Mercoledi Musicale

One of the concerts I choose to give a miss this year at the Whitsun Festival was a piano recital by the young French pianist David Fray. Fray appeared on the music scene in 2004 winning the second grand prize at the Montreal International Piano Competition . He is a rather mannered player reminiscent of a long-haired Glen Gould – though he has voiced little admiration of Gould citing Wilhelm Kempff as his model. Unlike much of the performances scheduled last week he will not be concentrating on Rossini however he won’t be entirely neglecting the Man of the hour.

In 1820 Liszt transcribed La caritá (Charity), a short religious choral composition of Rossini’s, for piano. It was the last work of a triptych – I’ll let you figure out what the other two may have been called. Fray will be including it in his programme along with selections by Schubert, Bach and other works by Liszt.

I tried to upload a version by an Australian pianist who has recorded all the piano works of Liszt - 98 volumes - however YouTube banned it almost immediately despite the link to his website etc.  I will not name either the artist or the label because I was all set to give them free publicity .

Unfortunately the only piano version on YouTube is not a particularly good one but there are several lovely postings of the original choral piece (mostly by amateur choirs) and this one is particular favourite.

The soprano Jodie Devos was the second laureate in this year's Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels. Should you wish to hear a bit more of this young soprano, her performance at the finale of the Competition is available here.

June 17 - 1631: Mumtaz Mahal dies during childbirth. Her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, will spend the next 17 years building her mausoleum, the Taj Mahal.

Mercoledi Musicale

Claudio Abbado: 1933-2014

It was August of 1969 and I was on my second trip across the Atlantic in three months and my first visit to Salzburg and the summer festival. I was there for a week - a very full week of operas and concerts. There was opera every night and lieder concerts most afternoons. It was meant to be a feast of music and I wasn't going to miss a morsel. The cast lists were a roll call of many of the big names of the time: Adam, Alva, Zylis-Gara, King, Berry, Bjoner, Evans, Freni, Ludwig, Kraus, Ghiaurov, Stratas, Prey, Janowitz, Gedda et al. And on the podium: Karajan conducting Don Giovanni, Böhm conducting Fidelio, Ozawa, in his operatic debut, murdering Cosi and Claudio Abbado showing us how Il Barbiere di Siviglia was meant to sound.

He had debuted as an operatic conductor at Salzburg the year before with the same production and between him and director/designer Jean-Pierre Ponnelle they had created a Barbiere that was, for its time, revolutionary.  It was to be the first Rossini opera in a collaboration that shed new light on La Cenerentola and L'Italiana in Algeri.  His work on the operas of Rossini culminated in the brilliant revival of  Il Viaggio a Rheims at Pesaro in 1984.  Previously I had posted that encore to end all encores, a moment of musical joy: Viaggo, Pesaro 1992.

Since his death on Monday much has been written in tribute to Claudio Abbado and many clips have been posted featuring his Mahler, Verdi, Schubert, Stravinsky and Mozart.  I thought I would remember him with the first piece of music I ever heard him conduct:  the Overture to Il Barbiere di Siviglia.   And from the looks of it this video may have been made around the same time I first saw him.

Unfortunately I missed the chance to see the legendary Boris Godunov at Covent Garden in 1983. I stood out on Bow St one April evening my five pound note discretely held but visible - a sign that you wanted a ticket. Sadly no one was in the mood or seemed to have the need to sell that evening. It was one of the few times I had been disappointed in my attempts to get a last minute seat at the Royal Opera. Though I had many of his recordings and had listen to many of his performances on radio I was not to see him conduct in person until April of 2008. After a period of illness and absence from the opera house he returned to the Teatro Valli in Reggio-Emilia, where his son Daniele was artistic director, to conduct Beethoven's Fidelio. As I wrote at the time it was one of the most exciting evenings I have spent at the opera in many years - I was simply overwhelmed.

He appeared with his Orchestra Mozart during the concert season March 2010 at the Academia Santa Cecilia.  The programme was Mendelssohn and Mozart with a Mozart encore.  It was a glorious evening - perhaps not as emotional as his Mahler, Beethoven or Verdi  but he gave us the "Italian", Violin Concerto K216 and the "Jupiter" as I had never heard them before.

After his bout of cancer and other health problems he seemed to have returned to a full and active schedule with his Mahler Youth Orchestra, Lucerne Festival Orchestra and Orchestra Mozart.  My dear friend David records so much of it in his blog post and in the wonderful obituary he wrote for the Guardian.

