LSM Newswire: OSM / Festival bel canto

Kent Nagano will give the downbeat to the Festival Bel Canto

at the opening concert on August 15

Additional tickets available

Montreal, August 6, 2008 �� The music director of the Orchestre symphonique de Montr��al, Kent Nagano, will kick off the Festival Bel Canto in Knowlton on August 15. In the first part of the recital by soprano Jennifer Larmore he will be conducting a chamber orchestra made up of young musicians performing works by bel canto composers, including Donizetti.

Moreover, the OSM is happy to announce that, in response to a growing demand on the part of music lovers, additional tickets will go on sale today.

It will be remembered that this festival, a presentation of the OSM and of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome in association with Bombardier and devoted to the art of bel canto ("beautiful singing"), will take place in the historic village of Knowlton from August 15 to 24, 2008. In a rustic and intimate setting, six concerts spread out over two weekends will be presented in a tent accommodating 600 spectators. In addition to two performances in a concert version of the opera Norma, taking place on Sunday, August 17 and 24, at 3 p.m., festival-goers will hear mezzo-soprano Jennifer Larmore in recital with pianist Antoine Palloc, and �� with the OSM under Kent Nagano �� soprano June Anderson and four young singers from the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia as well as coloratura soprano Sumi Jo. On a more popular note, well-known singer Gino Vannelli will be doing a show of Italian songs inspired by his most recent album, entitled "Canto," with the Orchestre symphonique de Sherbrooke under the direction of St��phane Laforest.

Free events

To reach as wide an audience as possible, the Festival has integrated into its programming concerts by the rising generation, master classes and Operamania, a series of lectures by musicologist Michel Veilleux. Admission to all these events is free. At the concerts, on August 16 Pascale Beaudin (soprano), Pierre-��tienne Bergeron (baritone) and Marie-��ve Scarfone (piano) of the Atelier lyrique de l'Op��ra de Montr��al will perform arias by Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi and Bellini. The Ch��ur classique de l'Estrie, on August 23, can be heard in choral excerpts from Rossini's Barber of Seville, Verdi's I Lombardi alla prima crociata and Nabucco, and Bellini's Norma. A concert featuring Marianne Fiset, Grand Prize winner at the Montreal International Music Competition in 2007, together with musicians from the OSM (flute, violin, viola and cello), will be offering quartets by Boccherini and Viotti as well as arias by Bellini and Franz Liszt's Tre sonetti di Petrarca, on August 23. Canadian soprano Kimi McLaren, meanwhile, will present a recital on August 24.

At the master classes, young performers will get to benefit from the enlightened advice of three of the most renowned singers on the international scene: Jennifer Larmore, June Anderson and Massimiliano Murrali.

This edition of the Festival is taking place under the distinguished patronage of Italian soprano Renata Scotto.