19 June, 2015
7:30 PM
English Symphony Orchestra
Kenneth Woods- principal conductor
Magna Carta Celebrations at Worcester Cathedral
8 College Yard, Worcester WR1 2LA
Mozart- Overture to the Marriage of Figaro
Beethoven- Overture and Incidental Music from Egmont
Ben Humphrey- narrator
April Fredrick- soprano
Beethoven- Symphony no. 3 “Eroica”
Tickets £20, £15 from Worcester Live 01905 611427
Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, is now one of the most beloved operas in the repertoire, but his setting of Lorenzo Da Ponte’s libretto, in which servants and aristocrats are depicted as not only co-equal human beings, but in which the servants outwit their masters, was considered wildly radical and provocative in its day. No composer has more eloquently argued for the cause of human freedom than Beethoven- his incidental music for Goethe’s Egmont brings to life one nation’s struggle for liberty as a powerful metaphor for the struggle for freedom across generations, as does his Third Symphony, originally written in fervent sympathy with the French Revolution. Beethoven changed the title from “Bonaparte” to “Eroica” when the French leader crowned himself Emperor of France. For Beethoven, victory and freedom belonged to all who fight for it.