The man was loved, respected and revered but most of all loved.  And I'll let David have the final words: Though we'll hugely miss him, there's nothing to regret: no-one lived a fuller life, one so much longer than illness would have led anyone to expect.

 REQUIEM aeternam dona ei, et lux perpetua luceat ei. 

Requiescat in pace.

January 22 - 1506: The first contingent of 150 Swiss Guards arrives at the Vatican.

San Riccardo di Roma

This observation - I won't call it a review because I am becoming more and more aware of my limitations as a reviewer - of the December 9th performance of this season's opening work at the Opera here is long overdue. But finally here it is.

Perhaps it is no mistake that Riccardo Muti has found his way to a city known for its churches and priestly population. More and more in the past few years he has taken on an almost priest-like aura as he mounts the podium in opera houses and concert halls in Salzburg, Ravenna, New York or Chicago. Going to a Muti performance seems to have become an almost religious experience for his followers. A hush falls about the hall as he enters the pit and god help the person that interrupts the mysteries with unnecessary movements, coughing or applause before the final note has sounded - they are liable to be silenced by the horrified reaction of the devout or even worse a glare from the high priest himself.

Moïse (Ildar Abdrazakov) and the Hebrews hear the Mysterious voice issuing from the flames telling them to leave the yoke of Eygpt. The flaming pillars are an example of the effective use Pier'Alli made of projections in this production of Moïse et Pharaon at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma.

Now I am a Muti follower and devotee myself - I have been since I first saw him conduct Don Pasquale in 1971 at Salzburg - what a year that was! Abbado with Rossini, Karajan Verdi, Boehm Berg and Mozart and Muti Donizetti! One of the great joys of the past few years is having the opportunity to see performances he has conducted both in Salzburg and here in Roma. However I am starting to question how far we can go with the hero worship and reverence - we are after all in the opera house or the concert hall not a church or a temple. Music was meant to be responded to and unless its Ambrosian Chant was not meant to be heard in a sepulchred vacuum.

Take in point last month's Muti-led season opener at the Teatro dell'Opera: Moïse et Pharaon. This was Rossini's reworking for the Parisian audience of his earlier Neapolitan work Mosé in Egitto. Many of the big numbers were carried over from the earlier work and others added to meet the requirements of the Opéra for spectacle, dance and the talents of the resident singers. Yes the subject is of a religious nature - though librettists Balocchi and de Jouy somehow work the Burning Bush into the Plagues on Egypt!!!! - but it also has good old fashioned operatic situations woven into the story. Oh sure Moses keeps saying "let my people go" and Pharaoh says "yes, no, maybe" but there's also the forbidden love of Aménophis, Pharaoh's son, for Anaï, Moses' niece, and the conversion of Sinaïde, Pharaoh's wife, to the faith of the Hebrews thrown in for good measure. It pretty much ends according to C. B. deMille - the Hebrews escape through the Red Sea and Pharaoh and the forces of Egypt are drowned but there's a fair bit of digression along the way.

This photo doesn't half catch the brilliant effect of the final scene as the sea parted and Moïse and the Children of Israel made their way through the cascading waters to the other side.

There are quite a few ensembles, chorale moments and the incredibly beautiful Des cieux où tu résides quartet with chorus - but a great deal of the music is Rossini writing for star singers to show off their vocal chops. The very beautifully produced programme - I really must do a posting on the remarkable programmes published here one day - included pictures of all the principle singers, both in costume and civilian dress, who sang at the primiére but search as I might I found no picture of the conductor nor even a mention of his name.

Such was not the case here in Roma in December, the name foremost on the posters was Muti. Though there was "names" among the singers they were secondary to the maestro and were not the reason we were making the journey to Piazza Beniamino Gigli. Not that the maestro in anyway failed us. This is the third time he has led this particular work and his love and familiarity showed. The forces in Roma may not have been as first rate as those at La Scala or Salzburg but the orchestra is constantly showing what can be achieved when working with a demanding taskmaster. However I am starting to wonder - given both that evening's performance and the next evening at La Scala - if all Italian orchestras have problems with their brass sections? Riccardo Zanellato's chorus did some of the finest work I've heard from them in the past four years - and Moïse is one of those works where the chorus is as important as the soloists.

