Puccini in Rome

High romance and Roman landscapes: it’s Italian opera, orchestral style!

Come and enjoy a sumptuous celebration of Italian orchestral music and a look ‘under the bonnet’ of two famous operas. While Puccini is rightly famous for the glorious vocal lines in Tosca and Madam Butterfly, his writing for orchestra has always been equally sublime. Conductor Carlo Rizzi’s Suites from the operas reveal the orchestral colour in all its shimmering beauty. Respighi, meanwhile, was giving Puccini a run for his money in his beautifully evocative depictions of Rome – here sung with her customary opulent flair by Fleur Barron.

Full programme

• Puccini (arr. Rizzi), Tosca: Symphonic Suite  (20mins)
• Respighi, The Sunset  (17mins)
• Puccini, (arr. Rizzi), Madam Butterfly: Symphonic Suite  (18mins)
• Respighi, Pines of Rome  (23mins