Karita Mattila at the Megaron
The impressive voice of Karita Mattila will reverberate from the stage of the Athens Concert Hall’s Friends of Music Hall tomorrow evening. The established Finnish opera soprano is expected in Athens to interpret Richard Strauss’s «Four Last Songs» (with Greek supertitles). The glamorous vocalist will be accompanied by one of Europe’s leading ensembles, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of its permanent conductor Jiri Belohlavek. Strauss’s «Four Last Songs» for soprano and orchestra is one of the pillars of song: Over the years, a number of legendary 20th-century performers have interpreted the work, ranging from Kirsten Flagstad and Elizabeth Schwarzkopf to members of the younger generation such as Jessye Norman, Kiri Te Kanawa and Renee Fleming. In addition to the «Four Last Songs,» the evening includes the prelude and Good Friday music from Richard Wagner’s «Parsifal,» as well as Antonin Dvorak’s Ninth Symphony, «From the New World.» The BBC Symphony Orchestra, a key element on the British cultural scene for a number of years now, is intrinsically linked to the Barbican Center and the Proms music festival, for which dozens of concerts are organized annually. The upcoming concert is part of the Athens Concert Hall’s «Great Singers of Our Time» series, sponsored by the GEK Terna Group. Athens Concert Hall (Megaron Mousikis), 1 Kokkali & Vas. Sofias, tel 210.728.2333.
