Tosti’s Songs

Barbara Gentili, Soprano; Joyce Tang, piano

Narration by Ivan Hewett

This concert describes and follows the life and career of Francesco Paolo Tosti (1846-1916), Italian composer of many favourite songs and the singing teacher to Queen Victoria’s family. The music is accompanied by an insightful narrative that music critic Ivan Hewett created to illustrate Tosti’s musical beginnings in his native Abruzzo region and his upsurge to fame from the late nineteenth century in London and Italy. 

Tosti, Sogno Melodia; Parole di Lorenzo Stecchetti

Tosti, Vorrei

Tosti, My love and I

*Tosti – Beautiful Eyes (arranged and played by Felix Arndt)

*Tosti – Goodbye (arranged and played by Felix Arndt)

*Tosti – Goodbye (accompaniment by Coenraad Valentyn Bos)

Tosti, Quattro canzoni d’Amaranta (selections)

Tosti, Avec toi

Puccini, Sole e amore

Puccini, Ninna nanna

* performances featuring reproducing piano rolls

Barbara Gentili, Soprano 

Born in Italy, Barbara is an operatic soprano and a music historian. She has starred in many important theatres of northern Italy, including Teatro Dal Verme (Milan), Teatro Sociale (Como), Teatro Ponchielli (Cremona), Teatro Fraschini (Pavia), Teatro Grande (Brescia). Leading operatic roles played include Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte and the Second Lady in The Magic Flute by W.A. Mozart, Sailor in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Santuzza in Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana, Violetta in Verdi’s La traviata, the Portatore in Brecht’s L’eccezione e la regola, Micaela in Bizet’s Carmen, Nedda in Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci, Tosca and Sour Angelica in the eponymous operas by Puccini, and Mimì and Cio Cio San in respectively La Bohème and Madama Butterfly by again Puccini. 

As a scholar, Barbara has since published in the most prestigious academic journals and her first monograph, Italian Opera Singing at the Time of Verismo. The Invention of the Modern Voice will be published in September with Boydell and Brewer. 

Ivan Hewett

Ivan has worked in music for more than thirty years as lecturer, promoter, broadcaster and journalist. After leaving Oxford University he worked briefly in the film music industry, where he rose to the dizzy heights of composing music for a cat food advertisement.  In the late 1980s and early 1990s he programmed festivals and series at the South Bank Centre, during the heady final days of the GLC.  He also worked as a researcher and associate producer on TV music programmes, and from 1993 to 2002 presented the BBC Radio 3’s flagship magazine programme Music Matters. Since 2002 he has been a critic and writer for the Daily Telegraph, a lecturer at the Royal College of Music, and a regular broadcaster.  His book Healing the Rift, a meditation on the dilemmas of modern music, is published by Continuum.  

Joyce Tang, piano

Joyce is a pianist and an early-career musicologist, having received her professional training from the Royal Academy of Music, the University of Oxford, and the University of Southampton. She has research expertise in historical pianos and piano rolls, and keenly advocates for applying these research into practice. She has performed throughout the UK, and abroad at US and New Zealand. At present, she is looking after the roll library at the Musical Museum, and inaugurator of the 'Hybridae' concerts. Do check out her YouTube Channel, #Findingpiecespiano.

Family ticket includes 2 adults and up to 3 children.