Monthly Archives: May 2018

Adieu Dear Sam

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It is with sadness at Sam’s passing away but joy in our hearts that we were privileged to have met and known Sam for the last thirteen years.

Dr Franklin Samuel Stych was born in a part of Birmingham, which was then in county of Worcestershire, now East Midlands, in 1916 when the First World War was raging in its second year. Sadly, Sam’s father died of his war wounds shortly afterwards and Sam was never able to get to know him. Sam’s mother never remarried.

Sam himself saw active service in the Second World War in the Ordnance department of the army and was stationed in North Africa and Italy where his love for this country grew.

When Sam returned to the UK in 1946 he also returned to his great love of libraries and bibliography and became a senior member of staff of the municipal libraries. One of his mentors was the great Italian scholar Professor Whitfield of Birmingham University. Sam retired about forty-four years ago and, when given the chance to acquire a residence in Italy through his connection with Ian Greenlees the director of the British institute in Florence, made the move to Bagni di Lucca with gladness.

There are three significant works by Sam, which have greatly contributed to deeper understanding between Britain and Italy.

  1. How to Find Out About Italy is an excellent introduction to the bibliography relating to this country and, although published over forty years ago, is in the opinion of many still highly relevant and useful.
  2. Sam devoted twenty years of his retirement here in Bagni di Lucca to the creation of a comprehensive annotated bibliography, in cooperation with Michael Buckland, of 2,242 items by Boccaccio, adapted from Boccaccio, or about him . This seminal work still remains the most fundamental formidable tool for any research on Boccaccio. 
  3. ‘Pinocchio in Gran Bretagna e Irlanda’, tr. Gaetano Prampolini, Firenze: Quaderni Della Fondazione nazionale Carlo Collodi n. 8, 1971.

Sam received several honours in recognition of his work. Among these he was elected as a commendatore of the grand ducal house of Tuscany.

Throughout his time here in Bagni di Lucca Sam became the last remaining Englishman to link the present generation of residents and newcomers in the area with the classic coterie of cultivated English gentlemen who included such names as Ian Greenlees, Robin Chanter and, last but not least, Harold Acton. He is important not just for his great bibliographic works, not just for Bagni di Lucca, not just for Italo-English relationships but also for his quality of character.

Indeed, in 2014, during a conference on his erstwhile friend and neighbour Ian Greenlees Sam was visited by Laura Chanter, who was Robin’s wife until his death in 2004. I remember fond memories being exchanged during that visit.

Sam was an example to us all of kindness, scholarliness, decency, hospitality, courtesy and warmth, qualities which are enduring and which, all too often, are sadly lacking in the age we live in now.

Sam we will miss you!

A Mass will be celebrated on Friday 18th May at 10 am at the obitorio intercomunale di Lucca. (See https://www.paginebianche.it/lucca/obitorio-intercomunale-lucca.9004586 )

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Dott. Franklin Samuel Stych nacque in una parte di Birmingham, che era allora nella contea di Worcestershire, ora East Midlands, nel 1916, quando la prima guerra mondiale infuriava nel suo secondo anno. Purtroppo, il padre di Sam è morto per le ferite di guerra poco dopo e Sam non è mai stato in grado di conoscerlo. La madre di Sam non si risposò.

Sam vide servizio attivo nella Seconda guerra mondiale nel reparto Ordnance (artiglieria) dell’esercito e si trovò prima in Africa settentrionale e poi in Italia, dove il suo amore per questo paese si sviluppò.

Quando Sam tornò nel Regno Unito nel 1946 riprese anche il suo grande amore per le biblioteche e la bibliografia e diventò un membro del personale delle biblioteche comunali. Uno dei suoi mentori è stato il grande studioso d’italiano Professor Whitfield dell’università di Birmingham. Sam andò in pensione circa quarantaquattro anni fa e, quando fu data a lui la possibilità di acquisire una residenza in Italia attraverso la sua connessione con Ian Greenlees il direttore del British Institute di Firenze, si stabilì felicemente a Bagni di Lucca.

Ci sono tre libri indicativi di Sam, che hanno tanto contribuito a una maggiore comprensione tra la Gran Bretagna e Italia.

1. Come scoprire l’Italia è un’eccellente introduzione alla bibliografia riguardante questo paese e, anche se pubblicato più di quarant’anni fa, è, a parere di molti, ancora molto pertinente e utile.

