A couple in real life but seldom seen together on stage, dashing soprano Laura Nicorescu and star conductor Leo Hussain make a special appearance as outstanding musical duo for our Enescu Soirees series with a recital that is destined for online heaven.
Program
Carmen Petra Basacopol : Rugăciune (Prayer)
Kurt Weil: Youkali
Leo Delibes: Les filles de Cadix
George Enescu: Présent de couleur Blanche, Aux demoiselles paresseuses
LAURA NICORESCU graduated from the National University of Music Bucharest and continued her musical studies at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg. The young soprano began her career as a member of the Bavarian State Opera studio in Munich and is currently a permanent guest of the state theater ensemble in Salzburg, Austria where she specialized in the Mozartian repertoire but also the repertoire of the 19th century to the contemporary. She has appeared on famous stages such as Bavarian State Opera, Royal Opera of Versailles, Vlaamse Opera, State Theater Mannheim, Theater St Gallen, La Monnaie, Bucharest National Opera or in prestigious concert halls such as Musikverein Vienna, Berliner Philharmonie, Basika Ottobeuren, Baden Baden Festspiele and Grosse Festspiel Haus in Salzburg. She also sang in the USA at the Miami Beach Opera, Coral Springs and Palm Beach Opera. Laura Nicorescu is the recipient of numerous awards including the Special Prize for Young Talent at the Francesco Viñas Competition in Barcelona and the Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg Competition and has worked with conductors such as Fabio Luisi, Kent Nagano, Kirill Petrenko, Asher Fisch, Leopold Hager, Simone Young, Leo Hussain and Ivor Bolton, and directors including Barbara Frey, Christian Stueckl, Hans Neuenfels, Eike Grams, Graham Vick and Amelie Niermeyer. You can read more about Laura Nicorescu HERE.
British conductor LEO HUSSAIN has established himself as a leading interpreter in his generation of Mozart, the second Viennese school and great 20th century masterpieces, breathing life into new scores and bringing fresh perspective to programming the core romantic repertoire with his musical intellect and curiosity. He was formerly Music Director of the Opéra de Rouen and Salzburg Landestheater, and now conducts many of the world’s top orchestras and opera houses, in 2019 he became Principal Guest Conductor of George Enescu Philharmonic. He has been a regular guest conductor at some of the world’s leading opera houses, including The Royal Opera (Enescu Oedipe, Mozart Die Zauberflöte), Bayerische Staatsoper (Donizetti l’Elisir d’Amore, Tchaikovsky Eugen Onegin, Abrahamsen The Snow Queen), Theater an der Wien (Rossini La Donna del Lago, Milhaud La Mere Coupable, Gluck Iphigenie en Tauride/Aulide, Frid Diary of Anne Frank, Strauss Salome, Egk Peer Gynt, Massenet Thais, Berlioz Beatrice et Benedict), Oper Frankfurt (Puccini Tosca, Ravel l’Heure Espagnole, de Falla La Vida Breve, Weinberg Die Passagierin, Bizet Carmen), Theatre du Capitole Toulouse (Korngold Die Tote Stadt, Debussy Pelleas et Melisande), Santa Fe Opera (Verdi La Traviata, Strauss Capriccio), Staatsoper Berlin (Verdi Aida, Puccini Tosca, Gounod Faust), Mariinsky Theatre (Berlioz Benvenuto Cellini, Berlioz Damnation de Faust, Bizet Pecheurs de Perles, Verdi Simon Boccanegra), English National Opera (Verdi Aida, Britten A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Theatre de la Monnaie (Ligeti Le Grand Macabre, Enescu Oedipe, Janacek Katya Kabanova, Sondheim Sweeney Todd). You can read more about Leo Hussain HERE.