Opera Concert

Maria Meirelles, piano    

Reminiscenses of Don Juan  - Franz Liszt              

This great Fantasy was written in 1841. It juxtaposes and contrasts three highpoints of the drama in Don Giovanni:

Its opening concentrates on Don Giovanni and the slain Commendatore by combining the music of their Act II graveyard scene with that of their awesome confrontation at the opera's climax when Don Giovanni is dragged off to Hell.  

The lyric middle section gives Don Giovanni’s seductive first-act duet with Zerlina, "La ci darem la mano", followed by variations. 

Don Giovanni’s Act I aria "Fin ch'han dal vino" provides the brilliant finale. 

This monumental work has, as the great pianist Busoni noted, "the almost symbolic significance of a pianistic summit"!