According to statistics the population of Venice is on a steady decline and has halved over the past 50 years. The current estimate runs at around 63,000 for all the islands. More and more people are choosing to live on the mainland where rents are cheaper and work is available in something other than the tourist industry – which accounts for 60% of local employment. There are at least 450 souvenir shops in Venice proper - we noticed that where once had been local stores there are now shops selling trinkets and authentic Venetian carnival masks made in China. But once you find your way out of San Marco and into Dorsoduro or Castello there are neighbourhoods - in the old sense of the word. People do their daily marketing, sit in the campo and have a coppe of gelato, stop for coffee or an ombre (a glass of proseco and a snack) at the local bar or hang their washing out the window while exchanging gossip across the narrow calle.
Agretti is a very popular spring green - its almost like a chive but has the bite of sorrel. Boiled and then sauteed with olive oil and garlic its a great side dish.
Produce is brought in from the mainland and from farms located on other islands in the lagoon such as San Erasmus. And there's only one way of bring it in - by boat!
There are hundreds of gelateria in Venice but I think the best is Paolin's in the Campo San Stephano. Their pistacchio and caffe are the benchmark.
These calles are not that far from San Marco but far enough that most of the day-trippers never see them.
We went down to Napoli last weekend to see Verdi's I Lombardi alla prima crocita. It is one of his early operas and I'm not familar with it so wasn't expecting the interesting choral and orchestral effects that Verdi composed for this story of the Lombards at the First Crusade. As with most early Verdi there are some rum-tum-ticky-ticky-tum bits but the choruses certainly had that stirring Verdian sound. And of course there's that Italian patriotic subtext guaranteed to drive the Austrian censors of the period mad.
The Teatro San Carlo chorus did a impressive job of all the choral work and even gave us an encore of one of the big numbers: O Signore, dal tetto natio Here it is sung by the chorus of the La Scala Opera House, Milan conducted by the great, but underrated, Gianandrea Gavazzeni. For some reason there appears to be some booing at the end - I'm not sure why.
Well the tourist season has started here in Roma - not that it every really ends you just get crowded season, more crowded season and most crowded season. We are now at the more crowded stage. Our friend Marc-Auriele is visiting and last week he and I took in some of the major sites and became part of the more crowded. Fortunately it rained a good deal of the time and that kept crowds at manageable levels. Yesterday and Today with the temperatures hitting 30c both the heat and the crowds became unbearable. Here's a few samples of what its been like this week:
A sunny and hot Roman afternoon and the crowds are all around Fontana Trevi looking for that opportunity to threw in the traditional coin like Dorothy Malone or jump in for a swim like Anita Ekberg. Oh what the hell I can't be the only one who remembers Dorothy Malone and Anita Ekberg can I?
I managed to catch a cold standing in the rain at the Colesseo so I sent Marc-Auriele out on his own today. He decided for his last day in Roma he'd pop into the Museo Vaticani and headed out around 0900. When he finally go there at 1030 - morning traffic was, how shall we say, living hell - he discovered:
The line up started at the old Museum entrance, down the block - a good length of Vatican City defense wall....
.. around the corner, along another wall, around a corner and almost all the way down to Piazza del Risorgimento - a distance of approximately 825 metres or one half mile. He decided to forgo the Sistine Chapel but ended up at the wonderful Museo Massimo.
And he took this little film of the crowds waiting to get into San Pietro - frankly I'm glad we went last Wednesday, even if we did get soaked. Today the line started at the left side of the Basilica circled all the way around the circumference of the Piazza to the the entrance on the right side of the Basilica proper.
Not only the tourist sites have been jammed - Via Nomantana our main road to get home from town was a nightmare last night. True and honest gridlock!
No this isn't a parking lot its a major intersection of our beloved Roma.
Last friday I mentioned the rather sweet attempt that was made to turn a lane in Salzburg into a typical Neapolitan street for the Whitsun Festival. Well we were in Napoli this past weekend and I think I found the street they used as a model. Click on the photo of Laurent striding down Sigmund-Haffner-Gasse.
The similarities are striking aren't they? And here's one more to show how they duplicated it so faithfully!
June is fast approaching and it is, of course, the month most favoured for weddings. A shop along Corso Vittori Emanuale which specializes in high-end wedding frocks has these two items featured in their windows this month.
