The New Westminster Symphony Orchestra is getting set to whisk its audience off to sunny Spain.
The orchestra’s next concert is Viva España, coming to the Massey Theatre on Sunday, May 5 at 2 p.m.
The first half of the concert includes some popular numbers, including Manuel de Falla’s Ritual Fire Dance, known for its supernatural tones that depict a young girl conjuring up the ghost of her dead husband in order to rid herself of him forever.
Audiences will also be treated to Emmanuel Chabrier’s España, a rhapsody for orchestra that’s considered the most exuberant piece ever written based on the Spanish dance known as the jota. Its melody may sound familiar; it was used in Perry Como’s 1956 pop hit Hot Diggity (Dog Ziggity Boom).
Those pieces lead into Georges Bizet’s popular Carmen Suite No. 2, including the melodies of two of the most famous operatic arias – the Habanera and the Toreador Song.
The first half will conclude with a short de Falla piece, Danza from La Vida Breve.
The second half of the concert features Édouard Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole, a popular work for violin and orchestra. It features violinist Robert Rozek, who graduated from the Juilliard School of Music in New York and followed that with a career performing and conducting all over Europe, the U.S. and Canada. He’s currently the director of strings and international relations at the B.C. Conservatory of Music.
New Westminster Symphony Orchestra concerts are by donation at the door. See www.newwestsymphony.net for all the details.
