AURORA PEÑA, soprano & GIORGIO CELENZA, piano

Evening party: C. Gounod: "Ah! Je veux vivre" from the opera Roméo et Juliette

Dusk in the warmth of home: R. Schumann: "Ständchen" from the lieder cycle Schwanengesang, D 957/4 / R. Strauss: "Amor" from Brentano lieder, Op. 68/5

Midnight tales: Ottorino Respighi: Notturno / G. Verdi: "Sul fil d'un soffio etesio" from the opera Falstaff  

Star-filled dreams: F. Liszt: Oh, quand je dors / C. Debussy: Nuit d'étoiles

Dawn of love: E. Granados: Elegía eterna / Manuel Ponce: Romanza de amor / Federico Moreno Torroba: "La petenera" from the zarzuela La marchenera

Night is the connecting theme of Nuit d'étoiles, a programme in which Aurora Peña's voice and Giorgio Celenza's piano evoke the imagined starry night in the warmth of home, with elves wandering through the forest and nightingales singing about secret loves at midnight. An evocation through Romanticism, Impressionism and Spanish musical nationalism, with pieces from operas by Verdi and Gounod, a lieder by Richard Strauss, a chanson by Debussy, songs by Granados and Ponce, and a zarzuela finale at the break of dawn.