Now I know I'm old fashioned and a bit of a fuddy duddy and I know equally that white is a recent requirement for a wedding dress but that second one seems just a trifle extreme. And I'm wondering if the groom would be wearing a matching cod piece?
Well I've run out of Dwarves (or Dwarfs either can be used, don't you just love English!)and events in Salzburg and am still weeding through the 600 odd pictures we took on this trip. But here's few random thoughts, photos and observations.
Cafe Bazar from the street - inside and on the terrace you can find cakes and pastries that look as delicous as the wedding cake building.
Cafe Bazar is still as I remembered it- the terrace overlooking the Salzach is a great place to have a coffee, pastry or a more substantial snack. They do a fine grilled ham and cheese but they don't call it Bazar Toast any more! I was looking forward to saying: ein Bazar Toast bitte! Was it just me it did it not taste quite the same.
This statue is in the Domplatz arcade - called The Cloak of Peace , I found it rather unsettling but beautiful.
And speaking of bizarre - you really do have to love English - they still have that strange public washroom in the Domplatz arcade. There is a door marked Damen and another marked Herren but they lead to the same common toilet cabinets. You're only segregated for clean up purposes - it confuses the hell out of us poor tourists. And I swear its the same old lady tending the facilities as back in 1969 - she must be 200 by now and I'm not sure she ever sees the light of day. And how much do you give leave in her little basket? according the the sign in the Cafe Tomaselli WC E0.20 (CAD 0.30) is the standard.
This charming little chappie is carved into an armrest in one of the benches lining the great room in the Hohensalzburg Fortresss.
And at the Cafe Tomaselli they still have sinfully rich pastries served by ladies in black dresses, white aprons and those heelless shoes that tie up over the ankle. You get your goodies from them and your coffee, apercol, snacks and ice cream from the waiters.
A ... ah... Neapolitan street scene in the Austrian mode. Where's the garbage?
As pleasant contrast to the Summer very few of the windows in town flaunted Festival related material - a few tasteful pictures of Muti and the Festival poster but that was pretty much it. However the good burghers of the city decided to turn the Sigmund-Haffner Gasse into a Neapolitan street. There were folk groups singing in a very pretty little grapevine festooned kiosk, a very prominent Italian café and in true Neapolitan fashion washing was strung across the street. Though when we head to Napoli this weekend I'm not sure we'll see designer t-shirts and socks hung at a uniform distance on tautly strung lines. But then this is an Austrian idea of Neapolitan!
We never did find out the name of the band giving the Sunday morning concert in the Mirabel Gardens but they were very good.
I remember Salzburg BSM - Before the Sound of Music - I won't say the film ruined the city but it made a big change in tourist demographics. Salzburg was no longer just the city of Mozart - the Von Trapps had become another saleable commodity. Even the famous Marionette Theatre - once known for their Mozart and ballet spectacles - now perform Sound of Music about 70% of the time. Well I guess you give the people what they want! But even without Mozart or the Von Trapps, Salzburg is a city that is very much full of the sound of music. As we went headed over to the Mozarteum for Sunday morning's matinee we followed a brass band into the Mirabel Gardens where they gave a very ambitious concert of Handel, Sibelius and... yes Hammerstein. The hills are alive!
Dayle was asking if the stone Dwarfs were life size. Yes they are - here's a photo of Laurent who stands almost 6 feet with the little guy with the shovel. And Dora has a point about them becoming progressively more endearing - though I didn't plan it that way. As I mentioned they are on a tower of land surrounded by a moat and reached by a wooden bridge and they're arranged around the parameter of the circle. And that's how I photographed them. It would have been interesting to see how they were originally arranged but nothing seems to have survived indicating placement within the garden. Strangely I came across this badly damaged wee chappie standing on a balustrade overlooking the beautiful Giardino Guisti in Verona. His dress would suggest a slightly later period than those in Salzburg. Also it suggests this sort of garden statuary was popular in many parts of Europe.
This is the final dwarf and one of my favorite's. Dressed in cravat and gaiters, his glasses firmly in place he sticks his tongue out! Perhaps a fitting response to world that has viewed him as less than what he is.
This little guy has a rather wistful look on his face. I'm not sure if he is an innkeeper or a servant but that pot looks like its heavy. Perhaps this lady (the second of the two) is the innkeeper's wife; notice she's wearing the traditional Tirol bodice - you still see them on the streets of Salzburg today.
