Event
Tchaikovsky’s Fate
Naples Philharmonic Masterworks
Naples Philharmonic
Alexander Shelley, artistic and music director
Joshua Hopkins, baritone
L. Boulanger — D’un soir triste
Jake Heggie — Songs for Murdered Sisters
Tchaikovsky — Symphony No. 4
This season’s Storytelling theme delves into deeper emotions in this Masterworks program as Artistic and Music Director Alexander Shelley has crafted a deeply moving experience that will not be forgotten any time soon.
A look at the background of the three pieces to be performed should give patrons an idea of what’s in store: Lili Boulanger was 24 and dying of tuberculosis when she wrote D’un soir triste (On a Sad Evening). Jake Heggie composed Songs for Murdered Sisters specifically for this evening’s special guest, Joshua Hopkins, a baritone whose sister was one of three Canadian women murdered by the same man in 2015. And Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony tricks us into believing the gloom of the symphony’s beginning is about to clear, only to shatter expectations. Is the piece expressing the guilt and shame over taboo desires the composers could not suppress, or was he simply battling another bout of depression?
Boulanger’s D’un soir triste (On a Sad Evening) utilizes complex cross rhythms and a dense harmonic structure to convey a dark premonition and inconsolable despair, likely the composer’s own sense of impending death. In fact, the handwriting on the original manuscript became weaker and weaker, until it was nearly impossible to make out the notes, as the composer inched toward her demise.
The impetus for Jake Heggie’s Songs for Murdered Sisters arose in the fall of 2015, shortly after a Canadian man went on a killing spree, murdering three ex-partners in their separate homes. One of the women murdered was Nathalie Warmerdam, the sister of this evening’s special guest, baritone Joshua Hopkins, who, after the murder, set out on a journey to raise awareness of the global epidemic of gender-based violence. Struck by his efforts, world-famous opera composer Heggie agreed to write the music while best-selling author Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid’s Tale), wrote the words for the tender, powerful and tragic eight-song piece.
In the evening’s final segment, Tchaikovsky opens his Fourth Symphony with the horns of fate, a force that prevents us from attaining a life of bliss. The composer then toys with listeners by introducing a passage that is full of triumph and joy. This fleeting moment is quickly overshadowed as Tchaikovsky returns to the somber melody, as if to say that “Life is not perfect, happiness is short-lived and, if you can’t find joy in yourself, embrace the joy of others.”
Prelude at 6:30pm
Join the conductor before the performance for an insightful 30-minute prelude discussion about the program.
Music and Museum
All Masterworks tickets include same-day admission to The Baker Museum. Museum hours on day of performance: 10am-7:30pm. In addition, the doors to Hayes Hall will open 90 minutes prior to this performance. Arrive early to enjoy the exhibitions and light fare available at Heidi's Place.
The Artistic and Music Director position is generously endowed by Sharon and Timothy Ubben.
Tickets start at $29.
Naples Philharmonic
Naples Philharmonic
Founded in 1982, the Naples Philharmonic normally performs over 140 orchestral and chamber concerts, as well as opera and ballet, education, community and special event concerts from September through June each year.
Meet the Musicians
Alexander Shelley
Artistic and Music Director Meet Alexander
Jack Everly
Principal Pops Conductor Meet Jack
James Ehnes
Artistic Partner Meet James
Manuel López-Gómez
Associate Conductor Meet Manuel
Alvin Ho
Assistant Conductor Meet Alvin
Alexander Shelley
Alexander Shelley
Sharon and Timothy Ubben Artistic and Music Director
A “natural communicator, both on and off the podium” (The Daily Telegraph), Alexander Shelley performs across six continents with the world’s finest orchestras and soloists. A passionate and articulate advocate for the role of music in society, he has spearheaded multiple award-winning and groundbreaking projects unlocking creativity in the next generation and bringing symphonic music to new audiences.
With a conducting technique described as “immaculate, everything crystal clear and a tool to his inborn musicality” (Yorkshire Post), Alexander is known for the precision and integrity of his interpretations, for his creative programming and for the breadth of his repertoire. He collaborates with artists such as Lang-Lang, Joshua Bell, Daniel Hope, Hélène Grimaud, Itzhak Perlman, Renée Fleming and Thomas Hampson alongside some of the finest orchestras of Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australasia.
As of January 2015, Alexander has served as principal associate conductor of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom he curates an annual series of concerts at Cadogan Hall and tours both nationally and internationally. In September 2015, Alexander succeeded Pinchas Zukerman as music director of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, the youngest in its history.
In 2016, Alexander was awarded the ECHO prize for his second Deutsche Grammophon recording, Peter and the Wolf, and both the ECHO and Deutsche Grunderpreis in his capacity as artistic director of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen’s Zukunftslabor, a visionary project of grass-roots engagement, which uses music as a source for social cohesion and integration.
He has a wealth of experience conducting and presenting major open-air events; in Nuremberg alone, he has, over the course of nine years, hosted more than half a million people at the annual Klassik Open Air concerts — Europe’s largest classical music event.
Meet Alexander
Joshua Hopkins
Joshua Hopkins
Known as one of the finest singer-actors of his generation, JUNO-winning and Grammy-nominated Canadian baritone Joshua Hopkins has established himself as a prominent leading artist throughout the U.S. and Canada.
His most personal work, Songs for Murdered Sisters, is a song cycle by composer Jake Heggie and author Margaret Atwood, conceived by Hopkins in remembrance of his sister, Nathalie Warmerdam. In 2023, he gave the live world premiere of the work’s orchestral version with Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra under the baton of Alexander Shelley.
Hopkins made his Metropolitan Opera debut in Turandot. Other notable performances have included a new production of Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda for the Metropolitan Opera and his Lyric Opera of Chicago debut as Tadeusz in The Passenger.
Past concert engagements have included his European concert debut with the Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias in Spain, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall the New York Philharmonic.
Over the years, Hopkins has won numerous awards and distinctions, including a JUNO Award for a recording of Massenet’s Thaïs with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Verbier Festival Academy’s Prix d’Honneur and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award.
