Just two artistic faces of internationally known bass Andrea Silvestrelli will be featured on this week’s Sunday Opera (10/29 3:00 p.m.) when we’ll hear him in two diverse roles he performed for the Opera Festival of Chicago.
This incredibly versatile bass who performs roles in works by composers from Puccini and Verdi to Wagner to Mozart appears first as cleric Thomas Becket in Ildebrando Pizzetti’s 1958 work “Assassinio nella cattedrale” bast on T.S. Eliot’s 1935 play “Murder in the Cathedral” which looks at the life of the pious Becket who runs afoul of Henry II of England and is assassinated in Canterbury Cathedral because of it.
The second opera is quite a departure as he adroitly handles the title character in Giuseppe Verdi’s “Attila.” The opera focuses on the legendary Hun’s final days as he invades Italy unknowingly being targeted to be assassinated by the Roman general Ezio (Franco Pomponi), the knight Foresto (Ben Gulley), and Foresto’s fiancee Odabella (Jenny Schuler).
Both works are conducted by Emmanuele Andrizzi leading the Opera Festival of Chicago Orchestra and Chorus.
Filled with some exceptionally fiery music, especially Odabella’s opening aria, it’s an incredibly exciting work.