As part of the Folies Parisiennes series, the Palazzetto Bru Zane will host the chamber music concert Opera Dream on October 21, 2025. The evening features Raffaele La Ragione on mandolin and François Dumont on piano, performing transcriptions of operatic favorites by Chaminade, Messager, Thomé, Gounod, Saint-Saëns, Bizet, and others.
While the first half of the 19th century in France was marked by a craze for the guitar, the final decades of the century witnessed the unexpected rise of another plucked instrument: the mandolin. This enthusiasm, sparked by concerts of Spanish and Italian music at the 1878 Universal Exhibition in Paris, quickly spread into fashionable circles. Publishers seized the opportunity, producing a wealth of transcriptions that brought the mandolin into salons and concert halls.
Operettas were the first repertoire to undergo this transformation, their lighthearted spirit perfectly suited to the mandolin’s bright, agile tone. Yet the trend soon expanded, embracing “serious” composers as well: Gounod, Saint-Saëns, Bizet, and even Berlioz found their music reimagined through this delicate yet expressive instrument. Paired with the piano, the mandolin offered an intimate, lyrical perspective on familiar operatic themes, turning grand arias and orchestral textures into sparkling chamber music miniatures.
With Opera Dream, La Ragione and Dumont revive this forgotten fashion, combining virtuosity with poetic sensitivity. Their program reveals how the mandolin—often relegated to the margins of classical music—once became the voice of Parisian elegance and innovation at the close of the Romantic century.
Website: www.bru-zane.com
Location: Palazzetto Bru Zane, Venice
Schedule: October 21, 2025
