Arts + Culture

Make It A Musical Christmas on the French Riviera

VICKI RILEY25 November, 20122 Mins read94

If you’re looking for a musical way to celebrate Christmas, there are several concerts and shows being held locally over the festive period.

For the classical music lovers, the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra is holding a concert at 6pm on the 2nd December in the Salle des Princes at the Grimaldi Forum. The orchestra, directed by Kent Nagano, will perform some of the best known pieces of classical music such as “La Valse” by Ravel, Grieg’s Piano Concerto, “Don Juan” by Strauss and “Boléro”, also by Ravel. The Grieg concerto will be played by pianist Evgeny Kissin. Tickets and further information are available on the Grimaldi Forum website.

Opera and musical fans are in for a real treat in December as the Opera de Monte-Carlo will be performing ‘The Man of La Mancha’ from the 20th to 23rd December, accompanied by the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra. The French adaptation of the Wasserman/Leigh/Darion musical was written by celebrated Belgian signer Jacques Brel, and this production is a premiere for Monte-Carlo. Brel’s adaptation originally premiered in Paris in 1968 and ran for over 140 performances. In the Monte-Carlo production the role of Cervantès / Don Quichotte will be played by Nicolas Cavallier. Tickets start at 20€ and more information and booking can be found on Monte-Carlo Opera website.

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If you’re looking for a more lively way to celebrate the festive season, the Acropolis in Nice will tempt you with their Celtic Legends show on the 11th December. In this 10th Anniversary show Irish singers and dancers will enchant you with traditional Celtic music and dances brought to Nice from the mists of Connemara, the pubs of Dublin, the ports of Cork and Belfast and the winds of Galway. Musicians with fiddles, penny whistles, bodhrán and uilleann pipes will enchant you for 2 hours and take you away to the land of leprechauns, Guinness, and whiskey for the evening, and we defy you to sit still during this performance! Tickets range in price from 37€ to 50€ and are available online.

And if you’re looking to celebrate with a traditional Christmas carol concert, make sure you don’t miss the Cantifolia performances in Grasse and Cannes in December. Cantifolia is a mixed choir of 50 singers based in Grasse, directed by Jacques Maes, and accompanied on piano by Mariko Izumi-Chauvineau. They sing in both English and French and will be performing a mixture of well-known English and French hymns on the 23rd December at 5pm at the Cathédrale de Grasse, and in Cannes on New Year’s Eve at 3pm under the kiosque in front of the Palais des Festivals. Both concerts are free and everybody is welcome!