Muti's soloists were a variable and in one a case a questionable choice. Ildar Abdrazakov (above left) has sung Moïse in Muti's two previous productions and his is a powerful, if not dominating, performance and in Nicola Alaimo's Pharaon he had a worthy opponent.

I was expecting much of Sonia Ganassi (right) as Sinaïde but have noticed in the past few performances I've experience that her voice has taken on a very uncharacteristic harshness. Her duet with the equally rough sounding Eric Cutler (Aménophis) almost became a shouting match. Though it should be noted that Ganassi was cheered to the rafters while Cutler received a few jeers from the normally timid galleriste. Juan Francisco Gatell (Éliézer) and Barbara Di Castri (Maria) offered strong support in their few solo passages and to the ensembles. The one miscalculation was Anna Kasyan in the role of Anaï - her is a pleasant but thin voice and she seemed to lack both the breath control and the technique for her big scene. This music was written originally for the great Colbran and adapted for the equally admired Cinti-Damoreau, and no matter how brilliant the conductor requires a singer of equal brilliance.

Director/Designer Pier'Alli's design for the opening of the Red Sea - a spectacular use of projections, lighting and a semi-permanent architectural set. The entire production was the best example I've seen of using modern technology as scenography.

I am not an admirer of Pier'Alli as a director and have yet to see anything staged by him where there has been any real solid characterizations or emotional core but this time I was overwhelmed with admiration for his designs - his use of architectural elements, lights and multiple projections were exceptional. For the first time in my opera going experience I saw modern technology used effectively and seamlessly to enhance and illuminate a production - as a sidebar it made the sloppy projections in the La Scala Die Walküre the following evening look like the work of amateurs. Highest praise to Alli for his designs, Guido Levi for his exceptional lighting and the technical staff at the Teatro for putting it all together.

Shen Wei's modern choreography was an remarkable match for the extended dance sequences Rossini wrote for the original production in Paris.

Equally as praise worthy was the choreography of Shen Wei for the extended dance sequences that make up most of the third act of the opera. Dance was a must for any production at the Opéra in those days and Rossini met the requirement with 20 minutes of pleasant, highly dancable, if not memorable, music. I had read much about Wei in the translations I had done for Ballet2000 but wasn't expecting the simple beauty of his dance patterns and movements. Like Alli's designs his choreography reflected an innate sense of musicality.

And that might well be the watchword for the entire evening - musicality. That sensitivity to, knowledge of, and talent for music that is the mark of a Muti performance. But what was lacking, and frankly seems to now elude the maestro, was any feeling of spontaneity; less a feeling of awed worshipping at the altar of art and more of feeling of joyful participation in the art itself would have made a good evening more than that.

To celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the Unification of Italy Maestro Muti will be giving us Nabucco in March - another work with a religious theme and the added strong patriotic subtext. It is early Verdi, raw and a little rough around the edges a bit like the Risorgimento itself. I can only hope that the Maestro will give us more of the rough and raw and a little less of the religious.

Photos: Falsini for the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma


17 gennaio - Santa Nadia

Fiasco

Apropos of that letter Rossini sent to his mother after the failure of Sigismondo, here's another cartoon by Fillipo Letzi that tells the tale.

I love his work - thanks to the ladies at Casetta Vaccaj for introducing me to him. I'll be posting more about them later this week.

25 agosto - San Luigi di Francia

Pesaro - Zelmira

There was a fascination with reflecting glass panels at this year's Pesaro Festival. There was a small variation on one in the Comte Ory and two very large mirrors filled the stage in Zelmira and La Scala di Seta. The mind boggles at the cost of this sort of stage craft in these cash strapped days but at least when the Festival does things they do them big.

The chorus of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna takes their curtain call in front of the huge mirror that reflects the stage floor grid.

For the past three years the Festival has been showcasing Rossini's Naples works (2007- Otello, 2008 - Ermione) and Zelmira, written in 1822, was his last opera for San Carlo and despite a libretto that makes little or no sense was a great success. It soon appeared on major European stages and this year Pesaro presented the new critical editon by Helen Greenwal and Kathleen Kuzmick Hansell of Rossini's 1826 reworking for Paris. An aria added for Vienna in April 1822 was also included. This made for a long evening - Act 1 lasted 2 hours and Act 2 was almost as long. But musically it was time well spent.

