Mercoledi Musicale Plus

Officially Tuesday was the Feast of the Immaculate Conception - one of the major days of obligation in the Roman Catholic church and a national holiday here in Italy. Every year various confraternities, religious orders and the high and the mighty of the Church Militant - including Big Ben himself - make the journey to the Column of Maria Immaculata in Piazza Spagna on December 8th. Flowers are placed around the base of the column and various litanies and praises are sung. Late in the afternoon Ben and the boys come from the other side of the river - the road blocks, which are almost impassible even for pedestrians, divide the city in two - and he places a crown of flowers on the statue. In the days of J2P2 - the Pontiff himself would go all the way up in a cherry picker; these days, understandably given his age, the task is done on his behalf by a young, able-bodied firefighter.

The column of Maria Immaculata is the centrepiece for the celebrations on December 8th. The faithful parade their banners, sing their litanies of Our Lady, offer flowers - including this tribute from the Rome Municipal Transport Workers who I have heard call on her on more than one occasion - and the Spanish Embassy is festooned with banners and symbols of royal and papal authority.

So what does this have to do with music you ask? Well today I thought rather than the professional stuff I normally post here I'd do a bit of musical cinema verite. Here's a snippet of the "festivities" in Spagna.



But as well as its religious significance December 8th is also the unofficial first day of the Christmas season here. And though it would be nice to think all those people around Spagna were there for reasons of piety the truth was most were out shopping, strolling, eating and generally doing what Italians do so well - celebrating. We certainly didn't stick around the Column but head to Antica Enoteca our friend Leslie's wine bar and restaurant with Vin and Larry for a celebration lunch.

After lunch they headed over to Piazza del Popolo to see the 100 presepes on display and we made our way - dodging road blocks and caribinari - over to the Teatro Le Maschere, one of the many professional children's theatres here in Rome. Our friend Walter was appearing in their play for the season: Un Fantasma per Natale (A Ghost for Christmas). We celebrated my birthday there two years ago with their free adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Happy Price and this year is was an even freer adaptation of his The Canterville Ghost. They've presented it before as Il Castello di MacKerony but made some changes for the holiday season.

Here's our Walter as Gordy, the old MacKerony (think about it!) family retainer, doing his number, which sadly he had to cut on Tuesday because he was playing with a 38o fever. And since then he has had to leave the show to get plenty of bed rest. (Walter please take care of yourself and get better!)



Children's theatre must be one of the hardest jobs in the performing arts. Children are brutally honest and more than willing to participate in what's going on. Tuesday's crowd as a tad restive at first and the chap doing the warm up was having a hard time until he hit this number:



Some how this group of children singing "Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell" struck me as a bit more festive than the gang over at Spagna. There just seemed to be a bit more Joy in their World.

10 decembre - Beata Vergine Maria di Loretto

High Days and Holy Days - The Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Our friend Robert maintains that there are four times in the year that it looks like Halloween here in Rome - and none of them come on the last day of October. According to him December 8th and the festivities surrounding the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in Piazza di Spagna is one of those Mr. Dress-up days. So it was hard to resist his invitation to meet him along with Walter and another old friend Yvon, who was in town visiting from Prague, at la Fontana della Barcaccia.

The Statue of Maria Immaculata was erected in 1856 to commemorate Pius IX's declaration of the Immaculate Conception. Its at the southern end of the Piazza just in front of the Spanish Embassy.

The faithful converge around the column to sing their Aves and Salves and present enormous floral tributes to Our Lady. Parishes under her patronage process through the square with banners as do members of various confraternities in capes, caps and plumes. The odd Bishop or Cardinal wanders through with his entourage and various orders of religious join the processions and the singing. I was mildly disappointed that there were no flagellants but was reminded this was Italy not Spain.

And at around 1600 Big Ben and the Boys from the other side of the river come to place a floral crown on Our Lady's head. Well actually Big Ben doesn't do it himself - I'm told one of those brawny brave Vigili del fuoco(firemen) goes up in the cherry picker on his behalf. Then there is just the festive crowd that comes to watch, roam the street and celebrate what is, for most Romans, the first day of Christmas. And of course being Romans they head into the trattoria and restorante for an extended lunch (pranzo.) How could we do less?

Off we headed to Ristorante Mario on Via della Vite. Its a warm, cosy and extremely popular place because of their exceptional Toscana cuisine. For starters two bowls of warm white and black beans in olive oil and a large ball of Buffalota Mozzarella followed by Ribolleti (a thick Tuscan vegetable soup - just the thing on a chilly day) then a remarkably light lasagna (paper thin pasta, a light bechamel sauce, a savoury veal-beef mix, a sure hand on the cheese and not a sign of tomato sauce) and a slice of warm apple tart to finish. All of course accompanied by a very nice white from Tuscany.

The place was now packed - every table occupied by groups of families, friends, colleagues and the two rooms were filled with that now familar sound of Romans celebrating over drink and food - I know it seens odd to say but it is a sound I've never heard anywhere else. As we ordered our coffee the waiter, who had been good but slightly aloof, heard André, a friend of Robert's who had joined us for desert and is currently finishing his Doctorate in Mid-Eastern Studies, speak Arabic with Laurent - suddenly we were his favorite table. He was from Alexandria but has lived in Italy for 25 years. The bottles of grappa and lemoncinni were brought out and left on the table, conversations at this point were going around the table in Arabic, French, Italian and English.

Seemed a highly appropriate way to celebrate a major Feast Day.

16 decembre - 111a domenica di Avvento