VCHpresents Chamber: Captivated by the Rose - Evelina Dobračeva in Recital

CAPTIVATED BY THE ROSE EVELINA DOBRAČEVA IN RECITAL 16 Oct 2022, 4pm Victoria Concert Hall

PROGRAMME Evelina Dobračeva, soprano Alexander Fleischer, piano*

PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY (1840 – 1893) Why? Say, when under shady boughs It was in the early spring Had I only known

NIKOLAI RIMSKY-KORSAKOV (1844 – 1908) Captivated by the rose, the nightingale It was not the wind, blowing from the heights The lark’s song rings more clearly

SERGEI RACHMANINOFF (1873 – 1943) Before my window I wait for thee The Lilacs Spring Waters – INTERMISSION – PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY (1840 – 1893) “Why haven’t I known this before?” from Iolanta “It will soon be midnight” from Pique Dame Snowdrop from The Seasons*

GIUSEPPE VERDI (1813 – 1901) Ave Maria from Otello “Ecco l’orrido campo” from Un ballo in Maschera Waltz in F major*

GIACOMO PUCCINI (1858 – 1924) “Sì, mi chiamano Mimi” from La Bohème “Vissi d’arte” from Tosca

EVELINA DOBRAČEVA soprano

Operatic roles include Micaëla (Carmen), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) and Violetta (La Traviata) with Cologne Opera and the Deutsche Staatsoper on tour in Japan, Desdemona (Otello) with Centro Cultural de Belém, Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte) at the Verbier Festival and Toulon Opera, Khovanshchina with the Bayerische Staatsoper, Tatiana (Eugene Onegin) at the Theater St Gallen, Lisa (Queen of Spades) at the Bolshoi Theatre, Wozzeck with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Tosca at the Cincinnati Opera and Tulsa Opera and Semyon Kotko at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam conducted by Vladimir Jurovsky.

In concert she has sung Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 and Britten’s War Requiem with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 14 with the City of London Sinfonia, Verdi’s Requiem with the Deutsche Oper Berlin

© DIMA TARASENKO

German dramatic soprano Evelina Dobračeva began her musical career studying accordion, conducting and teaching at the College of Music in Syzran, Russia.

She graduated with a diploma before relocating to Germany, where she began singing under the tuition of Norma Sharp, Snezana Brzakovic and Julia Varady at the Hanns Eisler Music College Berlin.

and the Czech Philharmonic under the baton of Fabio Luisi, Britten’s War Requiem with the BBC Philharmonic, Ein Deutsches Requiem with the Odense Symphony Orchestra, Strauss’s Four Last Songs with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and recently the Glagolitic mass on tour with the Czech Philharmonic under the baton of Semion Bychkov.

An established recording artist, Evelina features on Dargomizhsky’s Rusalka recorded with the West Deutsche Rundfunk Orchester and Michail Jurowski and Britten’s War Requiem recorded with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Jaap van Zweden. Recently Evelina is featured on the world premiere recording of Rubenstein’s Moses under Michail Jurowski.

ALEXANDER FLEISCHER piano

He works with singers such as Bo Skovhus, Roman Trekel, Thomas Quasthoff, Manuel Walser, Tobias Berndt, Nikola Hillebrand, Jochen Kupfer, Andreas Wolf, Daniela Sindram, and others.

Alexander Fleischer holds a guest lectureship at the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin and has been working as assistant to KS Prof.

Thomas Quasthoff since 2011.

In April 2015 he took up a teaching position for Lied interpretation at the Würzburg University of Music.

In 2017 he was a lecturer at the renowned Britten Pears Festival in Aldeburgh (UK).

© MARTIN WALZ

Alexander Fleischer was awarded prizes at international competitions early on, including the Lied accompanist prize at “Das Lied” International Song Competition Berlin 2009. He has performed at the Lucerne Festival, Musikverein Vienna, Festspielhaus BadenBaden, Philharmonie Cologne, Music Festival “Heidelberger Frühling”, Konzerthaus Berlin, Festspillene i Bergen, Festival RheinVokal, and the Hugo-Wolf-Akademie Stuttgart, among others.

Since October 2022, Alexander Fleischer has held a professorship for Lied at the Staatliche Musikhochschule in Trossingen.

In 2017 he founded his first own song festival. The “Hirschberger Liedfest” (Germany) takes place for the 7th time in 2023.

In 2020 he founded a second Lied Festival in Würzburg (Germany) with international stars of the Lied scene.

His highly-praised CD with Goethe settings by Fanny Hensel with baritone Tobias Berndt was released on the Querstand label. In 2020 the CD “Legacy” with CatalanSpanish repertoire was released together with mezzo-soprano Anna Alàs i Jové on SEED MUSIC.

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