosell, who in the course of her career has already performed, both as pianist and as conductor, in some of the most prestigious concert halls on the international stage, such as the Tonhalle in Zurich, the Lincoln Center in New York and the Teatro alla Scala. In the concerts on 20 and 22 June, as solo violinist, the star is Amira Abouzahra: Very young, she has already taken part in and won numerous international competitions, including the ‘Jugend musiziert’ in Germany, the International Ilona Fehér Violin Competition in Hungary, Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra in Virtuosos Talent Show and the String Soloist Award at the ISA Festival, performing on prestigious stages such as the Lincoln Center in New York, Covent Garden in London, the Palace of Arts in Budapest and the Old Parliament House in Singapore.

For the fifth time in its history, the Maggio Orchestra – led, as in each of these tours, by its conductor emeritus for life Zubin Mehta – returns to China, consolidating an almost thirty-year artistic bond that began with the historic Turandot directed by Zhang Yimou in 1998 in Beijing’s legendary Forbidden City – until then never granted for live performances – when Zubin Mehta conducted the Maggio Orchestra and Chorus on nine memorable consecutive evenings in front of more than 4,000 people for each performance. There was also great public success on the 2005 stages; again in Beijing at the Poly Theatre in 2007 and in Shanghai and Suzhou in 2011.

The tour programme

19 June 2024, Tianjin Grand Theatre

Frédéric Chopin
Concerto No. 2 in F minor op. 21 for piano and orchestra
Antonín Dvorák
Symphony No. 7 in D minor op. 70

Conductor
Zubin Mehta

Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

Piano
Vanessa Benelli Mosell

20 June 2024, Tianjin Grand Theatre

Ludwig van Beethoven
Concerto in D major op. 61 for violin and orchestra
Symphony No. 7 in A major op. 92

Conductor
Zubin MehtaOrchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

Violin
Amira Abouzahra

21 June 2024, Beijing National Centre for the Performing Arts

Frédéric Chopin
Concerto No. 2 in F minor op. 21 for piano and orchestra
Antonín Dvorák
Symphony No. 7 in D minor op. 70

Conductor
Zubin Mehta

Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

Piano
Vanessa Benelli Mosell

22 June 2024, Beijing National Centre for the Performing Arts

Ludwig van Beethoven
Concerto in D major op. 61 for violin and orchestra
Symphony No. 7 in A major op. 92

Conductor
Zubin Mehta

Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

Violin
Amira Abouzahra

23 June 2024, Beijing National Centre for the Performing Arts

Frédéric Chopin
Concerto No. 2 in F minor op. 21 for piano and orchestra
Antonín Dvorák
Symphony No. 7 in D minor op. 70

Conductor
Zubin Mehta

Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

Piano
Vanessa Benelli Mosell

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Alice Lechner

Alice Lechner comes from a music-loving family. Her first encounter with the opera universe was at the tender age of six. The grandeur of the stage productions and costumes, the backstage chatter, and last, but definitely not least, the music left her in awe, beginning with Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The overall feeling that opera awakens in anyone who gets a glimpse into this part of artistic eternity, that each and every day passes the test of time, was what drew her to stay and be a part of this world. The Opera House of Brașov became her second home, and the people who worked there were her second family.

Since then, Alice has devoted her spare time to maximising her musical knowledge through instrumental studies, studying both piano and violin for a short time. In the following years, her number one passion stepped out of the limelight and graciously gave way to Law Studies.
Since 2018 she has been studying Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.

Her passion for opera, even if it is no longer her top professional priority in terms of career, it has most definitely become her priority during her free time. Wanting to experience the best of both worlds and extend her musical horizons, she regularly attends opera performances throughout Romania and abroad.
With OPERA Charm Magazine, Alice aims to nurture her creative side to help it flourish and bloom and to discover, alongside the magazine’s readers, the fascinatingly complex world of opera.

Currently, she is an LL.M. in Business Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.

Oana Zamfir

Oana Zamfir is a second year MA student at the “George Enescu” National University of Arts, at the Department of Musicology.

She studied violin for 12 years at the “Stefan Luchian” High School of Art in Botosani, later focusing on the theoretical aspects of music. In 2019 she completed her bachelor studies in Musicology as a student of the National Academy of Music “Gheorghe Dima” in Cluj-Napoca. Her research during 2018-2019 brought to the forefront elements of the archaic ritual within works of composers who activated during the communist period, giving her the opportunity to start a research internship at the “Carl von Ossietzky” University in Germany. In this context, she recorded conversations with members of the Sophie Drinker Institute in Bremen, and had access to documents directly from the Myriam Marbé archive.

Since 2019 she has been a teacher of Music Education and Theoretical Music Studies, making full use of interactive methods in the musical training of students and working, at the same time, with the children’s choir founded in the first year of her activity.

Her interests include pursuing a degree in interior design in 2020.

Alexandru Suciu

Alexandru Suciu inherited his passion for art growing up in a family of several generations of musicians. He began his musical studies at the “Augustin Bena” School of Music in Cluj, where he studied piano and guitar. Even though his main study direction was philological, his passion for music prevailed. He began his academical journey at the Faculty of Letters of the “Babeș-Bolyai” University, studying Comparative literature and English. He continued by studying Opera Singing at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy. He also graduated the Musical Education section, followed by Artistic Directing at the Musical Performing Arts department.

His multidisciplinary education opened the doors towards research, which is seen both through his participation in national and international conferences and symposia, such as the Salzburg Easter School PhD-forum, organized by the Salzburg Universität or the Silesian Meeting of Young Scholars, organized by the Institute of English at the University of Silesia, as well as the collaboration with Opera Charm Magazine.

During his student years, he won several prizes, including the Grand Prize at the “Paul Constantinescu” National Musical Interpretation Competition, the Romanian Composers and Musicologists’ Union Prize at the same competition, the First Prize and the Schubert Prize at the “Ada Ulubeanu” Competition.

He further developed his artistic skills by specializing in courses and masterclasses held by personalities such as Vittorio Terranova, Giuseppe Sabbatini, Marian Pop, Ines Salazar, Riccardo Zanellato, Paolo Bosisio, Valentina Farcaș and Manuel Lange in contexts such as the Internationale Sommerakademie für Operngesang Deutschlandsberg, Corso Internazionale di Canto Lirico I.M.C. Licata or the Europäische Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst Montepulciano. Besides his activity on-stage, he currently teaches Opera Singing Didactics, and Pedagogical Practice within the Department for Teacher Education and Training at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy.

Cristina Fieraru

Cristina is a 24 year-old Romanian soprano & a student at the National University of Music Bucharest, where she pursues the MA program in Vocal Performance.

She made her debut in Pamina from “Die Zauberflöte” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at only 19 years old at the Bucharest National Opera House, as a member of the Ludovic Spiess Experimental Opera Studio. Over the years she made her debut in roles such as Contessa d’Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Mimì & Musetta (La Bohème), Alice Ford (Falstaff), Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte) in her university’s opera productions.
Her passion and experience extends in the field of choral music, too.

She has been part of our dream team since the fall of 2021. For a good period of time she took care of OPERA Charm’s social media and took you on the monthly journey through the history of opera through our Legends rubric – and a few times through the Theaters around the World rubric.

Her little soul rubric – from 2021 to present – is definitely the Conductors of the Future, where, every month, she gives you the chance to meet a young star of the world of conducting and, of course, to find out what’s the most charming feature of opera in these artists’ views.

BIANCA L. NICA

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