The Opรฉra de Nice welcomes conductor Michel Plasson on October 1st and 2nd.
For his 88th birthday, the internationally renowned maestro, Michel Plasson, shares his love for French music with us. After leading the Orchestre Philharmonique du Capitole de Toulouse for over 30 years and bringing it to a level of excellence, he continues his career worldwide, spreading our culture: “French music is the music of happiness.”
He honors Charles Camille Saint-Saรซns, one of our greatest French composers who passed away 200 years ago. Saint-Saรซns appears as the heir of the Romantic school characterized by symphonic poems.
He will open the concert with the symphonic poem “Panthรฉon.” An ascent of Jupiter’s chariot led by the inexperienced Panthรฉon, a majestic opening of the brass joined by the strings from the fourth measure to make us feel the gallop of horses. The out-of-control chariot will approach the earth and then be struck by Jupiter’s lightning symbolized by the percussionists. The piano solos will be performed by Louis Lortie.
The second piece will be Symphony No. 3 in C minor. “I gave everything I could give there… what I did then, I will not do again,” he liked to repeat. It is also called the Symphony with Organ, composed and created in 1886 and dedicated “to the memory of Franz Liszt.” It is his most well-known and most performed work. The organ will be played by Olivier Vernet.
