Program Four • Chansons, romances, et mélodies: Vocal Music from Cosmopolitan Paris by Berlioz, Minn (2024/2024), Fisher Center, Annandale, United States

Musicologist Byron Adams explores the rich variety of songs heard in the Parisian salon. Featured composers range from Giacomo Rossini, the leading light of Berlioz’s youth, to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, whom he met late in life in Russia; younger scions Georges Bizet and Gabriel Fauré; and Pauline Viardot, the mezzo-soprano who created the female lead in Meyerbeer’s Le prophète (SummerScape 2024’s mainstage opera) and whom Berlioz originally envisioned as Les Troyens’ Dido. He himself is represented by three songs from Irlande, a collection reflecting his feel for the cadences of Gaelic‐inspired verse.