Bedford Corn Exchange. St Pauls Square

7.30pm

Christoph Altstaedt conductor

Singers from the Glyndebourne Jerwood Young Artists scheme

WAGNER Siegfried Idyll

MASSENET Cendrillon (arias and excerpts)

VERDI La traviata (arias and excerpts)

LISZT Les préludes

Rising-star conductor Christoph Altstaedt brings a programme of romantic 19th-century storytelling — both operatic and symphonic — to the Corn Exchange stage. The evening opens and closes with two symphonic poems: Liszt’s lushly scored Les préludes and Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll. The music for the Idyll — later used in Wagner’s opera Siegfried — was composed for Wagner’s wife Cosima’s birthday, and first performed as a surprise for her on the stairs of their villa in Lucerne. In between, themes of love and heartache in two of the most popular operas of the Romantic era: Massenet’s Cinderella and the tragedy of Violetta in Verdi’s La traviata.

Tickets from £14

Philharmonia Orchestra Box Office : 0800 652 6717 

Booking Link: https://www.philharmonia.co.uk/concerts/1860/bedford/bedford_corn_exchange/9_may_2018/bedford_passion_and_poetry