2. Sam dedicò vent’anni qui a Bagni di Lucca per la creazione di una bibliografia completa di 2.242 scritti su Boccaccio o adattati da Boccaccio.Questo lavoro seminale rimane ancora lo strumento fondamentale per qualsiasi ricerca su Boccaccio.

3. Sam scrisse anche un interessante studio su ‘Pinocchio in Gran Bretagna e Irlanda’, tr. Gaetano Prampolini, Firenze: Quaderni della Fondazione Nazionale Carlo Collodi n. 8, 1971.

Sam ricevette diversi riconoscimenti per il suo lavoro. Tra questi fu eletto come commendatore della grande casa ducale di Toscana.

Sam rimase l’ultimo inglese a collegare l’attuale generazione di residenti e i nuovi arrivi ​​al comune con la classica cricca di gentiluomini inglesi coltivati, tra i quali spiccano nomi come Ian Greenlees, Robin Chanter e Harold Acton. Sam è importante non solo per le sue grandi opere bibliografiche, non solo per Bagni di Lucca, non solo per le relazioni italo-inglesi, ma anche per la sua qualità di carattere.

Infatti, nel 2014, durante una conferenza organizzata dalla Fondazione Montaigne sul suo ex-amico e vicino di casa, Ian Greenlees, Sam è stato visitato da Laura Chanter, che era moglie di Robin fino alla sua morte nel 2004. Mi ricordo delle belle memorie scambiate durante quella visita.

Sam era un esempio per tutti noi di gentilezza, della cultura, della decenza, dell’ospitalità, della cortesia e dell’amicizia, qualità che, troppo spesso, sono purtroppo mancanti nell’epoca in cui viviamo ora.

Sam ci mancherai! R. I. P.

Una Messa sarà celebrata il venerdì 18 maggio alle 10 al obitorio  intercomunale di Lucca. (Vedere https://www.paginebianche.it/lucca/obitorio-intercomunale-lucca.9004586 )

 

 

 

Stereo Tipi Choir Shine on Holy Grail Mountain

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High up on the hills above Ponte a Moriano is a transcendentally white building presenting an almost a grail-like vision – indeed it is called the Academy of Montegral and was once the Convento dell’Angelo of the Passionist fathers –  the ones who attracted Lucca’s neglected Saint Gemma so much.

The convent, designed by Lorenzo Nottolini (he of the Ponte delle Catene at Bagni di Lucca and so many others of the finest buildings in the Lucca countryside), and built for the Passionist fathers, still remains their property although, due to falling vocational demand, it is now leased (for 999 years!) to the Academy of Montegral as a finishing school for musicians both vocal and instrumental.

The Academy of Montegral, the brainwave of Maestro Gustav Kuhn, (pupil of Karajan, and, among other prestigious posts, former musical director of Rome opera), was founded in 1992 with the aim of developing a holistic musicianship on a human scale. In 2000 it moved to the convent, reinforcing the idea of a spiritual and cultural musical community. The results show – I doubt if music making can really get much better than this in Lucca province.

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It was, therefore, an awesome challenge for the Stereo-tipi choir to audition and then be invited by maestro Kuhn to master classes and, finally, to sing in the Mass for Ascension Day (and Mother’s day, too) on Sunday, 13th May. (PS A member of this choir, Andrea Salvoni, is our choirmaster at Ghivizzano and some choir members have leading parts in Borgo a Mozzano’s fine music school).

This was the programme of liturgical music:

The challenge was achieved to perfection and we were treated to a liturgical event heightened by great music sung by a choir who I can surely say is one of the very few in the region to reach anywhere near to the high standards of such English choirs as The Sixteen and The King’s singers.

The Spanish composer Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548 –1611) stands in a holy trinity of renaissance polyphonic vocal music composers together with Palestrina and Lassus. Victoria’s ‘Missa Ascendens’ from his middle period is both concise and highly organised with a melodic theme taken from his motet of the same name.

The Stereo-tipi were organised in the choir stalls semi-circularly arranged behind the high altar and almost hidden by it. Yet the genius of architect Nottolini ensured that the acoustics here are quite perfect and the choir rose to spread its fine singing with near-perfect intonation and dynamic range throughout this neo-classical gem.

Each part of the Proper of the Mass gained in stature and the closing Agnus Dei was particularly touched with beauty.

Kuhn always likes to put this melting number at the end of the Mass.

As befits a singing academy the Mass, celebrated by Fr Ottaviano and Giovanni Battista of the Passionist order, had some fine solo performances by Maria Radoeva and Paola Leggeri.

