The Manoel Theatre is presenting two music recitals as part of ‘Rossini Week’, celebrating the work of Italian composer Gioachino Rossini. Running from Sunday to March 15, it includes four performances of the opera Il Barbiere di Siviglia, as well as recitals of Rossini’s Sins of Old Age on March 10 and Petite Messe Solennelle on March 14.

The Petite Messe Solennelle is one of Rossini’s final works and will be performed by soprano Gillian Zammit, mezzo-soprano Claire Massa, tenor Eduardo Hurtado Rampoldi, bass Louis Cassar and the New Choral Singers. They will be accompanied by Joanne Camilleri on the harmonium and Michael Laus on the piano, who will also conduct the concert.

Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle (Little Solemn Mass) was originally composed for the unusual combination of 12 voices, two pianos and a harmonium. It was written in 1863, over 30 years after Rossini had retired from composing operas and had decreased his compositional output overall. Rossini described the work as perhaps his “final sin of old age”.

While he was brought up in the Catholic faith, Rossini was not especially renowned for his religious beliefs, yet his attempts to adapt his instinctively lightweight operatic style to a more profound medium of expression is notable in both his Stabat Mater (1841) and the Petite Messe Solennelle (1863).

This recital will take place on March 14 at 7.30pm in the main theatre at the Manoel.

A selection of Rossini’s actual Péchés de vieillesse – his Sins of Old Age – will be performed at the theatre’s Sala Isouard on March 10 at 7.30pm. When living in Paris in 1855, Rossini became renowned for his musical salons on Saturdays, regularly attended by musicians and the artistic and fashionable circles of Paris, for which he wrote the entertaining pieces Péchés de vieillesse.

During the recital, soprano Andriana Yordanova and pianist Caroline Calleja will perform a selection of pieces from the collection of 150 vocal, chamber and solo piano pieces by the composer.

Tickets for all Rossini Week events, including for the opera Il Barbiere di Siviglia, can be purchased online at https://teatrumanoel. mt/ or by calling the box office at (+356) 2124 6389. One may also visit the box office at Old Theatre Street in Valletta.