Salzburger Zeitung 2014 #3

Though the food, wine and sights of Salzburg are part of what draws me back so often to this lovely city, central to it all has always been the music.

Whither it was in those early years for the Summer Festival, the Mozart-werk one winter or the visits to the Pfingstenfestspeile that started in 2008 the main attraction has always been the music - and the music makers.

As with any Festival there are going to be banner years and then there will be times when the stars - both astrologically and musically - don't quite align.  I'm afraid this year was one of the later.  Given the line-up of performers and works being performed it should have been a success but there was something that didn't quite work.  Perhaps it was the effect of the numerous last minute cancellations for the Stabat Mater and the Rossini Gala; perhaps it was the less than sparkling conducting in the two operas (more of which later); perhaps it was the poor choice of venue for the Otello  - even Verdi's version, as I recall from 1971, did not sit all that well on the sprawling stage of the Grosses Festspeilhaus; or perhaps it was simply that the programme didn't gel the way it was intended to.  Of the six Pfingstenfestspeils we have attended this was the one that had the the least impact musically and left the least impression.

June 8, 2014 - Religiously Rossini

Unlike many of his contemporaries Rossini did not have to rely on the church for his commissions.  He had been a church singer as a child and written several small pieces (a lovely Cantemus domino and the Faith, Hope and Charity triptych) but things of a religious nature - masses, te deums and canticles, Aves and Salves, those corner stones of church music - he composed little.  And oddly, for a composer known for the speed at which he wrote,  the two major "church" pieces that are most often performed took an inordinately long time to complete.  We were to hear both those pieces on, appropriately,  Whitsunday.

Stabat Mater/Libera me - Grosses Festspielhaus 12:00 Uhr

A photo-montage created of Giuseppe Verdi and Gioachino Rossini.
Photo Shop in Paris in 1860. akg-image/De Agostini Picture Lib./A. Dagli Orti

This midday concert had been plagued by cancellations: of the four scheduled soloists only one, Erwin Schrott, actually performed.  As I mentioned previously, several days before the concert the Festival sent out a notice that due to illness Krassimira Stoyanova and Piotr Beczala had been forced to cancel; and that Elīna Garanča felt it was too soon after her encouchement to return to singing.  Maria Agresta, Lawrence Brownlee and Sonia Ganasssi had graciously agreed to replace their ailing colleagues.  Not a bad set of replacements - though it was interesting to note that all three have very different voices from the singers they were replacing - particularly Brownlee.

I'm not sure if this - or the acoustics in the Grosses Festspeilhaus - was the reason that on several occasions Antonio Pappano and his Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia overpowered the soloists.  In more than one post I have expressed my fondness and admiration for Santa Cecilia - they were my "home" orchestra for four years but I have also remarked on more than one occasion that Pappano does have a tendency to occasionally pull out the stops and swamp his singers.  However in the past the Orchestra and Chorus  have given me quite a few memorable moments and  I will include this concert - and the one that followed - amongst them, particularly in the Verdi Libera me.

A facsimile of Verdi's  autograph score of the 1869 Libera Me composed for the unperformed
Messa per Rossini.  Later it was to become the starting point for his 1874 Requiem.

Verdi wrote this first attempt at a passage for a Requiem in 1868-9 as his contribution to a commemorative Messa per Rossini  that had been commissioned by Giulio Ricordi as an observation of the first anniversary of the death of the Swan of Pesaro.  Each section of the Requiem was to be composed by a different hand and Verdi choose and completed the concluding words.  Unfortunately a combination of political, financial and "artistic" difficulties meant the mass was never performed.  Verdi was to use the Libera Me as the foundation of his 1874 Requiem to commemorate the death of Alessandro Manzoni.