I felt this was one of Kuhn’s most successful contributions to  music for liturgical celebrations in the convent of the Angel. First, the choir stalls were used to full effect. Second, the music to the Mass was all of one piece: a sublime masterpiece by a supreme polyphonic master. Third, the music fitted the day to a T: an Ascension Mass on the Ascension Day of Our Redeemer.

An added bonus was that my wife’s mother, just three years short of her centennial, was with us as befitted the occasion which was also Mother’s day, something celebrated in da Pinzo’s excellent trattoria in Ponte a Moriano where we enjoyed a truly tasty lunch after the Mass in one of Lucca provinces most heavenly churches. (I chose Da Pinzo’s own named pizza).

 

 

 

 

Bagni Di Lucca’s School Theatre Festival

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It’s the last week of Italy’s National Schools theatre review which is now in its 25th year. The review is the biggest and best so far with ever more generous sponsors. The season started on 27th April and ends on 20th May with prize giving at 3.30 PM and a grand party with music and cabaret at 8 PM.

If you’ve wondered what all those children are doing gathered outside Bagni’s Teatro Academico then this is your last chance to stop wondering and enjoy Italy’s talented schools enjoying their often first forays into the theatre world. Children from nursery to secondary schools, from villages around Bagni to far-flung places like Savona (Liguria) and Gorizia (Friuli-Venezia.Giulia) and a repertoire going from ancient Greek epics to Osborne’s ‘Look Back in Anger’  have all been part of the review.

Love of the theatre begins from acting in a school play and certainly what we have seen at the Teatro Academico demonstrates that theatre appreciation looks bright for Italy’s future Calliopean audiences.

Last night we attended a re-telling of Homer’s ‘Odyssey’ performed by Corsagna’s ‘Carducci’ primary school. A teacher friend of ours worked particularly hard on the production which was full of spectacle, humour and convincing performances.

See if you can spot the heroes and heroines the good and bad guys and the famous horse of the great epic in these photographs. I’m sure you’ll soon recognize Athene, Ulysses, Circe, Calypso and Nausicaä.

Full marks to all those children performing and to all the back-up team of teachers, technical staff, costume designers and a fine pianist. It was a thoroughly enjoyable show.

The last week treats plays on themes as varied as Frankenstein, Chernobyl and Gulliver’s travels. If you know just a bit of Italian the infectious acting of the young people will soon enable you to understand what’s going on. Be there if you can!

 

Toll-Free Super-road to Florence from Lucca Plus a Great Eating Place

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Clearly the quickest way to motor from Bagni di Lucca to Florence is to drive to Marlia and then catch the autostrada at Altopascio. However, there is a much more interesting way to get to Florence, free of autostrada tolls, with a fine place to eat en-route and with a journey time not much longer.

This route is to reach Altopascio but not to take the autostrada from thence. Instead, follow the signs to Empoli and when nearing Empoli watch out for the FI-PI-LI superstrada signs. The sign clearly alludes to Firenze, Pisa and Livorno and when you get onto the superstrada you just follow the direction for Florence and exit practically at the entrance to the wonderful Viale dei Colli. Within minutes you are admiring this classic view of the Lily city.

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From Altopascio the route crosses some of the most beautiful parts of the Val D’Arno. The first section takes one through the Cerbaie which are quite similar to the heathlands of the North Downs near Guildford in the UK. In fact, both are geologically of the same structure. Le Cerbaie is, however, the morainic uplands deposited at the end of the ice-age glaciers which once covered Tuscany and formed the Arno valley. You’ll know when you enter the Cerbaie since beautiful woodland spreads along much of it. Here is the protected natural area of Montefalcone which rises west of the Fucecchio Lake (great for bird-watching) and reaches up to 500 feet in height.

At some stage in the journey there’s a sign to Galleno. Take it to reach a typical Tuscan trattoria since the main road by-passes Galleno.

In Galleno, noted more for its hunters than for any historical masterpieces, there’s the ‘Gola di Bacco’, a trattoria with a great atmosphere.

What’s on offer? First the host Fernando and his wife, whose welcoming is truly heart-warming.

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Then, but only if you understand Italian since there’s no written menu and certainly no prices mentioned, Fernando will offer you a list of items including ‘selvaggina’, which is locally hunted wild-life.

We opted for maltagliate (in our area known as maccheroni) with sauces made of venison and wild boar.

Sandra’s mum took the wild mushroom soup:

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This was followed by a variety of meats including bistecca (beef steak) and pheasant.

At this stage we were more than replete so we asked for our doggy bags which lasted us well into the next day when we returned home.

