World-class opera masters bring an evening of exquisite singing with Hong Kong's leading operatic chorus and young soloists

Renowned Italian baritone Silvio Zanon and soprano Chiara Angella were guests of the Opera Society of Hong Kong to conduct the “1st international opera exchange master class” at Centennial College.

Along with the masters, three of the 19 candidates performed on stage at the City Hall Concert Hall on Monday with the orchestra and chorus conducted by Raymond Fu, music director of the group he founded in 1992, to an appreciative audience that included the cultural attache of the Italian Consulate.

Soloists aside, a versatile chorus of 40 delivered a total of 15 operatic excerpts in the production titled Opera Passion III. The artistic synergy between the host and the guest artists, including tenor Davide Piaggio, the couple’s protégé, was captivating.

The concert began with the wedding scene from Wagner’s Tannhauser in which choristers proceeded to the stage on both aisles and, once on stage, delivered a full-bodied sound. Almost without a pause, they prostrated with scarfs and sang the famous chorus of the Hebrew slaves from Verdi’s Nabucco. The lyrical beauty in the famous melody defied the intonation problem in the strings.

In the chapel scene in Puccini’s Tosca, Zanon’s full bass resonated the hall, an effect reminiscent of his teacher, the late opera giant Luciano Pavarotti. But his voice carried an intensity that was awe-inspiring, and he showed it again in dramatic passages from Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Rossini’s Mose in Egitto. The former was a duet with his soprano wife and the couple delivered a powerful duo rarely-encountered in live performance.