Again let's get carping out of the way first: it appears director Giorgio Barberio Corsetti was booed on opening night and I can only think that it was a highly appropriate response not so much for his concept as how he saw it through. The curtain went up as soldiers in modern combat uniforms clambered over three broken statues covered in sand. Okay this was to be an updated production with flack jackets, women in 50s head scarves and priests in Orthodox clergy robes - no great hardship the story happens in Greece so why not? For the next scene the stage floor slide open to reveal a metal grill and the sand tumbled through it - a very effect bit of stage magic - then the revealed statues ascended to the flies and hung over the singers' heads twisting and turning distractingly in the air. But not enough to distract us from Zelmira breast-feeding her father - showing that if Corsetti had not read the play Zelmira is based on, he had at least read the scholar's notes so thoughtfully included in the very fine programme book. The next scene brought that huge mirror which reflected the sandpit under the stage - a warren of tunnels with scurrying people in rags dragging bodies to and fro. Aside from the fact that much of what was going on had little to do with the already obscure plot it was distracting from what was happening musically. And it did little to illuminate the characters or help the singers most of whom just stood around going through some pretty standard - pax the breast feeding episode - operatic gestures. By the end of the first act Corsetti had given up trying to titillate us and we had a standard backdrop, the chorus in a semi-circle and the soloists lined up in front of them (see photos above and left). The second act had a few surprises including some large screen live projections which required that blue screens be trundled on behind the singers. It gave us some powerful close ups of Aldrich and Knude in full throtle but was mostly a display of the wizardry of the technical crew and little else.

But ultimately with a work like Zelmira you are not there for the story or the stage craft but for the music. And on most levels the Festival did major honour to its eponymous composer with what was intended to be the year's showpiece.

Of course a great deal of the interest centred around the return to the scene of his first successes of tenor Juan Diego Florez (right as Ilo) in the role of Zelmira's husband. And he did not fail to deliver what was expected of him. His fans reacted accordingly with a lengthy - I was almost going to say "pro-longed" - ovation at the end of his Act 1 Cavatina. It was undoubtedly thrilling but the top is not quite as free as I have heard it on broadcasts or recording. Ilo is actually a secondary role and the rest of the evening he contributed to some fine duets, trios and ensembles. Where he was least convincing was an actor - not even the newly acquired goatee could convince us that he was the fearless warrior ready to do battle for his wife and country. His boyish good looks that work so well in so much of Rossini worked against him here and again the director gave him little help.

More dramatically convincing was Gregory Kunde's Antenore, the usurper of the throne of Lesbos which is the principal tenor role. Written for the great Andrea Nozzari it is a fearsome piece of vocal writing but Kunde approached it fearlessly and with the required steel in his voice. It was not always a beautiful sound but it was thrilling. A few of the reports tried to foolishly compare the two tenors which is your old apples to apricots comparison or more accurately polished bronze to fired iron.

American mezzo Kate Aldrich (centre, right with Florez and Marianna Pizzolato) was making her Festival debut as the title character and dramatically she fit into the director's concept of Zelmira as the young wife thrown into a partisan's role against her will. Though her singing was never less than beautiful I felt it lacked a certain weight that the role cried out for. She has a lovely mezzo voice more in the Von Stade tradition than the Horne and I kept feeling that a darker voice was needed - the part was written for Colbran and the Act 2 aria added in Paris for Pasta certainly if reports are to be believed voices heavier than Aldrich's. I found myself wishing that she and Marianna Pizzolato had switched roles. As Emma, Zelmira's confident and friend, she gave an object lesson in Rossini singing in her Act 2 (Vienna) aria and throughout the evening. Her's was the mostly consistently strong performance of the evening. Rather strangely Emma, who is so fundamental to the plot, is not included in the general reconciliation and rejoicing of the finale. That did not stop the audience from giving her a resounding ovation during the call.

Of the lower men's voices Alex Espisito handled the role of Zelmira's father well as did Mirco Palazzi as Antenore's evil advisor Leucippo. The chorus of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna processed as priests, bullied as storm troopers and cringed as village woman effectively. Roberto Abbado led the Bologna orchestra in a well-paced performance. Though I question if he needed to be elevated and spotlit to the degree that he was, given that this was a singers' opera.

Conductor Roberto Abbado takes his bow with l. to r. Alex Esposito, Juan Diego Florez, Kate Aldrich and Gregory Kunde.

