NSOI Summer Lunchtime

Bertie Baigent, conductor
​​​​​​​National Symphony Orchestra Ireland
Deirdre Arratoon, mezzo-soprano
Presented by Liz Nolan, RTÉ lyric fm

Suppé Morning, Noon and Night in Vienna Overture
Massenet ‘Werther! Werther!… Je vous écris de ma petite chambre’ (‘Letter Aria’) from Werther
Saint-Saëns ‘Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix’ (Samson and Delilah)
Glazunov Concert Waltz No. 2
Bizet Habanera from Carmen
Bizet Seguidilla from Carmen
Massenet Aragonaise and Catalane from Le Cid Ballet Suite

Winner of the National Concert Hall’s Bernadette Greevy Bursary, mezzo-soprano Deirdre Arratoon takes centre stage with arias from French opera at its most impassioned and sensuous. The ‘irrepressible’ (Opera) Bertie Baigent conducts.

Massenet’s Letter Aria from Werther and Saint‑Saëns’ ‘Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix’ from Samson and Delilah lay bare intimate affairs of the heart – Charlotte’s conflicted reminiscence of the tragic lover she refused, and Delilah’s treacherous seduction of Samson. Bizet’s famous femme fatale revels in Spanish heat and her own sexual allure in the vivacious Habanera and Seguidilla from Carmen.

There’s Iberian heat and passion, too, in the Aragonaise and Catalane from Massenet’s Le Cid, Glazunov’s Concert Waltz No. 2 offers suave Russian lyricism filtered through a glittering ballroom waltz, and Suppé’s effervescent Morning, Noon and Night in Vienna Overture brilliantly captures the vigour and vitality of a day in the life of the musical capital.

Presented by NCH