Soprano Laura Nicorescu and Conductor Leo Hussain Join Forces in a Memorable Online Recital

A couple in real life but seldom seen together on stage, dashing soprano Laura Nicorescu and star conductor Leo Hussain make a special appearance as outstanding musical duo for our Enescu Soirees series with a recital that is destined for online heaven.

Watch on our FACEBOOK, YOUTUBE and BLOG from Thursday, July 2, 7 p.m. EDT or anytime later.

Program

Carmen Petra Basacopol : Rugăciune (Prayer)

Kurt Weil: Youkali 

Léo Delibes: Les filles de Cadix 

George Enescu: Présent de couleur blanche, Aux demoiselles paresseuses

LAURA NICORESCU graduated from the National University of Music Bucharest and continued her musical studies at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg. The young soprano began her career as a member of the Bavarian State Opera studio in Munich and is currently a permanent guest of the State Theater ensemble in Salzburg, Austria where she specialized in the Mozartian repertoire but also the repertoire of the 19th century to the contemporary. She has appeared on famous stages such as Bavarian State Opera, Royal Opera of Versailles, Vlaamse Opera, State Theater Mannheim, Theater St Gallen, La Monnaie, Bucharest National Opera or in prestigious concert halls such as Musikverein Vienna, Berliner Philharmonie, Basika Ottobeuren, Baden Baden Festspiele and Grosse Festspiel Haus in Salzburg. She also sang in the USA at the Miami Beach Opera, Coral Springs and Palm Beach Opera. Laura Nicorescu is the recipient of numerous awards including the Special Prize for Young Talent at the Francesco Viñas Competition in Barcelona and the Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg Competition and has worked with conductors such as Fabio Luisi, Kent Nagano, Kirill Petrenko, Asher Fisch, Leopold Hager, Simone Young, Leo Hussain and Ivor Bolton, and directors including Barbara Frey, Christian Stueckl, Hans Neuenfels, Eike Grams, Graham Vick and Amelie Niermeyer. You can read more about Laura Nicorescu HERE.

British conductor LEO HUSSAIN has established himself as a leading interpreter in his generation of Mozart, the second Viennese school and great 20th century masterpieces. He was formerly Music Director of the Opéra de Rouen and Salzburg Landestheater, and now conducts many of the world’s top orchestras and opera houses, including The Royal Opera (Enescu, Oedipe; Mozart, Die Zauberflöte), Bayerische Staatsoper (Donizetti, l’Elisir d’Amore; Tchaikovsky, Eugen Onegin; Abrahamsen, The Snow Queen), Theater an der Wien (Rossini, La Donna del Lago; Milhaud, La Mere Coupable; Gluck, Iphigenie en Tauride/Aulide;  Frid, Diary of Anne Frank; Strauss, Salome; Egk, Peer Gynt; Massenet, Thais; Berlioz, Beatrice et Benedict), Oper Frankfurt (Puccini, Tosca; Ravel, l’Heure Espagnole; de Falla, La Vida Breve; Weinberg, Die Passagierin; Bizet, Carmen), Theatre du Capitole Toulouse (Korngold, Die Tote Stadt; Debussy, Pelleas et Melisande), Santa Fe Opera (Verdi, La Traviata; Strauss, Capriccio), Staatsoper Berlin (Verdi, Aida; Puccini, Tosca; Gounod, Faust), Mariinsky Theatre (Berlioz, Benvenuto Cellini; Berlioz, Damnation de Faust; Bizet, Pecheurs de Perles; Verdi, Simon Boccanegra), English National Opera (Verdi, Aida; Britten, A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Theatre de la Monnaie (Ligeti, Le Grand Macabre; Enescu, Oedipe; Janacek, Katya Kabanova; Sondheim, Sweeney Todd). In 2019 he became Principal Guest Conductor of George Enescu Philharmonic. You can read more about Leo Hussain HERE.

Photo by Ștefan Buciuță