My friend David mentioned that he had heard Maria Agresta in the difficult and thankless role of Abaigaile in Nabucco in Palermo and asked if, in my opinion, this was the right repertoire for her.   I wasn't sure if he meant the Verdi or the Rossini but frankly she seemed more comfortable in the later than the former.  Given the late replacement she may not have had enough rehearsals in what is a tricky hall but she didn't seem to have the power to ride over the chorus and orchestra.  There was an emotional coolness in her performance - in my mind this work needs some fire and brimstone:  we aren't talking redemption here but being saved from hell fire!  Though by the end she had gained power for that final pleading cry of Domine.   There is nothing quite like the Santa Cecilia Chorus in either its hushed entry after that frightened and frightening soprano entry or in full cry of terror at the day of wrath - I have heard them in the complete Verdi  Requiem three times and this is music that is in their soul and it shows forth even in this brief piece.

Antonio Pappano, soloists and the Orchestra e coro dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia accept the applause after Sunday's performance of a Verdi/Rossini programme at the 2014 Whitsun Festival.   (Photo: Sylvia Letti - Salzburg Festival)

The Rossini Stabat Mater also had a difficult birth: Rossini composed it on commission from Manuel Fernánde Varela.  Rossini revered the Pergolesi setting of the medieval hymn and did not wish to be seen as challenging the older composer.  One of the conditions of the commission was that the manuscript remained with Varela and was not to be published.  Ill health meant that he had not completed the work by the time of its scheduled premiere on Good Friday, April 5, 1833 and half the piece was composed by Rossini's friend Giovanni Tadolini. Rossini was not to complete the work until 1841 and the work that premiered, to great acclaim, on January 7, 1842 was all Rossini.

Again I'm not sure if it was my seat in the Grosses Festspielhuas - about half way back centre - or perhaps a question of balance because of the change of voice timbres from the originally announced singers but there were several instances when again Pappano's orchestra overpowered his singers. This is not to say that it was less than satisfactory performance though perhaps not as self-satisfying as Schrott seemed to find it.

Maria Agresta, Sonia Ganasssi, Antonio Pappano, Lawrence Brownlee and Erwin Schrott seem as
pleased as their audience was with this performance of the Rossini Stabat Mater. (Photo: Sylvia Letti - Salzburg Festival)

I have heard more powerful Cujus animam than Brownlee's but I doubt I will ever find one that touched the heart so closely - the piercing sword was one of sorrow.  Sonia Ganassi is a singer that I heard and enjoyed often during our years in Italy however the last few times I heard her she seemed to have developed a roughness to her singing - whatever the problem was it has been overcome and she was back to a sound like black velvet shot with silver.  Her voice blended well with Agresta in the Quis est homo and both singers gave fine accounts of their respective aria - though again a touch more fire from Agresta in the Inflammatus would not have gone amiss. Schrott (Hot Schrott to his many admirers) gave a heft to the Pro peccatis - rather amusingly being a tall athletic man he  towered over his colleagues and conductor and seemed to take secret delight in it.

Once again the Coro di Santa Cecilia proved to be the backbone of the performance particularly in the hushed delicacy they brought to the lovely "paradisi gloria" passage of the final quartet and chorus.  Aside from those odd moments when the balance favoured the orchestra Pappano conducted a good if,  perhaps, not Festival standard performance.

Petite Messe Solennelle - Stiftung Mozarteum - Grosser Saal - 17:00 uhr

 

Pappano, Brownlee and a small group of the Coro were on double duty for the day with a performance of the Petite Messe Solennelle  scheduled just a few hours after they had finished the midday Stabat Mater. 

As has often been said the work is neither "petite" nor particularly "solenelle" - however it was intended more as a chamber work.  Rossini had set it for 12 singers including four soloists accompanied by two pianos and a harmonium.  It was meant for a church setting however the Papal ban on mixed choirs in church (castrated men where acceptable - fully equipped women not!) meant that it could not be performed as a liturgical act.  Rossini had been in correspondence with Pius IX in an attempt to get the ban lifted but without success.  Fortunately the edict did not apply to private chapels and the first performance took place in the personal chapel of Count and Countess Pillet-Will.  It was intended for family and friends - with Auber, Meyerbeer and Thomas being amongst the later.

The title page of the autograph manuscript of the Petite Messe Solennelle - Rossini specifies the
number of singers and instrumentation he intended. In 1866-67 Rossini expanded the work
for performance by larger forces and orchestra.

