From New York to the New Town, the press has been unanimous in praising Claire Debono and Simon Thacker, the two stars of ¡Canto vivo!. Claire's stunning soprano and Simon's virtuoso guitar playing create one of the most intimate, sensuous and affecting combinations you're likely to hear. The beautiful combination of female voice and classical guitar promises a magical evening.
Music includes: Rossini's Di tanti palpiti from the opera Tancredi in a stunning arrangement by Italian virtuoso Mauro Giuliani, with typically flamboyant vocal variations; Catalonian composer Roberto Gerhard's fiery Spanish song cycle Cantares, composed at the height of Gerhard's maturity; a moving setting of a Sicilian lament, full of searing emotion, immortalised on a Rosa Ponselle recording (Maria Callas' favourite singer); Spanish virtuoso Arcas' much loved solo guitar Fantasia on themes from Verdi's Traviata, written 10 years after the opera's debut and formerly attributed to Arcas' legendary pupil Tárrega; beautiful bel canto Bellini songs.
Claire Debono has become a familiar face at many of the world's most prestigious opera houses, festivals and concert halls. Future engagements include: Mozart, Mass in C minor, with Paavo Järvi and Orchestre de Paris; Monteverdi's Il Ritorno d'Ulisse In Patria at the Teatro Real, Madrid; Lully's Armide for Théatre de Champs- Elysées; The Fairy Queen, Purcell, Glyndebourne Festival. Recent highlights include: Edinburgh International Festival, SCO/Emmanuelle Haïm, Vespina in Haydn's 'L'infedelta` delusa', Festival d'Aix en Provence; Carnegie Hall, New York, with Les Arts Florissants; Virgin Classics CD release and European and New York tour, including acclaimed performances at the Lincoln Centre, New York, and London Barbican, with William Christie; Despina (Cosi Fan Tutte) for Opéra de Lyon; Zerlina (Don Giovanni) for Théâtre Royale de la Monnaie on their tour of Japan; Ilia (Idomeneo) with Les Arts Florissants.
"By far the best singing of the evening was Claire Debono's sensitive, colorful and gracefully embellished account of Ilia's music." New York Times
Simon Thacker was recently nominated for the Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Music Award, the highest recognition for live classical music-making in the United Kingdom, and in 2006 was a winner of a 50th Park Lane Group Young Artist Award, resulting in his acclaimed solo London Purcell Room debut. The premiere performance of The Alternative Guitar solo tour in 2007 at the Queens Hall in Edinburgh for ECAT received a five star review in The Scotsman. He has performed in Cuba, toured the UK several times, and broadcast solo on Cuban TV and BBC Radio 3. Simon is Head of Guitar at Napier University. He is the founder of unique crossover project Camerata Ritmata with three of the UK's finest jazz musicians and will be leading his innovative nine piece East/West group The Nava Rasa Ensemble on tour next year, featuring two new chamber concertos.
"The guitar is often underrated as a solo instrument, but Thacker demonstrated with startling virtuosity just how versatile and exciting it can be in the right hands." The Scotsman
£12/8, call (0131) 668 2019 or book online