The next in the series of Spotlight Concerts in Sala Isouard at Teatru Manoel (Thursday 7th March at 8pm) takes a Grand Tour of Europe through the music of some the world’s most famous composers: Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti, Isouard, Mendelssohn, Bellini and Haydn. The programme includes arias and duets from operas whose settings span a vast number of European (and make-believe) cities and is performed by soprano Nicola Said, tenor Nicolas Darmanin and pianist Ian Peter Bugeja.
Soprano Nicola Said began her musical education in Malta studying piano and theory of music with Denise Sullivan, and voice lessons with Gillian Zammit. Alice Horne introduced Nicola to the bel canto technique and has been deeply influential in her development. More recently Nicola has also worked with Juliette Bisazza while in Malta. Nicola obtained her BMus (1st class Hons) as an Opera and Vocal Performance Major at the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music of California State University, Long Beach and is currently reading for her Masters degree in Performance at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama studying with Yvonne Kenny.
Tenor Nicolas Darmanin studied for an M.Perf at the Royal College of Music with Rosa Mannion, graduating with Distinction. His operatic roles to date include: Tamino (Teatru Manoel), Ernesto, Ferrando, Don Ottavio (Westminster Opera), Mercury (RCM Opera), as well as Tonio, Almaviva and Nemorino in opera scenes for the RCM. He has also appeared at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in their production of Linda da Chamounix as one of the Bambini, under Sir Mark Elder. In concert, Nicolas has made several appearances singing romantic song repertoire, as well as the operatic repertoire of Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Tosti, Fauré and Debussy. He has also recently performed in Mozart’s Requiem at St. Martin in the Fields, London. Recent engagements included Don Ramiro in Rossini’s La Cenerentola for Bury Court Opera, and Triquet in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin for Grange Park Opera (‘Rising Stars’). Nicolas is currently at the National Opera Studio.
Ian Peter Bugeja is a graduate of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, where he read for an MMus in orchestral and opera conducting. Ian Peter specialises in historical performance, regularly taking on the double role of conductor and soloist with various seventeenth and eighteenth-century keyboard (harpsichord/fortepiano) concertos; he also conducts early instrumental music and operas from keyboard. He has recently made his debut at the Holburne Museum in Bath in an all-Haydn concert. Ian Peter currently holds the position of artistic director/resident conductor of Coloratura Ensemble, and has held the same post with REPCo Orchestra between 2010-2012.
The Grand Tour of Europe Spotlight Concert is on Thursday 7th March at 8pm in Sala Isouard. Tickets are all €10 with 50% discount for students, under 25s and karta anzjan holders.
For more information and to book www.teatrumanoel.com.mt, email bookings@teatrumanoel.com.mt or telephone 2124 6389.
