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maltatoday | SUNDAY • 9 MARCH 2025 3 MUSIC Revered composer Giaochino Rossini's final work to be performed as part of Teatru Manoel's Rossini Week events TEATRU Manoel presents two music recitals as part of their Rossini Week events, celebrat- ing the work of Italian composer Gioachino Rossini. Rossini Week at Teatru Manoel runs from the 9th to the 15th of March, and in- cludes four performances of the opera Il Barbiere di Siviglia, as well as recitals of Rossini's Sins of Old Age on Monday 10th and Petite Messe Solennelle on Friday 14th March. The Petite Messe Solennelle is one of Rossini's final works, and will be performed by Soprano Gillian Zammit, mezzo sopra- no Claire Massa, tenor Eduardo Hurtado Rampoldi, bass Louis Cassar and the New Choral Sing- ers. They will be accompanied by Joanne Camilleri on the har- monium and Mro. Michael Laus on the piano, who will also con- duct the concert. Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle (Little Solemn Mass) was originally composed for the unusual combination of 12 voices, two pianos and a harmo- nium. It was written in 1863, over 30 years after Rossini had retired from composing operas and had decreased his compositional out- put overall. Rossini described the work as perhaps his final sin of old age. While he was brought up in the Catholic faith, Rossini was not especially renowned for his reli- gious beliefs, yet his attempts to adapt his instinctively lightweight operatic style to a more profound medium of expression is notable in both his Stabat Mater (1841) and indeed the Petite Messe So- lennelle (1863). This recital will take place on Friday the 14th of March at 19:30 in the main thea- tre at Teatru Manoel. Earlier in the week, on Mon- day 10th of March, a selection of Rossini's actual "péchés de vieil- lesse" – his Sins of Old Age – will be performed in Teatru Manoel's Sala Isouard, starting at 19:30. When living in Paris in 1855 Rossini became renowned for his musical salons on Saturdays, reg- ularly attended by musicians and the artistic and fashionable cir- cles of Paris, for which he wrote the entertaining pieces Péchés de vieillesse. Soprano Andriana Yordanova and pianist Caroline Calleja will perform a selection of pieces from the collection of 150 vocal, chamber and solo piano pieces by the composer. Tickets for all Rossini Week events, including for the opera 'Il Barbiere di Siviglia', can be pur- chased online at https://teatru- manoel.mt/ or by calling the Te- atru Manoel Box Office at (+356) 21246389. Guests may also visit the Teatru Manoel Box Office at Old Theatre Street in Valletta. The recital of Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle accompanies a week of performances celebrating the work of the Italian composer Top: Gillian Attard, bottom: Michael Laus