RCO Opening night LIVE on Mezzo TV and Facebook

Sep 4, 2017

With its festive RCO Opening Night on September 14, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra kicks off the new season with a hall full of loyal listeners and new music lovers. This third annual season-opener features star soprano Diana Damrau singing well-loved Mozart arias. In addition, Thomas Hengelbrock will conduct a number of orchestral works by Mozart, as well as Dvořák’s ever-enjoyable Symphony No. 8.

The overture and the first aria will be livestreamed on September 14 at 20:15 CET on Mezzo TV. The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra will also share this live-stream on their Facebook page.

In Japan, the concert will be broadcast via Primeseatand and on Avrotros for the radio broadcast. The programme will also be performed a second time at the hall, on September 15.

After-party

You are invited to meet the orchestral musicians, Thomas Hengelbrock and Diana Damrau in the foyers after the concert. An after-party for fans in the Recital Hall brings the evening to a close.

Concert programme

The concert opens with the legendary overture to Don Giovanni. The Symphony No. 32, as compact as it is inventive, may also have been intended as an overture to an opera or operetta. In Mozart’s opera Il re pastore, crown prince Aminta’s declaration of love for his adored shepherdess Elisa, L’amerò, sarò costante is so sincere that Alexander the Great gives the two permission to marry. Bella mia fiamma, addio is a dramatic farewell letter to a loved one. The aria ‘Dove sono i bei momenti’ fits Diana Damrau like a glove, who has sparkled many times as the Countess Almaviva in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro.
Finally, Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8 is an exuberant ode to the great outdoors, brilliantly blending Bohemian folk music with Classical forms.