Mil e uma noites

Nineteenth-century exoticism arrives in Faro with the Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa and conductor Antonio Pirolli. The programme opens with the Overture from Wagner's Tannhäuser, which synthesises the legend of the troubadour torn between the carnal love of Venus and the redemption of Elisabeth, in a confrontation that Liszt called a "symphonic poem on themes from the opera". The pilgrims' chant and the goddess's bacchanal draw an arc that culminates in the apotheosis of salvation. This is followed by Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio espagnol: the work, which began as a fantasy for violin and orchestra, became a prodigy of orchestral virtuosity.