While one misses the great artistic cities of Pistoia and Prato which one can get to on the autostrada there are still plenty of amazing sights (some of which we‘ve described in previous posts) including Empoli, San Miniato del Tedesco (birthplace of the classic filmmakers Taviani brothers, one of whom, Vittorio, has sadly died recently), Vinci (birthplace of Leonardo)  and the great Caruso’s villa.

You can follow these places up in my posts at:

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2017/04/02/make-it-an-interesting-journey-from-bdl-to-florence/

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2014/10/09/the-biggest-wetland-in-italy/

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2017/03/30/the-greatest-of-all-singers-his-villa/

Longoio’s Ancient Stones

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Walking from our front door towards the hill known as ‘del crocifisso’ because of the cross at its top one comes across some ancient rocks which, although clearly natural outcrops at the path’s ridge, seem almost sculpted by a forgotten race of giants.

 

Rock engravings dating back to Neolithic times have been discovered in other parts of our valley, in particular the area of Monte Limano, and several interpretations have been given to them. Is it possible that this stone has a faint inscription on it?

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Were the stones used for ritual purposes? Did they have a religious use? After all, reading the warning against idolatry in the Bible’s Deuteronomy 4:28 which says “And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell”, it’s perfectly feasible that this could well be the case. In the UK, places like Avebury and Stonehenge had particular significance for those peoples who constructed them, not just for their astronomical alignments but for the actual stone element which formed them.

Sometimes wood and stone combine themselves in a strange forest marriage in our examples at Longoio.

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At the top of the hill is a wooden cross, erected around ten years ago, to replace the one which formerly stood here and which marked the climax of the Via Crucis procession which took place within living memory. Here, was performed the enactment of Christ’s crucifixion in a procession which included flagellants (rather like those I once encountered many years ago in a Shia procession in Basra commemorating the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali.)

 

Whatever the why and wherefore of the stones, the hidden memories of forgotten pasts are lost in the mists of time and the Maytime beauty of these woods. The views towards other villages of our Lima valley are marvellous and the greenery around one distils an elixir of absolute peace.

 

 

One Reason not to Cut the Grass

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April showers in May and temperatures changing by over ten degrees from one morning to the next. The seasons seem to be all over the place in our part of the world and it’s not difficult to see why. At least, there’s cold comfort in knowing that if the North and South Poles are beginning a melt-down we’ll be, at our height of around 1,500 feet, well above the threatened flood levels (if we’re still around that is).

We went down to one of our fields in the company of our calico cat, Carlotta, yesterday afternoon between one thunderclap and the other, one brisk shower after another. The object of the exercise was to cut the grass but (apart from the lawnmower refusing to start) I didn’t cut it.

The reason is easy to see. The meadows were a rainbow of colours filled with wild-flowers that in England would be National Trust protected. So I left well-alone and gazed in admiration at nature’s gorgeous spectacle.

 

No Girl from Ipanema?

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Bagni di Lucca’s Spring Jazz concert organised by the Michel de Montaigne foundation is part of April’s International Jazz month sponsored by UNESCO.

This year’s jazz concert was as good as ever and concentrated on Brazilian music especially pieces by Jobim whose Ipanema girl has to be one of the best –known songs around (it wasn’t played in BDL’s concert), De Hollanda, Bosco, Djavan, Caymmi and Pixinguiha among others.

Elisa Mini has just the right voice timbre and delivers this repertoire with infectious élan. Her backing group (Andrea Garibaldi, piano, Nino Pellegrini double-bass and Marco Simoncini, percussion) was equally superb.

 

It was a truly enjoyable evening and is an essential part of our commune’s annual list of essential events to follow. The concert, incidentally, was very well publicised and there’s also my post on it at:

https://longoio3.com/2018/04/19/spring-has-really-sprung-with-bagni-di-luccas-jazz-concert/

Here’s an excerpt of what you might have missed:

Don’t miss next year’s BDL jazz concert!

A Yoga Course in a Mountain Monastery

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Jane Parkinson is well-known and highly regarded for her yoga and healing courses. You may well be interested in this one Jane is running in an unusual and beautiful location.

 

Yoga Retreat Day with Joann Connington

I Romiti del Torrente, Fabbriche di Vallico, Garfagnana

Saturday 26 May 2018

10am – 5pm

 

The yoga was excellent, enjoyable and restorative. Joann is a very good teacher, very expert and supportive. Delicious food. Thank you for a memorable day!” (R L, March 2018)

 

Revitalize your energy in the marvellous month of May with our Yoga Retreat Day with Joann Connington on 26 May 2018 in a stunningly beautiful location in the Garfagnana hills just north of Lucca.

