Tosti: Sogno

Anna Leese and Stephen de Pledge perform Italian Love Songs by Bellini, Puccini, Donizetti and Tosti. These elegant pieces for solo voice, some well known, others less so, connect directly with a rich and substantial body of Italian art songs, romanze and liriche da camera, composed over the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

New Zealand Soprano Anna Leese is a graduate of the University of Otago, the Royal College of Music and the Benjamin Britten International Opera School. Her many awards include the 2005 Richard Tauber Prize and she was recently named as an Arts Foundation New Generation Artist in New Zealand. Her roles for 2012/13 include Leila in Pearlfishers for Opera Holland Park (June), Majenka (The Bartered Bride) and Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) (August) for the New Zealand Opera, and concerts with the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. As part of the acclaimed Prince Consort she will perform at Wigmore Hall in three concerts during 2013 (February, April, July), as part of their American Song Series.

New Zealand pianist Stephen De Pledge maintains a diverse and wide-ranging performing schedule, as soloist, chamber musician and song accompanist. He has already recorded a solo recital disc for Champs Hill Records.

Maltese soprano Gillian Zammit studied in Italy with Carlo Bergonzi and Victoria de los Angeles and is a versatile performer with an operatic repertoire that ranges from Baroque to 20th century opera. Roles include Semel, Tales of Hoffmann, Gianni Schicchi, Hansel and Gretel, Due Zauberflote and Rigoletto which gained her glowing review from OPERA magazine. Gillian is also highly regarded as a recital singer with a varied repertoire of Lieder, Spanish, French and Italian song, as well as being a respected exponent of Maltese Baroque music of which she has recorded several CD s. She has performed in Germany, US, France, London, and Romania and has collaborated with many notable artists including Joseph Calleja.

The late 19th Century was the heyday of the drawing-room ballad, when families and friends entertained each other with a wide range of songs. Sir Paolo Tosti was one of the most successful composers of such music, alongside his contemporaries Pietro Mascagni and Stefano Donaudy.