It was a long evening but worth it to hear a work so rarely performed - next year they have promised us an even rarer work from the Rossini canon - his 13th and many say unluckiest opera Sigismondo. It appeared first in Venice in 1827 and the disappeared from the stage until a revival in 1992. Francis Toye, in an early biography, said the work was "wholly, irretrievably dead and buried"; and in a later well regarded book Herbert Weinstock dismissed it in a few words. Given that many of the Rossini works we hear today were equally looked down on it should be interesting to hear.

Pesaro - Le Comte Ory

As I previously mentioned Le Comte Ory was one of the first, if not the first recording I ever bought and I recall seeing pictures of that 1954-56 Glyndebourne production and being enchanted by Oliver Messel's wonderful vision of it as scenes from a Book of Hours. (Left, Act 2 from that production - the Countess with the knights desguised as nuns.) When it was presented in Ottawa in 1978, back in the golden days of the Summer Festival I finally got to see it on stage. The production again was staged in the period of the Crusades with marvelous designs by Marc Negin. My friend Cathy shared some memories of her appearance in it, in the Comments section last week.

Here at Pesaro director/designer Lluis Pasqual had a different vision of it. In his production, first created in 2003, the opera is a "society game" - much like charades or a scavenger hunt - played by guests of the Hotel Rossini in the 1930s. As a concept it had its moments but anyone not familiar with the story of the profligate count and his attempts to seduce the virtuous Countess while her menfolk are away at the Crusades would have been lost. Still as "concepts" go it was not all that bad, particularly when compared to a few I have witnessed in the past few months, . Other than adding a lesbian overtone to the Comtesse-Isolier relationship it honestly didn't do any great damage to what is, after all, an extended vaudeville or boulevard farce that doesn't beg for any great psychological insight.

And fortunately the music Rossini provided is a constant delight. Glorious number follows glorious number in a succession of bubbling chorus, drinking songs, faux-laments, duets leading to quartets leading to extended ensembles for seven unaccompanied voices and that final sublime trio for the Comtesse, Comte and Isolier. Even if he did "borrow" half the numbers from Il Viaggio a Rheims, Rossini spent a wealth of musical invention on his second to last opera.

Maestro Crignani leads the cast in bows at the end of Comte Ory, August 11, 2009.

Musically things were in the capable hands of conductor Paolo Crignani, who had an obvious feel for the work. There was a lightness to his approach that allowed him to give certain passages the drive needed to move things along without making things sound rushed.

Any tenor singing certain roles today is going to be in the shadow of Rossini tenor par excellence Juan Diego Florez; that Yijie Shi was appearing in a production originally built around JDF could not have been an easy task. He emerged from the experience with honours; though certain passages betrayed the bleat often associated with "Rossini tenors" he handled the extremely difficult vocal line well. As an actor he wasn't terribly convincing as a profligate or dangerous seducer but did convey a certain charm.

Sadly soprano Maria Jose Moreno was done in by aspirants that spoiled what are suppose to be the long lines of the Comtesse's first act aria. It was less noticeable the rest of the evening though a few of her high notes were on the tentative side. Physically she looked stunning in the evening dresses and peignoirs reminiscent of Jean Harlow. Laura Polverelli was an adequate if unexciting Isolier and Natalia Gavrilan made much of Dame Ragonde.

Roberto de Candia stole the evening as the Comte's comrade in revelry Raimbaud and his drinking song with chorus of faux-nuns was a real highlight. And kudos to the Prague Chamber Chorus who cavorted as society folk disguised as peasants, ladies of honour, knights and drag-nuns.

It says a great deal about the opera itself, or perhaps about my love it, that even with a less than distinguised cast and an indifferent production it still was a delightful evening and only made me realize why I love it so much.

As a footnote: the audience seemed to be sitting on their collective hands for much of the evening. There was no sense of joy in their response which was lukewarm at best. In fact when I applauded enthusiastically for de Candia two of the people in my box glared at me if though I was interrupting holy communion. For god sake people this was Rossini not Wagner!

17 agosto - San Mamete

Mercoledi Musicale

Last night we saw the first of the three operas at this year's Rossini Festival - Le Comte Ory, which I will be reporting on later. It has always been my favorite Rossini work and was the first LP* I ever owned. Written for Paris in 1828, Rossini never one to lose good numbers, reused a great deal of Il Viaggio a Rheims that had been written three years preivous for the coronation of Charles X.

It was not until it was revived at Glyndebourne in 1954 that it entered the modern repetorie. Here's the first act finale from a later Glyndebourne production.