We are delighted to be returning to I Romiti del Torrente which is situated high above the river Torrite above Fabbriche di Vallico. I Romiti is a meticulously restored thirteenth century former Augustinian monastery with wonderful views of the wooded slopes of the Apuan Alps but easily accessible from Lucca.

Our Yoga Retreat Day led by yoga expert Joann Connington will offer a gentle flow of postures (asanas) that bring presence and freedom to body and mind. The Retreat Day will be taught in English and is suitable for all levels.

The yoga sessions will take place in the former church of the monastery with its stone-flagged floor and oak planked chestnut beams. It is a beautiful, peaceful space. Lunch, weather-permitting, will be outside on one of the splendid terraces of I Romiti.

Cost for the day is €75 inclusive of yoga instruction, all yoga props, freshly prepared vegetarian lunch and all refreshments. A €25 deposit paid in cash either to Joann or myself for local students or via Tuscany Arts and Healing’s Paypal account (tuscanyartsandhealing@gmail.com) will secure your place. The balance is due in cash on the day.

Demand is likely to be high for this popular retreat so it is advisable to book early either by calling or emailing me at the address below. For further information please visit our website www.tuscanyartsandhealing.com.

 

Terms and conditions.

Cost for the day is €75. The €25 deposit is non refundable and will secure your place on the retreat. The balance is to be paid in cash on the day. For cancellation within 7 days of the retreat day you will be liable for the full payment unless you can fill your spot, in which case all monies will be returned. If we need to cancel the course for any reason, we will refund all payments made.

Jane Parkinson

Coordinatrice e Facilitatrice di Workshop

Tuscany Arts and Healing

0039  345 3140844

tuscanyartsandhealing@gmail.com

www.tuscanyartsandhealing.com

A Cluster of New Sounds in Lucca

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To slightly misquote that great British conductor, Sir Thomas Beecham, I may not understand much about contemporary music but I like the sound a lot of it makes.

When one thinks of Lucca and music Puccini clearly comes to the forefront: Giacomo Puccini Jr. that is, since the composer of three of the ten most frequently performed operas in the world came at the end of a long line of musicians like many other composers: J. S. Bach, for example.

In his life-time Puccini was considered avant-garde, particularly in the use of whole-tone scales (‘Madama Butterfly’), exotic orchestration (‘Turandot’) and clashing dissonances ‘(La Fanciulla’, ‘Tosca’) and also in his musical structures. Puccini must, indeed, have sounded a very progressive composer when first heard and still does today if one listens to him with fresh ears. Among Puccini’s admirers for example was Anton Webern.

Today Lucca continues to preserve its open-minded approach to modern music, particularly through ‘Cluster’, its association for contemporary composers. Cluster’s president and founder member is Francesco Cipriano, also a fine composer, brilliant pianist and editor of the on-line review of music events in Lucca province ‘Luccamusica’ of which I curate the English version – See http://www.luccamusica.it/language/en/).

Cluster also has its facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/CLUSTERcomposers/ .

There was a time when current music seemed to me to be largely of the ‘crash, bang, wallop’ variety. (I mention no composers’ names in this regard). Happily, in today’s scene, anything goes so long, of course, as it is well-crafted and genuinely meant. Sonority is the name of the game and the sound of music can range from sparse minimalism to lush romanticism.

Today, there’s no such thing as an old-fashioned modern composer as such greats as Vaughan-Williams and Finzi used to be called in their time. If one feels like writing a hummable melody that’s fine. Reminiscences of past composers may be collaged, the variety of instrumental combinations knows no limits, and melodic forms create ever new varieties. It’s important to realise that music, like any other art does not progress in the way say astro-physics does. Music creates new knowledge of organised sounds by a sort of ever-changing fruition borne of the landscape in which its seeds are planted. Musical creation is like a garden where great compositions are born from careful pruning and grafting of existing varieties of plants to create new species.

The amazing varieties of contemporary music are nowhere better seen that in the series of ‘Cluster’ concerts which I’ve already listed in my post at https://longoio3.com/2018/04/13/luccas-new-cluster-music-season/

I recently attended this Cluster concert by the Aurora Ensemble:

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As a picture can describe an infinitesimal number of words I will spare you the ‘Hans Killer’ (remember ‘Private Eye?)  approach to wordless functional analysis of the music I heard and just recommend you to attend any other of the Cluster concerts when in Lucca and let your ears enter into the often astounding sonorities of contemporary music.

