© Concert de Paris 2024 / FTV
Before the traditional Bastille Day fireworks on 14 July, the Concert de Paris has become a must for music lovers. This year, Nadine Sierra, Fatma Saïd, Adèle Charvet and Pene Pati will perform “great classical works on the theme of Olympism” in the square in front of the Paris City Hall.
The Concert de Paris has become an eagerly awaited event for music lovers, bringing together instrumentalists and opera singers every year on Bastille Day, 14 July, for an evening that culminates in the traditional fireworks display. The event usually takes place at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, with thousands of spectators flocking to the Champ-de-Mars. This year, however, the event is being held in conjunction with the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games, and this Sunday, 14 July, the Bastille Day coincides with the arrival of the Olympic flame in the French capital. The two events have therefore been moved to the forecourt of the Paris City Hall (the Parvis de l’Hôtel de Ville).
Who will perform at the Concert de Paris 2024?
After the Olympic flame has been carried and the cauldron lit, the Orchestre National de France, conducted by Cristian Măcelaru, the Radio France Choir and the Radio France Choir School, prepared by Aurore Tillac and Sofi Jeannin respectively, will perform on the forecourt of the City Hall. As every year, a number of soloists have been invited, including the American soprano Nadine Sierra, who has just arrived in Paris after a series of recitals in Japan and London, and who will perform an excerpt from Gounod's Roméo et Juliette (Je veux vivre). She will be joined by Egyptian soprano Fatma Saïd (whom we have already heard at the Concert de Paris in 2020), who will sing Aatini Al Naya Wa Ghanni from her debut album El Nour and Edith Piaf's Sous le ciel de Paris with the Maîtrise de Radio France. Adèle Charvet (instead of Gaëlle Arquez, as originally announced) will perform an excerpt from Carmen and the delightful Barcarolle from Les Contes d'Hoffmann, in duet with Fatma Saïd. For his part, the impressive tenor Pene Pati promises the inescapable Nessun Dorma from Turandot (the title of his forthcoming album) and the aria Un di felice, eterea from La Traviata, in a duet with Nadine Sierra, among others. Among others.
In terms of instrumentalists, Concert de Paris 2024 will welcome pianists Khatia Buniatishvili and Lang Lang, as well as violinists and cellists Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Swedish violinist Daniel Lozakovich, and Thibault Cauvin and Matthieu Chedid (M), especially on guitar.
Together they will orchestrate a programme of “great classical works on the theme of Olympism” before performing the French national anthem, La Marseillaise. As every year, the Concert will be followed by the Bastille Day fireworks from the Champ-de-Mars. This year, for the first time, more than a thousand drones will illustrate “a series of tableaux paying homage to the capital and the main Olympic and Paralympic disciplines”.
Broadcasting programme
The square in front of the Hôtel de Ville can accommodate fewer spectators than the Champ-de-Mars. Nevertheless, the event should attract a significant audience. As every year, the Concert de Paris will be broadcast live on French television on France 2 and on radio on France Inter (presented by Stéphane Bern and Anna Sigalévitch respectively), and simultaneously by EBU-Eurovision on stations in more than ten countries, “making it one of the biggest classical music events in the world, watched by tens of millions of television viewers”. Last year, the 2023 edition attracted 3.3 million viewers in France alone, representing an audience share of 24%, and the “Olympic Games” effect of this 2024 edition could further increase the event's visibility. The Concert de Paris will also be broadcast online on FranceTV.
Broadcasting schedule:
- Paris welcomes the Olympic flame (on France 2 from 18.40), live from the forecourt of the Paris City Hall, to "celebrate the capital's Olympic fervour with music";
- The Concert de Paris (live on France 2 and France Inter from 20.40, simulcast by EBU-Eurovision), from the forecourt of the Hôtel de Ville, to go behind the scenes of the event;
- Paris fireworks (France 2, from around 11pm), live from the Champs-de-Mars.
free translation of our article first published in French
the 12 of July, 2024 | Print
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