The work was  orchestrated by Rossini in1866-67 but the first performance of this expanded version did not take place until three month's after his death on February 28, 1869 - the closest date to his birthday in a non-leap year.  For the Festival performance Pappano choose to use the original chamber version with a larger chorus and four soloists.  Though the Grosser Saal of the Mozarteum may not be as "homey" as the chapel chez Pillet-Will the atmosphere was still intimate.

Pappano led from the piano (Pamela Bullock was the second pianist and Ciro Visco, the chorus master, played the harmonium) and in the Offertorium Ritornelle proved to be an accomplished pianist.   It was a simple, clean and intimate performance - just as Rossini intended.

Michele Pertusi, Lawrence Brownlee, Vesselina Kasarova, Eva Mei, Pamela Bullock, Antonio Pappano and
Ciro Visco acknowledge our applause after the Whitsunday performance of the Petite Messe Solonnelle. 
Several members of my beloved Coro di Santa Cecilia are in the background.  (Photo: Sylvia Letti - Salzburg Festival)

There is a quote somewhere - attributed to I know not who - that all this work requires is a small space (√ the Grosser Saal) two pianos ( √ Pappano and Pamela Bullock), a harmonium (√ chorus master Ciro Visco) a small chorus (√ Coro di Santa Cecilia) and the four greatest singers on earth .....  there we run into a slight problem.  Eva Mei, Vesselina Kasarova, Lawrence Brownlee and Michele Pertusi are all well-known names in opera circles and are fine singers all but on this occasion two of them seemed out of their element.  I knew Mei by reputation and a TV-cast of La Traviata live from Zurich Central Railway Station which I recall enjoying but here found her voice pinched and colourless.  Perhaps Pertusi needs a character to hide behind: on stage he can be dynamic but on the three times I have seen him in concert he has proven, as he did here, bland and one dimensional.  If the day's double duty gave Brownlee any problem it wasn't obvious here - an exceptionally fine nuanced performance that was matched by the artistry of Vesselina Kasarova who's Agnus Dei embodied everything that Rossini put into this  "last of my péchés de vieillesse".

And again that remarkable choir from Santa Cecilia proved the backbone of the performance:  joyful, rambunctious (is there anything jollier than that Cum Sancto Spiritu?) and quietly - almost whisperingly - reverential.  And as a sidebar there was an entire cheering section from the larger Coro behind me greeting their colleagues with bravi and foot stomping - as indeed had the audience.  One of the ladies had to tell me that they were part of the Coro; when I said I had lived in Rome and heard every concert they had given during that time and how much I thought of them she gave me a kiss on the cheek and said: Grazie.  A rather nice way to end a performance that was seemed indeed to be for family and friends.

Postscript:  In his preface to the work Rossini wrote:

Good God—behold completed this poor little Mass—is it indeed sacred music [la musique sacrée] that I have just written, or merely some damned music [la sacré musique]? You know well, I was born for comic opera. Little science, a little heart, that is all. So may you be blessed, and grant me Paradise!

Why do I think if I had one of those mythical dinner parties he would be amongst the guests I would want at table?

July 13 - 1814: The Carabinieri, the national gendarmerie of Italy, is established.

Mercoledi Musicale

I realize I have yet to say much about the music we heard at Salzburg last month. Its been a bit of a struggle to catch up with work which is involves writing most of the day and then to come home and continue writing. However I can safely say that the Liedmatinee on the Monday morning given by Joyce DiDonato was the musical highlight of the weekend.  And the highlight of her programme, devoted to Venice, were five of the six songs by Reynaldo Hahn under the title Venezia, chansons en dialecte vénitien. 

Back in May of 2012 I posted an item about that glorious little song cycle and videos featuring Anna Caterina Antonocchi sing five of them.  For some reason Miss DiDonato omitted La Biondina in gondoleta in her set while Anna Cat didn't give us La primavera.

Of the six the most delightful - and most often performed - is La barcheta (the Little Boat).  Rather than given preference to either lady - both of whom I treasure as artists - I thought I'd post a wonderful performance by the elegant French baritone Gérard Souzay. 

A translation of Pietro Buratti's text by Lara Sarti can be found here.

