Teatro Nuovo Presents Rossini’s Stabat Mater and the New York premiere of Donizetti’s Symphony in E Minor

Will Crutchfield, conductor and Director of Opera, directs in Les ve?pres siciliennes by Giuseppe Verdi, Verdi in Paris, A Bel Canto production at Caramoor in Katonah New York on July 6, 2013.
photo by Gabe Palacio

Teatro Nuovo, the cutting-edge Bel Canto ensemble launched last summer by Will Crutchfield, is pleased to present on June 27 a pairing of Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the New York premiere of Donizetti’s Symphony in E Minor at Heavenly Rest (1085 Fifth Avenue).

Berlin-based Jakob Lehmann returns as musical co-director and concertmaster to lead the period-instrument orchestra. Lehmann, prominent as a concertmaster in several European period-instrument ensembles, pointed out that violin-and-keyboard leadership has been revived in Baroque music, but rarely or never for 19th-century repertory. “To apply this in early Romantic styles is really unique,” he said, “but we know that this is how it worked in Italy at the time. I have truly never been more challenged by a musical task – but on the other hand I have rarely enjoyed myself as much as with Teatro Nuovo!”  

Heidi Waleson in The Wall Street Journal spoke for many when she called the approach “…most exciting – and completely novel” and concluded that “the effect was transformative.”

Will Crutchfield, conductor and Director of Opera, directs in Les ve?pres siciliennes by Giuseppe Verdi, Verdi in Paris, A Bel Canto production at Caramoor in Katonah New York on July 6, 2013.
photo by Gabe Palacio

Teatro Nuovo, the cutting-edge Bel Canto ensemble launched last summer by Will Crutchfield, is pleased to present on June 27 a pairing of Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the New York premiere of Donizetti’s Symphony in E Minor at Heavenly Rest (1085 Fifth Avenue).

Berlin-based Jakob Lehmann returns as musical co-director and concertmaster to lead the period-instrument orchestra. Lehmann, prominent as a concertmaster in several European period-instrument ensembles, pointed out that violin-and-keyboard leadership has been revived in Baroque music, but rarely or never for 19th-century repertory. “To apply this in early Romantic styles is really unique,” he said, “but we know that this is how it worked in Italy at the time. I have truly never been more challenged by a musical task – but on the other hand I have rarely enjoyed myself as much as with Teatro Nuovo!”  

Heidi Waleson in The Wall Street Journal spoke for many when she called the approach “…most exciting – and completely novel” and concluded that “the effect was transformative.”