To take one example of how appealing music written in our time I’ll post an excerpt of Francesco Cipriano’s composition called ‘waterfalls’.  Over an ostinato, descriptive of the flow of water and also with an alusion to Chopin’s ‘Revolutionary study op10.2), arpeggiando cascades begin to descend in brilliant, almost canonic-like, sequences. Then it appears to me that the music focuses on what in my mind’s eye is a description of a tropical pool such as we have come across in Saint Lucia where the turbulent falls resolve themselves into a jungle-shaded tranquillity, not without a hint of a samba rhythm,  where the lianas are filled with mysterious species.

Anyway chacun a son gout; but there are so many musical tastes to savour in a relatively small city like Lucca that one is truly spoilt for choice!

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(Participants and sponsors in the concert I attended. Maestro Cipriano is third from the right)

 

 

 

 

An Invitation from Franco Zeffirelli

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Of all Florence’s contemporary sons Franco Zeffirelli is the one who approaches closest to the polymath artistic genius of Leonardo da Vinci. No surprise, since one of Franco’s ancestors was the painter of ‘La Gioconda’, better known outside Italy as ‘Mona Lisa’.

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Where to start with Franco’s achievements? In operatic scenography (Callas in ‘Tosca’)? In theatrical productions (‘Taming of the Shrew’ with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton)? In films (‘Tea with Mussolini’ with Judi Dench)?
I have my favourites (‘Jesus of Nazareth’, whose film sets we stumbled upon during our Tunisian honeymoon forty years ago), ‘Filumena Marturano’, a West End production with Joan Plowright, Larry Olivier’s widow, and the rehearsals of which we witnessed personally at the Italian Institute with the master himself, my father-in-law’s (the institute’s Secretary-general from its inception) good friend, and, particularly, ‘Romeo and Juliet’, which had me transfixed as a teenager.

I admit Franco is a marmite genius: loved and loathed in equal measure. Certainly, I could not begin to unravel with him my disputes about his political affiliations. But one thing is certain and that is Franco’s great love for the city of his birth and his affection for the United Kingdom, a fact recognised by honours from both countries including a KBE from Her Maj.

Franco is, above all, a generous genius, with whom we have enjoyed personal memories, especially my wife, Alexandra, and someone who is one of the most refulgent artistic visionaries of our age.

This generosity and vision is set in stone in Franco’s foundation.

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This opened last year in one of Florence’s rare baroque buildings, the San Firenze monastery. Started in the seventeenth century as an oratory for the order of Saint Philip Neri and completed by 1775 by, among others, Zanobi del Rosso, this elegantly symmetrical building was half church and half high court until 2012 when the ghastly new tribunals were built at Novoli, spoiling the view of Florence from San Miniato sul Monte.

The church is still used for its original religious purpose but the oratory has been turned from tribunal into a magnificently resonant concert and venue hall.

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The convent itself is devoted to the Franco Zeffirelli foundation which contains the master’s archives, a lovely caffe, and presents exhibitions to engender creative productivity in the city of the Lily.

We were invited yesterday to attend a concert in the ex-oratory and tribunal of San Firenze to celebrate Franco’s contribution to that wonderful musical festival, il maggio fiorentino, which is entering its 81st year. I met Pippo, Franco’s adopted son, and, despite the large number flocking to this very special event, we were able to be accommodated together with the widow of Franco’s friend, my 96 year old mother-in-law….

This was the programme.

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The ‘giardino della bizzarria’ was, as its title implied, a somewhat bizarre piece. Beginning with an often cacophonic polyphonic section the work resolved itself, after huge cluster piano chords, into a gloriously diatonic celebratory finale.

The Puccini excerpts, pointing to Franco’s intense relationship with opera, were arranged for and sung by a children’s choir with exquisite aplomb. The voices were beautifully trained and the pieces selected and arranged with absolute adroitness. The most successful items were ‘Butterfly’s’ humming chorus and that infectious Chinese song, ‘Moh li hua’, used in ‘Turandot’. We were then treated to the whole of the second act of ‘La Boheme’ where the singer (Maria Rita Combattelli) of Musetta’s waltz song was close to being sensational – a great taster for the maggio season.

 

 

It was a lovely gesture by Franco Zeffirelli, one of Italy’s undisputed living legends, to offer this delightful concert to his city and to donate his archive to the land which nurtured him. Grazie mille, caro Franco!