Hahn was a friend of Winnaretta Singer,  Princesse Edmond de Polignac.  The Princesse was one of the great patrons of the arts and humanities in early 20th century Europe.  It was on one of his visits to the Polignacs in Venice that Hahn composed his song cycle. The programme for the Salzburg recital included the composer's description of the premiere:

Madame de Béarn asked me to sing - just me and a piano - on the 'Piccoli Canale'.  Just a few gondolas - one or two friends hastily gathered together [..] I was in one boat, lit up for the occasion, with my piano and a couple of oarsmen.  The other gondolas were grouped around us.  We found a place where three canals met beneath three charming bridges and I sang all my Venetian songs.  Gradually passers-by gathered on the bridges: and audience of ordinary people, pressing forward to listen.  The Venetian songs surprised and delighted this little crowd, which made me very happy.  "Ancora, anocra", they called from above.  These songs that were both light and melancholy sounded well beneath the starry skies and I felt that emotion which reverberates in the composer's heart when it has truly been shared by those around him.

Reynaldo Hahn - without his piano - photographed in a Piccoli Canale much
like the one where he first performed his Venezia song cycle.

If I had money - that old familiar cry - I would love to recreate that moment: a singer, a few gondolas, one equipped with a piano and a small group of friends.   And on a magical night in a quiet canal listen to these "light and melancholy" melodies floating over the waters of one of the cities I love most in the world.   Well music was meant to make us dream!

July 2 - 1777: Vermont becomes the first American territory to abolish slavery.

Salzburger Zeitung 2014 #2

June  5, 2014

Well the Pfingstfestspeile began in semi-earnest last night with La Cenerentola to a mostly full house - I notice that for next year's Festival the idea of starting on the Thursday of the holiday weekend has been jettisoned.  As happens here there was high fashion, silly fashion, casual fashion and the odd smell of mothballs and dry cleaning fluid that suggested a few articles of summer finery had been in storage over the long winter.  Of the production itself I am of several minds and will have to try and get them all together to a degree where I can write something of some intelligence.  Let me just say that my restraint when stage director Damiano Michieletto and his crew took their curtain call was beyond admirable!

After seeing what's on the menu (see items below) at Don Magnifico's Buffet (don't ask!) Laurent
wasn't too sure if he really wanted to go in.

Prince Ramiro's car seemed a bit dodgy even before it crashes through the front window of the
 Don's Buffet - again don't ask or I'll have to explain it to you. 

A late night diner at the Sketch Bar of the Hotel Bristol was a wonderful occasion to have a chat with Herr Leitner, the Manager and see our friend Dr M., who at 81 is still travelling the world for opera, ballet and theatre.  He had just arrived from Toronto via Munich and after the Festival is heading to London to see Natalia Osipova in a new ballet.  He's already planning for next year's Whitsun Festival - the man is a wonder.  And as always we were spoiled in the Sketch Bar by Gabor and Peter and the late night kitchen staff while Herr Leitner got us up to speed on the gossip around town and the music scene in Austria.

June 6, 2014

Today was the first of two music free days and an old friend of Madame J's is arriving from Switzerland for a brief visit later today.  The day started a bit late and continued at a leisurely pace - but that's why they call it vacation, right?

In 1822 Rossini and his, by then wife, Isabella Colbran left Napoli and moved to Vienna.  The move was not unexpected - his music had been wildly successful in the Austrian capital and his friend-partner (and Colbran's former lover) Domenico Barbaja was the impresario at the Theater am Kärntnertor.  It might be added that Barbaja seemed to be the impresario and casino operator at half the opera houses in Europe at that point.  Rossini conducted La Cenerentola and Zelmira there and Colbran sang the title role in the later.

In celebration of this rather tenuous connection with Austria - at one point a Festival publication tries to, without much success, link Mozart and Rossini - the De Ponte Institute has set up an exhibition:  Rossini-mania Wien 1822.  Publicized widely in the Festival programmes and prospectus it was still difficult to find - a small sign pointed to the Festival Administrative Building but once inside there was nothing to indicate that it was buried in the basement.