As I mentioned Laurent and I were quite taken with the concert by Marco Beasley, Pini di Vittorio and Accordone in Salzburg. The variety of music available on their discs is an eclectision's delight. (Is that a word - what else could you call someone with eclectic taste???)
I'm really late with this one, it was the first event of the festival but the last thing I'm commenting on. After reading my friend Opera Chic's review I feel a bit inadequate as there is no way I can match her witty and wise ways. But here goes....
Il matrimonio inaspettato
As I've mentioned this was a delightful evening of music making. Again Giovanni Paisiello's opera buffa - written for the court of Catherine the Great when he was employed in St. Petersburg - isn't a great piece of music but it is a charming one. Paisiello wrote to certain restrictions set out by the Empress - an opera could be no longer than 90 minutes, recitative had to be brief as her court didn't understand Italian and the libretto had to meet certain rules of decorum. Given that opera buffa was a form of Neapolitan popular entertainment the later was perhaps the hardest restriction, that and a lack of singers schooled in the buffa tradition. Perhaps it was the last restriction that forced him to compose a four character piece for two baritones and two mezzo-sopranos.
It's stock opera buffa plot: Farmer Tulipano (Nicola Alaimo) has become rich and bought himself a title; he wants his son Giorgino (Markus Werba) to marry the Countess di Sarzana (Marie-Claude Chappuis) but Giorgino is in love with and loved by a local peasant girl Vespina (Alessia Nadin.)
The edition Riccardo Muti and his forces gave us was a revised version played throughout Italy in the 1700s but hardly ever since. It was still only a brief two hours, but what a two hours! Neapolitan conductor Muti and Neapolitan director Andrea Da Rosa joined forces to make sure that the ear was bewitched and the eye was enchanted.
Da Rosa knows what make opera buffa buffo – not always a given in Italy as witness the laughless Barbiere di Sivilgia we saw last month in Venice – and didn't resort to the stock ideas of operatic haha! He had Farmer Tulipano’s estate - a marvelous complex with pivoting facades and crumbling interiors - peopled with wonderful types - as well as the Salzburger Bachchor as farmhands, villagers and the Countess's retinue there was a doddering Overseer (Paolo Sirotti), a youngster with a ready and accurate pea-shooter (Norbert Steidel)and a friend for Vespina (Anna Redi) whose sole purpose seemed to be to shriek Sarzana at given moments. Even the Countess had a silent housemaster (Ivan Merlo) with an S and M streak. All wordless or rather songless but adding to the amusement of the story.
But no number of extras could have stolen the spotlight from the Laurel and Hardy team of Werba and Alaimo. I would guess that Werba is black and blue from the number of pratfalls he took during rehearsals and performances. And all the while singing like an angel - a slightly dazed angel as the frequent cuffs across the back of the head could be the reason poor Giorgino was a trifle slow. One of the highlights was the mock heroic (a very funny spoof on opera seria)duet as the father and son struggled into antique armour to battle the Countess's men. Though, like OC, I loved Werba I have to give top honours to Alaimo. Though a trifle young for the part his Tulipano was entirely believable as an operatic M. Jourdain - and he didn't have to do the vocal equivalent of mugging to get his laughs.
The women were only marginally less successful. I find Nadin's voice on the sharp side but that is really the only problem I had with her Vespina - who you just know will take up cuffing poor Giorgino where his father left off. Unfortunately the Countess doesn't show up until the second act so Chappuis had to make much of little and if her vengeance aria didn't have quite the fire the programme notes promised it had more to do with Paisiello than her.
As for Muti and his young orchestra - what more can I say about the Maestro that I haven't already. I think OC said it best in her review and I hope she doesn't mind me quoting:
Muti's read of the score left nothing to be desired, the most controlled, driven, seamless push and pull, which his Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini lovingly embraced, following Maestro Muti's every minor twitch -- and let us praise those kids from the Orchestra dreamed by Muti out of nothing.... Read the entire review here.
Next year he'll turn his attention to opera seria with Jommelli's Demofoonte. Since OC and I are such big fans I really think the maestro should invite us over to his compound in Salzburg for a drink. Then maybe she can convince to do one of her favorite opera seria Paisiello's Fedra and I can talk him into Cimarosa's Il Matrimonio Segreto.
The stone suds in this fellow's stein seems to have got into his luxurious moustache. And this little chap has a basketful of fruit to offer - and again the almost comedia costuming suggests he's a member of a theatre troupe.
