L’Oasis où je rêve – Salon Recital – As part of City of Art

Songs by Debussy, Hahn and Duparc are explored by soprano Gillian Zammit, accompanied by Lucia Micallef, with Salonnière Maria Theuma. Sensuality, intoxication, obsession, tenderness – to lose yourself in these feelings, to experience these heightened sensations, to feel every nerve ending in your body vibrate with the sheer ecstasy of living. Such reckless passion may be destructive but if you have never experienced it, can you say with any certainty that you have really loved?

‘Are you not the oasis where I dream, and the vessel from which I drink deeply the wine of memory?’

Over the course of three weekends, the concert hall at Palazzo de la Salle will be transformed into a fin de siècle salon. Traditionally an environment which sought to either please or educate, the Salon was the heart of experimentation, debate, creativity and discovery. Each event will be hosted by a Salonnière and will incorporate not only exquisite music and performance, but poetry, letters, musings and reflections. In keeping with the theme of ‘Decadence, Now.’ the Salons will showcase some of the most beautiful repertoire in the German, French and Italian canons. Each programme will explore different aspects of decadence – the passions, the ecstasies, the risks and the consequences. Using these works as inspiration, Karl Fiorini will premiere a new song cycle: his reactionary response to the songs written during the bel époque. With text from Salome and poems by D’Annunzio and Baudelaire, the songs will act as a connective thread running through each of the performances.

Performers Gillian Zammit, Lucia Micallef and Maria Theuma will come together to create an experience which goes beyond the realms of a traditional recital.