Consisting mostly of prints and scores it covered more than the Swan of Pesaro's period in Vienna.  His years in Naples, the visit to London and the last years in Paris were well represented in the numerous prints, playbills and fashion plates on display.  Many were familiar from publications and website devoted to Rossini but just as many were new - to me at least - and portrayed the singers, musicians, dancers and vips who performed, befriended, celebrated and feted the composer during his life time.

A general view of Vienna - 1819 by Jacob Alt.  Some of the landmarks are still visible today, others have been blocked by the urban sprawl of the late 19th and 20th centuries. It was only one of the fascinating cityscapes on display at the Rossini-mania Wien 1822.

Perhaps most interesting were the representations of Vienna, London and Paris in those early years of the 19th century.  Many landmarks were recognizable but as with all cities what had once been forest or parklands has long since been filled in by urban sprawl - even if it is late 19th - early 20th century urban sprawl.

One of the more intriguing lithographs on display indicates the orchestra seating at the Kärntnertor-Theater in 1821.  By today's standards it seems odd that the conductor is situated right at the stage rather than between the hall and the orchestra.  There are 26 seats, most of which would have been given over to violins and oddly there does not seem to be any space provided for a harpsichord or cembelo. Given that Rossini was wont to conduct from that instrument it is likely the arrangement was changed when he conducted his works there.

It was a fascinating exhibition but sadly so poorly advertised that there were very few people there.  It was almost representative of what seemed a slightly under-planed Festival.  However more about that later.

The entrance to the Haus für Mozart and Felsenreitschule features a colourful mural highlighting the first performance of Hugo von Hofmannsthal's Jedermann at the Festival on 22 August 1920. The architect and stage designer Clemens Holzmeister is seen at the left holding plans for what was to become the first Festspeilhaus. 

After a nice lunch at the Goldener Hirsch Laurent and I headed over to the Festspeilhaus for a tour.  In all the years we have been going to the Festival we've never been through the houses that make up the complex set against and deep inside the Mönchsberg. Unfortunately the Grosses Festspeilhaus was closed for rehearsals for the next day's concerts but we still went through the Haus für Mozart and - my own favourite venue - the Felsenreitschule.  That included a visit backstage to see the workings of Paolo Fantin's sets for Cenerentola - though thankfully the labyrinth of chairs that cluttered Don Magnifico's Buffet were absent.

Don Magnifico's Buffet minus the chairs that were moved, piled on tables, thrown, upended and occasionally - just occasionally - used to sit on.  We also saw the multitude of cables that bore it heaven word when the scene changed to ...

.... Prince Ramiro's party at the Palace Disco.  Do they still actually do the frug - except in operatic productions where they are trying to show decadence and high living?

At Don Magnifico's they serve up all manner of appetizing - from a distance - goodies. 
I must say that even up close a good deal of it looks very realistic.

But the real surprise came at the Felsenreitschule (Rock Riding School).  The great arched boxes  carved into the sides of the old stone quarry in 1693 have been hidden by a set being built for Charlotte Salomon - a modern opera being presented at this year's summer festival.  Only the side boxes were clearly visible;  I mentioned what a shame it was and several people, including the guide, agreed. 

Only the side boxes of the Felsenreitschule were the only portion of this wonderful space that clearly visible - the stage itself was taken up with a unit set for a production for the summer festival.

The stage of the Felsenreitschule was a mass of suspended flats, unfinished lumber and carpenters tools.  The sets for the upcoming opera were being constructed in place.

But  more surprising than the decision to hide this architectural marvel, was the revalation that the entire front section of seating had disappeared.  Or at least appeared to have.  The sloped floor and seats are on hydraulic arms that are cantilevered and can swing the seating units up out of the way to allow equipment to be brought in.  It also serves as a scenery dock and storage area.

The first nine rows of the centre sections of seats in the Felsenreitschule are on hydraulic arms.  This allows them to be lifted out of the way.  The day we visited the area served as storage space for the chairs that would be used at the gala dinner on Sunday evening in the Karl-Böhm-Saal.