For once I'll be true to my word - I said I'd post the answer on Monday to the balcony question. Well here it is Monday and here it is the answer.
The Casa Capuleti (right) at Via Capello 27 is one of the big attractions in Verona - even at night when the gates are closed people come to peek through them. And of course any true lover has to leave their mark as a tribute to the unhappy pair of kids who started it all.
Just click on the graffiti covered gate to the Casa Capuleti and all will be revealed.
One could be forgiven for thinking that 75% of the ladies in the audience had brought baby blue wraps with them on Monday morning – the stunning Kollegiatekirch was as cold as a Neapolitan whore’s heart on a night when the fleets in. But the thoughtful people as the Festspeile had provided blankets at the door, and we were just glad that, even for a morning matinee, gentlemen are expected to wear jackets. I had been telling Laurent about the glorious Bernini alter piece all weekend but sadly it was obscured by sound panels and recording equipment. Those were the only drawbacks in Johann Adolph Hasse’s Good Friday oratorio I pellegrini al sepolcro di Nostro Signore, the concert that Laurent ranked as his favourite of the Festival.
Hasse started life as a tenor then went up in the world (?) and began composing; he studied in Naples and became one of the most loved, respected and performed composer in Europe. I pelligrini was written for the court at Dresden and uses the unusual conceit of four Pilgrims being led by an old hermit through the places of Christ’s Passion in Jerusalem until they arrive at the Sepulchre. As they stop at each they are moved to comment on their emotions and feelings. When they reach the place of Christ’s burial they join in an exquisite Lauda to the Holy City.
Riccardo Muti had gathered a group of young singers – all of who, it would seem, have benefited from his mentoring – and his Orchestra Giovanile "Luigi Cherubini" and worked his magic once again. We were seated to one side and could see him clearly. No dancing, lunging or choreography but it is amazing what he can convey with a few movements of his left hand, which more often than not simply rests on his chest. He drew beautiful sound from his orchestra and stylistically superb and committed performances from his soloists.
Riccardo Muti acknowledges our applause with his singers and orchestra; (l-r)Monica Tarone, Elena Monti, Muti, Daniela Barcellona, Franco Fagioli and Luca Pisaroni. Photo by Silvia Lelli.
If I was not a captivated as Laurent it had more to do with Hasse’s composition than the performance. I find that the formula of recitative followed by da Capo aria becomes a bit tedious but those were the conventions of the time. Though Monica Tarone, Elena Monti, Franco Fagioli and Daniela Barcellona all sang their music superbly I was most moved by Luca Pisaroni’s old guide. The young Italian bass delivered his aria describing the suffering of Christ powerfully and sensitively and with his handling of the recitative descriptions of events leading to the crucifixion it was no wonder that the Pilgrims in Pallavinco’s text were stirred.
The sold out audience gave Muti and his forces a deserved 10 minute ovation. We were on our feet with the rest of them.
Kid In The Hall are currently on a sold out North American reunion tour. Their particular brand of irreverent, off-the-wall comedy is as popular now as it was back in the 90s when they first showed up on CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.) The Canadian public broadcaster pretty much gave them free reign - sadly when they hit US television they were censored - frequently. I don't every recall seeing this sketch on either Canadian or U.S. television - as it has the possibility of offending big time maybe it was censored on both!
So why didn't they get Dave Thomas to do one of those Dr Seuss movies - he would have been better than either of his Canadian compatriots!
This was perhaps the most interesting concert of the Festival. Given amidst the pseudo-baroque decorations of the Gosser Saal(at the right) in the Mozarteum, the church and conservatories gave way to music that had grown from the streets of Naples and the surrounding countryside. Six men sat in a semi-circle, some with baroque guitars, others with lutes and one with two tambourines and a boron drum; another stood at a combination portive organ and harpsichord. A tambourine rattled and then a single voice - Italian actor and singer Giuseppe Di Vittorio - rose in a passionate love cry - Cori miu (My Heart.) Marco Beasley, De Vittorio, Guido Morini and Accordone joined forces to present an exciting programme of tarantellas, love songs and working songs from the Medieval to the modern.
Beasley is a short stocky bald man, he looks like he could be a Neapolitan dock worker. The son of an English father and a Neapolitan mother, he’s devoted his career to the music of his native city in all its forms - classical, church, folk. He has a powerful tenor voice and a commanding presence but remains firmly grounded on and of the earth. De Vittorio is tall, craggy and handsome in a world-beaten way – when he stands eyes closed, head thrown back, hands held in an almost priestly manner he embodies all the raw passion and sexuality of the south.
