The Spanish conductor and the celebrated South African soprano starred in a brilliant operatic evening in Riga with the Latvian National Opera Orchestra.
Maestro Pablo Mielgo conducted yesterday, 18 September, the much-anticipated concert by soprano Pretty Yende in the Grand Hall of the Latvian National Opera in Riga. The event, which sold out all seats, brought both artists together with the Latvian National Opera Orchestra in one of the great lyric evenings of its new season.
The programme offered a broad journey through the European operatic repertoire, with excerpts from La forza del destino, Il trovatore, Nabucco and I vespri siciliani by Giuseppe Verdi; Norma by Vincenzo Bellini; La vie parisienne by Jacques Offenbach; Faust by Charles Gounod; Rusalka by Antonín Dvořák; and Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss.
Under Pablo Mielgo's direction, the orchestra accompanied the extraordinary vocal versatility of Pretty Yende, one of the great figures of international lyric art. Her virtuosity, vocal luminosity and expressive power found in Mielgo's conducting a reading full of energy, elegance and theatrical sensitivity.
The concert also held a particularly emotional significance for Pretty Yende, whose professional career began precisely in Riga, where she debuted as Micaëla in Carmen by Georges Bizet. Her return to the Latvian National Opera confirmed the close artistic relationship she maintains with the theatre that saw the start of her international trajectory.
For Pablo Mielgo, current Principal and Artistic Director of the Balearic Islands Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of Florida Grand Opera, this performance marks a new prominent presence in the European operatic scene and reaffirms his collaboration with some of the most important voices of our time.
The Riga evening also consolidates the fruitful artistic relationship between Mielgo and Yende, based on a shared vision of opera as emotion, excellence and direct communication with the audience.