Young Comte Ory, a wastrel, takes advantage of the absence of the local gentry at the crusades to try and seduce their ladies. Disguised first as a hermit then as a nun he attempts to enter the castle and the bed of the beautiful Countess of Formoutiers. As Act 1 ends he's been unmasked as the Hermit and news arrives that the Countess's brother is returning with his men from the Crusade.

*For the young ones an LP was a long playing record - a black vinyl disk that you put on a turntable and ... forget it you wouldn't believe me if I told you.

12 agosto - Santa Giovanna Francesca de Chantal

Pesaro Bound

By the time this is posted - scheduled posting is such a treat - we will be on our way to the Adriatic Coast for our Feragosto break. We - or rather Laurent as driver and me as passenger (notice the passive in passenger)- will be braving the hell that is the traditional August exodus from cities and towns for the beaches and resorts for what our trusty TomTom (GPS) tells us is a 3 hour and 37 minutes drive.

Its a route of approximately 364 km (227 miles)and will take us across the width of Italy and up the Adriatic Coast. We'll be passing through L'Aquila, the scene of the recent earthquake, and the Parco Nazionale del Gran Sasso. Gran Sasso is a 30 km range of mountains that form the highest part of the Apennines chain. As well as the spectacular scenery that part of the drive involves cutting through the mountains via a 10 km long tunnel. The BBC entry on them reveals some interesting facts about that tunnel and an underground laboratory.


View Larger Map

After we get through the tunnel there will be the pleasure of 161 kms of the A14 - the infamous Strada Adriatico - no doubt bumper to bumper with delays for construction, accidents and just the incredible volume of traffic.

Our destination - as it was last August - is Pesaro, a small coastal town that's main fame rests on two things - its beaches and being the birthplace of Gioachino Rossini. The first accounts for the number of sun-bronzed, bikini clad Italians who crowding the beaches, the second for the number of pasty white Germans, Brits and North Americans wandering through the streets looking for the Swan of Pesaro's birthplace and clutching tickets for the annual Rossini Festival.

This is the 30th year of the Festival and though budget cuts (see yesterday's post) have curtailed the programme it is still a cornucopia of delights for the Rossini lover. I count myself amongst that group. I am disappointed that a planned revival of Sigismondo (a real rarity) was scrapped because of the cash crunch but delighted that they are doing Le Comte Ory this year. Its my all-time favorite of the Rossini works and any opportunity to hear it is worth the trip. And even if Zelmira is an unknown the presence in the cast of the incredible mega-tenor Juan Diego Florez (at the left) and the much lauded American mezzo Kate Aldrich (below right as Carmen in SFO) guarantees that will be a good evening also. The third work is the short one act farsa La Scala di Seta - which most people recognize from the overture. And there is a wealth of concerts and recitals surrounding the main events. The venue for the Zelmira is rather unusual - a sports arena on the outskirts of town. Each year a theatre is constructed at one end of the arena - much like the old Metropolitan Opera did in the days when they played Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. Because there are no trattoria or bars in the area a catering firm sets up tables for pre-opera nibbles on the terraces around the arena. Eight euros gets you a selection of local meats, cheeses, olives and a glass of wine from the region; and for the interval Ten euros gets you a glass of presseco and a selection of sweets. Just enough to tide you over until the performance ends and you can go into town and have a very late dinner at one of the many good trattorias.

And good eating places there are - being on the coast the fish is incredible and there is one pizza place we will have to go back to. It was crowded and noisy, we arrived late as I recall but the pizza and beer were great.

And we are staying at a very unusual hotel: the Hotel Alexander Museum Palace. Sited on the seashore it has been conceived as an art gallery and each of its 63 rooms has been designed by a well-known or emerging Italian artist. The public areas and halls are a "museum" of contemporary Italian art. Clicking on a few of the doors on the website I must admit there are a one or two rooms that I'm praying we won't be staying in - particularly if the evening has involved any quantity of wine.

We're using Pesaro as home base to see a bit of the often neglected Marche region of Italy. At the moment side trips are planned to Fano, Rimini and Ravenna with Urbino a distinct possibility. Other than that sitting by the pool with a book sounds like a very doable option.

And as for the puppies - well they are being taken care of at home in Rome by a very nice lady called Julie. They are still just a little too young to take on vacation with us - though that will come.

09 agosto - Sant'Edith Stein (Teresa Benedetta della Croce)