Claudio Abbado conducts Wagner and Berlioz – With José Carreras
Gala Concert from the Alte Oper with the Wiener Philharmoniker
Cast
Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor
Prague Philharmonic Choir
Tölzer Knabenchor
Aurelius Boys Choir
Program notes
Following his comeback performance at the Vienna State Opera in 1988, this gala concert from the Alte Oper Frankfurt on September 12th, 1992, was one in a series of highly acclaimed performances that marked José Carreras’s return to the concert platform.
Joining Carreras are the Vienna Philharmonic—celebrating its 150th anniversary—the Vienna State Opera Chorus, the Prague Philharmonic Choir, and the Tölzer Boys Choir, all under the baton of maestro Claudio Abbado.
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is a rare Wagnerian comedy, and its music is lively and spirited: the famous C-major overture includes the main leitmotivs of the work, known for its joyful character and vitality.
Berlioz originally imagined hisTe Deum, finished in 1849, as part of an epic musical celebration for the coronation of Napoleon III, but the festivities never came to pass. The monumental work was finally premiered at the Church of Saint-Eustache for the 1855 Universal Exhibition in Paris, featuring nearly a thousand performers.