The Karl-Böhm-Saal serves as the refreshment hall for both the Haus für Mozart and the Felsenreitschule.  Originally created to serve as the winter riding school by Prince-Archbishop Guidobald Graf von Thun it was the scene of tournaments and military training in the 17th century.  This year it was also the site of a gala dinner prepared by Elena Arzak, one of Europe's more noted chefs.  Needless to say that as it was being held in honour of Rossini the famous Tournedos of that name were on the menu.

The beautiful Karl-Böhm-Saal serves as the intermission foyer and crush bar for the Haus für Mozart
and the Felsenreitschule.  It was built in 1662 as the winter riding school and restored by Clemens
Holzmeister and again with the major renovations of 1960/70.

The balcony and staircases were added by Holzmeister in the style of the original period when further work was done in 1999.

The Karl-Böhm-Saal serves as the refreshment hall for both the Haus für Mozart and the Felsenreitschule.  Originally created to serve as the winter riding school by Prince-Archbishop Guidobald Graf von Thun it was the scene of tournaments and military training in the 17th century.  This year it was also the site of a gala dinner prepared by Elena Arzak, one of Europe's more noted chefs.  Needless to say that as it was being held in honour of Rossini the famous Tournedos of that name were on the menu.

The fire firescreen fronting the great fireplace built into the rock of the Mönchsberg was also created by Holzmeister to symbolize the history of the room - ecclesiastical, military and artistic.

The Festival venues are used primarily during the Easter, Whitsun and Summer Festivals and lay largely empty during the rest of the year.  He made a point of mentioning that it was the Festival that gave the city much of its status and, its very apparent, wealth.

A few facts the guide revealed concerning the Festival made us very aware of its importance to the city of Salzburg:

• The Festival employees 226 people year round but that figure jumps to over 6000 during the summer months.  
• The budget is around 60 million euros with ticket revenue covering about of third of that amount.  
• Its been estimated that the Festival brings in tax revenues equal to three times what it receives in public subsidies.  
• In 2011 it was estimated that the Festival generated some 276 million euros in business revenues for the district.  

The afternoon was capped off by finding a table on the loge of Café Tomaselli overlooking the Alter Markt and choosing from their extensive eis menu.

A view from the loge at Tomaselli and a choice between an eis-caffe and a mocha frappe - what more could a gnome of vacation ask for?

Music, drama, history, a great setting and good (and fattening) food - that's why they call it vacation.  Right?

June 14 - 1789: Whiskey distilled from maize is first produced by American clergyman the Rev Elijah Craig. It is named Bourbon because Rev Craig lived in Bourbon County, Kentucky.

Salzubrger Zeitung 2014 - #1

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So we've settled in to the Hotel Wolf-Dietrich and already made a visit to the Cafe Bazaar for lunch, a trip to Schubert to stock up on shirts (for some unknown reason the neck size on my older dress shirts has shrunk!) and sample the wares at Enoteca Settemila very pleasant little wine bar on the much rejuvenated Bergstrasse.  After the rather filling fare at Bazaar we had decided that a lighter meal would be in order for the evening and owner Rafalel suggested a few local wines that would go with the Tuscan meats, cheeses and bruschetta that his partner (business and life) Nina had prepared.  Food, wine and conversation flowed and we solved not a few world problems before heading back for a good night's sleep.

Juan discovers that there is more to Salzburg than Mozart and Music - there's Sweets and Shopping!

The Festspeile begins in earnest today as did sightseeing (yes I know we've been here countless times but there is always something new to see) and some serious shopping.  On returning from lunch I received an e-mail from the good people at the Box Office advising that due to illness  Elina Garanča, Krassimira Stoyanova and Piotr Beczala had all cancelled their appearances for Sunday's Stabat Mater.  However Sonia Ganassi, Maria Agresta and Lawrence Brownlee had all agreed to step in.  That's not bad "step-ins" as step-ins go!

La Ceci to Joelle,Laurent and Willym:  All together now - I'm forever blowing bubbles!

Tonight its my favourite Rossini opera La Cenerentola with our Cecilia, Javier Camarena and Nicola Alaimo.  So its time to tidy up, put on that Tiroler pink tie that I don't have the nerve to wear anyplace else and head to the Haus für Mozart.

