The opening concerts of the 2016 Festival brought conductor Sir Antonio Pappano, long-term music director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. However these two evenings featured his other orchestra - that of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome.
The main item was Rossini's wonderful Stabat Mater, composed many years after he had abandoned opera composition. The two ladies had appeared in Edinburgh before, but the men were quite unfamiliar.
The first part of the programme was an unusual assemblage of orchestral music composed by Italians - Rossini and his successors, based on Shakespearean themes. Rossini's version of Otello and Bellini's of I Capuleti e i Montecchi are derived more from Shakespeare's actual source literature than from his plays. The two overtures were thoroughly enjoyable miniatures. Verdi's ballet music is rarely heard during performances of Macbeth, but is also well worth hearing in isolation.
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