The instrumentalists occasionally rose to join in song or to add percussive vocal effects. When not singing Beasley or Di Vittorio would pick up the rhythm with bone castanets. Percussionist Mauro Durante took centre stage and stopped the show with a solo that was worthy of Gene Krupa except he did it all with one large tambourine not a trap set. The 60 minutes programme flew by – often one number leading into another without break – but the sold-out audience called them back for three encores before they were willing to let them go, gather up their belongings and head out for Mother’s Day brunch.
And again here'a bit of what we heard: Marco Beasely and Accordone doing a tarantala:
They are scheduled back for next year's Festival with a programme tantalizingly titled The Temptation of Evil!
As a sidebar Laurent and I came away with four CDs by the various artists involved and there are at least two more I'm planning on getting.
This fellow is wearing a variation of a commedia dell'arte costume - he may well have been a member of the Prince-Archbishop's theatre troupe.
The sack of vegetables would suggest this chap is a door-to-door vendor - though again his costume has overtones of the commedia dell'arte. And again it appears he originally held something in his hand.
As well as being a sweetie, who I may have mentioned I have a crush on, Andreas Scholl is a wise performer; at the outset of his recital career he realized that people could find an entire concert of countertenor arias a bit much. So he has teamed up with various musical ensembles to present a varied vocal and instrumental programme.
It was apparent on Saturday morning that his relationship with Accademia Bizantina is a happy one. There was obvious enjoyment and at times playful interaction between him, director Ottavio Dantone and first violinist Stefano Montanari. And the programme allowed Scholl, Montanari and the ensemble to display their individual and joint talents. And I now have another crush - Montanari can tune my fiddle any time!
As the title suggests the vocal music was arias written for the celebrated castrato Senesino by Handel, Albinoni, Porpora, Geminiani and Lotti. I've always preferred Scholl when he sings the more lyrical arias and this concert was no different - two of the Handel pieces Caro Sposa and Dove Sei are part of his usual repertoire and he delivered them with a gentle simplicity that pulled at the heart strings. In the more showy pieces he doesn’t have the power or range of a David Daniels but the sound is never less than beautiful. In Lotti's Discordi pensieri, a piece new to me, it was often difficult to tell where Montanari’s violin ended and Scholl's voice began. And as a sidebar he was utterly sweet and sexy at the CD signing session afterwards - he knew how to charm the 100 or so fans who crowded around taking pictures and gushing. I wasn't like them though, I didn't take a picture!
And here's a bit of what we heard - Dove Sei from the 1998 producton of Handel's Rodelinda at Glyndebourne with William Chrisite conducting. Bertarido laments his seperation from his wife Rodelinda.
The three instrumental pieces – two by Vivaldi, the third a variation on La Follia by Geminiani – had a brilliance and spark that it often seems to me only Italian musicians can bring to this type of music.
Neapolitan Church Music
It was that spark that was missing in that evening’s concert. Thomas Hengelbrock and his Balthasar-Neumann Chor and Ensemble are well know for their eclectic repertoire ranging from early music to 20th century pieces so it was no surprise that they were scheduled at this year’s festival. Their programme was made up of three choral pieces – including a beautiful but seldom heard Stabat Mater by Emanuele d’Astorgo – and one Scarlatti church concerto grosso.
I recall remarking to Laurent once, after a performance of the Monteverdi Vespers by a German group at the Frari in Venice, that though the music making was lovely there was something missing. To my mind Italian church music – even a Miserere - has a certain dance like quality to it that Northern Ensembles often just can’t quite catch. This concert was an example of that – beautifully sung but there was a certain fire missing. And when they gave an exquisite performance of a Bach chorale as an encore it only reinforced that belief. It had a style and sense of musicality that the rest of the programme lacked.
This chappy with the turban and the big sweeping moustache is obviously meant to be a Turk. Like many of the statues he has lost an arm somewhere over the years.
But once you find your way out of San Marco and into Dorsoduro or Castello there are neighbourhoods - in the old sense of the word. People do their daily marketing, sit in the campo and have a coppe of gelato, stop for coffee or an ombre (a glass of proseco and a snack) at the local bar or hang their washing out the window while exchanging gossip across the narrow calle.
