On November 10, 2017 María José Siri will return to the Teatro alla Scala Milan as the soprano soloist in Messa per Rossini, under the musical direction of Riccardo Chailly, sharing the stage with mezzo-soprano Veronica Simeoni, tenor Giorgio Berrugi, baritone Simone Piazzola and bass Riccardo Zanellato. There will be two additional performances on November 12 and 15.

Upon Gioachino Rossini’s death in 1868, Giuseppe Verdi asked his editor Ricordi to commission an imposing Requiem for his commemoration, involving some of the most important Italian composers of the time; he chose for himself to set to music the last part of the Mass, the “Libera me”, which he would later use in his own Messa da Requiem. Although fully composed, the work was shelved due to disagreements among the several personalities involved, and was premiered only over one century later, in 1988 at the European Music Festival in Stuttgart.

“It’s with such great emotion that I sing this work, which is finally being performed at La Scala for the first time”, states María José Siri. “I’m so happy to be back at La Scala, a year after the 2016/17 inauguration as Madama Butterfly, and I’m delighted to be singing under the baton of Maestro Riccardo Chailly again.”

María José Siri scored a triumph as Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly in a new production inaugurating the 2016/17 of the Teatro alla Scala on December 7, 2016. After this Messa per Rossini she will be back at La Scala in April and May 2018 in the title role of a new production of Francesca da Rimini.

Information about Messa per Rossini at the Teatro alla Scala Milan:

María José Siri, soprano; Veronica Simeoni, mezzo-soprano; Giorgio Berrugi, tenor; Simone Piazzola, baritone; Riccardo Zanellato, bass. Riccardo Chailly, conductor.

Performances: November 10, 12 and 15, 2017

[Photo by Victor Santiago]