June 5 - 1956: Elvis Presley introduces his new single, "Hound Dog", on The Milton Berle Show, scandalizing the audience with his suggestive hip movements.

Salzburger Zeitung 2013 - Post Script

 Dateline:  July 20, 2013: 

A few final comments on this year and next years' Festivals and then probably another of those prolonged silences I've now become known for.

As with any festival there are bound to be highs and lows - not always the fault of the artists or the artistic director doing the programming.  What often looks good on paper falls flat when realized.  Of the seven events we took in a this year's Pfingstfestspeil I can honestly say the the highs set the bar at such a level that in many other venues the lows would have been considered highs.

The highlights?  Do you have to ask?  It will be a long time before I see or hear that Norma equalled and the Gubaidulina-Shostakovich double bill made me an emotional wreck. The low?  I'm afraid the Haydn Seven Last Words left me wishing I had spent the afternoon sipping Aperol Spritz on the terrace of the Cafe Bazar.  That's how high the bar was this year.  That Bartoli girl knows how to put on a damn fine festival.

On the Sunday evening as we sat enjoying a nightcap in the Sketch Bar our friend Dr. M. showed us the prospectus for 2014.  It came as a bit of a surprise and a lively discussion broke out about the merits of returning or not.  Rossinissimo! trumpeted the title - and in her preface La Ceci waxed enthusiastic over the beloved son of Pesaro.  And frankly who better?  Much of her early reputation was built on her appearances in Il Barbiere and Cenerentola and recently she has appeared in Conte Ory and Otello.   Now as much as I love Rossini when I couple his name with Festival I think of our August trips to Pesaro.  Did I really want to come back to Salzburg in June for what I could see in August on the sun soaked shores of the Adriatic?

Well Cenerentola is my favourite Rossini opera and I had never seen La Ceci sing Angelina; Otello is a work I've been fascinated by since I read an article in Opera News more than 50 years ago and she has put together an interesting cast (always a challenge when you need three - not the Three - tenors).   As she showed this year, she may be the artistic director and the nominal star but she surrounds herself with performers of equal star quality.  So yes we get La Ceci in Cenerentola and Otello but the supporting casts include Javier Camarena, Nichola Alaimo, John Osborn and Barry Banks.  But the programme bracketed by the two operas is even more fascinating.  Franco Fagioli singing music of Meyerbeer and Rossini; David Fray playing Rossini, Liszt, Mozart and Bach; Antonio Pappano exploring the religious Rossini - first the Stabat Mater with his Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Krassimira Stoyanova, Elina Garanca, Piotr Beczala and Erwin Schrott on the Sunday morning then the Petite Messe Solennelle with Eva Mei, Vesselina Kasarova, Lawrence Brownlee and Michele Pertusi in the afternoon; Joyce DiDonato giving us Venetian songs by a parcel of composer; and strangest of all A Grand Rossini Gala and dinner.

That gala is the oddest item of the programme - unless you count Il Barbiere by the Salzburg Marionette Theatre, though I like to think of that as inspired - with a parade of singers that is honestly a little frightening.  Fine Bartoli, Kasarova, Ildebrando d'Arcangelo, Camerena and Michele Pertusi are remarkable in the current crop of Rossini singers; however,  as much as I love and revere them I am honestly trying to think what Agnes Baltsa, Teresa Berganza, Monstserrat Caballe, Jose Carreras, Leo Nucci and Ruggero Raimondi can possible sing at this stage of their lives.  Sometimes it is best to be left with your treasured memories. 

As tempting as the programme looked, and Christian, our host at the Bristol, kept pointing up all the positives, we  decided that we'd go elsewhere for our musical pleasure in 2014.  Our Festival friend Dr M firmly avowed the same.  Just before leaving for Füssen on Tuesday morning we ran into the good Doctor who admitted to having just returned from the box office and they would mail his tickets to him later in the week.

We chortled at his lack of resolve and headed out to the train station.  We would never be so weak-willed.

July 20 - Petrarch, Italian scholar and poet is born in Arezzo (d. 1374)