Birgit Wegemann and Irene Ainstein combine again to present an evening of delights for opera lovers
By Lynne Booker news@algarveresident.com
At the Quintinha da Música in Butoque near Tavira on November 10, we have the prospect of arias by Mozart, Bellini and Donizetti. After an interval, songs by Lehár, Stolz, Gilbert and Sullivan, Loewe, Cole Porter and Bernstein.
The artists, Birgit Wegemann and Irene Ainstein, have put together a programme with thoughtful knowledge of their public.
Many in the Algarve will remember Birgit Wegemann who is now based in Porto. Birgit has an interest in Baroque music as well as the Classical and Romantic on offer at this concert.
Birgit has performed regularly in the Algarve and the rest of Portugal since 2003, and most recently starred in Mozart’s Exultate Jubilate at a performance in Porto.
One of her projects is a tribute to that genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart called Bravo Mozart. This salute is one with which we may all concur, and the evening’s programme begins with three of his finest arias (from Marriage of Figaro and Così fan Tutte). Giulietta´s aria from Bellini’s less renowned I Capuletti e I Montecchi follows and then we have Norina’s Quel guardo from Donizetti’s masterpiece Don Pasquale.
English-born Irene Ainstein studied piano in the Netherlands and having qualified as a performer of chamber music, as a soloist and as accompanist, she went on to perform in Holland, England, Germany and China.
Now firmly based in the Algarve as Educational Director of the Faro Conservatory, she is persuaded at intervals to accompany soloists such as Birgit Wegemann, and to perform with the Orchestra of the Algarve and the Brodsky Quartet from London.
More modern music after the interval: Vilja-Lied from Lehár’s Merry Widow, Im Prater blüh’n wieder die Bäume (Robert Stolz), I’m Called Little Buttercup (from Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore) and favourites from My Fair Lady, Kiss Me Kate and Bernstein’s Wonderful Town.
The concert will begin at 5pm and there will be an interval mid concert at which wine and canapés will be available.
The concert will finish in time for you to enjoy a late dinner at one of Tavira’s fine restaurants.
Tickets, including wine and canapés, cost €15 per person.
281 971 567 (reservations)
