Premieres of "The Heroine of Gaeta"

In October my dear colleagues an I will start presenting a brand new composition in honour of the last Queen of the Kingdom of the two Sicilies, Marie Sophie Amalie, the heroine of Gaeta in Italy, Germany, Austria.

As a mezzosoprano, I am deeply grateful to present a brand new composition with my pianist this October in Naples - in honour of the last Queen of the Kingdom of the two Sicilies: Marie Sophie Amalie, the heroine of Gaeta.

 

Mezzosoprano Astrid Mathyshek in the role of the Heroine of Gaeta 

 

The performances will take place in Italy, Austria and Germany from 2025 to 2026. 

For me as a singer it is like a coronation and the most wonderful project of my career so far.  My fantastic colleague Alexander Maria Wagner is as enhusiastic as me!

The composer is well-known artist Susan Oswell, who wrote her "Cantata a voce sola" for the virtuosity of piano and voice: 3 octaves, coloraturas, jumps, syncopes, high notes like of Mozart's Queen of the night and deep alto layers promise to stun the audience and leave art lovers speechless. Oswell herself says about her recent vocal work:

“I composed the cantata “The Heroine of Gaeta” for mezzo-soprano and piano for Astrid Mathyshek because I was immediately enthusiastic about the text that she herself had written (from the retrospective perspective of Marie, Queen of the Two Sicilies). I have known Astrid Mathyshek as a singer for several years. Her warm mezzo timbre, with which she can create both the nostalgic, melodic passages and Marie's dramatic outbursts with great expressivity and beauty, her wide vocal  range with fine, consistent intonation, and her perfect, crystal-clear coloratura offered me a great variety of possibilities which I was happy to integrate in the composition."

Pic: Knabenherz;