“The 2018 Epiphany Festival at the Novaya Opera is dedicated to Italian music, and the final Gala Concert has to do with the theme. The programme of the concert comprises both rarely performed compositions such as Ensemble from Amilcare Ponchielli’s La Gioconda and popular hits such as Aria of Cio-Cio-San from Madama Butterfly and Aria of Calaf from Turandot by Puccini. At first glance, Aria of Mitridate from Mozart’s Mitridate, re di Ponto seems to bear no relation to Italian music. But this opera (in the genre of drama per musica) is written in Italian and follows the Italian opera tradition. The programme will include original orchestral works: Intermezzo The Journey to Le Havre to the third act of Puccini’s Manon Lescaut and the overture to Verdi’s Les vêpres siciliennes. The beauty and perfection of many of the numbers will be added to by the Novaya Opera Choir which will take part in the performance of excerpts from Puccini’s Turandot, Ponchielli’s La Gioconda, Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana and many others”.