by InTrieste
The Teatro Giuseppe Verdi in Trieste will continue its 2025 symphonic season this fall with a program dedicated to the Russian repertoire, bringing together a rising Italian soloist and a conductor rarely heard in Western Europe.
On October 4, the theater’s resident orchestra will perform under the baton of Arif Dadashev, music director of Moscow’s Stanislavsky Nemirovich-Danchenko Academic Musical Theater and principal guest conductor of the Mariinsky Theatre. Known as a specialist in the Russian symphonic tradition, Mr. Dadashev has made only limited appearances in European concert halls, making his Trieste debut a notable event for the city’s audiences.
The evening will feature cellist Ettore Pagano, a young musician whose career has been steadily gaining international recognition. A frequent guest at the Teatro Verdi, Mr. Pagano will perform Sergei Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante in E Minor for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 125. The demanding work, revised by the composer in the early 1950s after criticism from Soviet authorities, is remembered in part for its association with Mstislav Rostropovich, who premiered the revised version in 1952. Its melodic, lyrical writing for the cello contrasts with Prokofiev’s reputation for sharper modernist gestures.
The program will conclude with Modest Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain, presented in the orchestral version prepared after the composer’s death by his colleague Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. That adaptation, more polished than Mussorgsky’s original, has become the best-known form of the work and was later immortalized for wider audiences through Leopold Stokowski’s arrangement in Walt Disney’s Fantasia.
The concert forms part of a season that has already seen strong ticket sales and critical interest. Earlier this fall, the Teatro Verdi presented the world premiere of Giorgio Battistelli’s Fedeli d’Amore, alongside a series of symphonic concerts that have drawn near-capacity audiences.
The 2025 season, which runs from September through December, marks an ambitious chapter for the Verdi, continuing its efforts to pair prominent international figures with programs that balance new commissions and core repertoire. For Trieste, a city with a strong musical tradition, Mr. Dadashev’s appearance and Mr. Pagano’s return promise to add a distinct Russian accent to the autumn calendar.
