This pandemic time has, amid its infections, also generated many heroes and heroines. Foremost among them must be the nurses and doctors who have coped and cared for the victims of this modern Black Death. No less heroic are the arts and their practitioners. Already hit by scarcity of funding, they now have to suffer social distancing impositions among both audiences and artistes. Any exhibition, any concert, any cultural event has increased relevance for me in these strange days. When they relate to festivals I have enjoyed in the past, like Opera Barga, they add a particular frisson to my pleasure.
I have covered Opera Barga events in several of my posts, some of which, dealing with opera performances, are:
Opera Barga is also well regarded because of the imaginative recitals it presents. Some of my posts on these are the following:
This year the calendar of events, despite these difficult times, is scrumptiously inventive and offers a wide variety of music ranging from Mozart to Mendelssohn to Morricone and Bach to Beethoven to Brahms. It’s good that Opera Barga has spread its wings to include several events in our province’s ‘capoluogo’ , Lucca.
Here is the complete list of events.
I attended the open air recital given by the Ensemble ’Le Musiche’ yesterday in the captivating Piazzetta San Felice. Surrounded by the gentle pastoral atmosphere of the encircling hills and with a breeze tempering these somewhat humid summer days the occasion was indeed a happy (=’Felice’) one.
This was the evening’s programme:
Michael Haydn was having problems (largely because he was too fond of the bottle) in completing a set of six duos for Violin and Viola he was commanded to write for Salzburg’s rather unpleasant Archbishop Colloredo in 1783 and only managed to finish four of them. Although Mozart had moved to Vienna in 1781, principally to get away from the nasty archbishop and start his dazzling career as a concert pianist (one of the first in the history of music) he readily obliged when requested by Haydn and composed two duos to complete the set. It’s interesting to compare Mozart’s inspiration with Michael Haydn’s own efforts. For example, in Mozart the viola part is less of an ‘accompanying’ nature and much more the equal of the violin in the musical discourse and reveals his increased skill in writing chamber music especially his quartets.
The duo was immaculately performed by Anna Molinari and Lara Albesano with the precise measure of grace and lyricism. The acoustics in this open space were also remarkably good, aided by the low wall that surrounds the square and the façade of the church of San Felice to the left.
C. P. E Bach’s Trio sonata in D major followed. Again it was a very talented performance and I also noted how, unlike so many other trio sonatas, there were significant soloist episodes for each of the two main instruments and even the cello was more than a basso continuo. It was a slight pity that the harpsichord was of the ‘virtual’ (electronic) and not of the real variety since its sound did not carry at all well. Surely a harpsichord is portable enough to have been transported to this lovely hilly spot?
Rossini’s duo was great fun to hear, assuredly fun to play and, doubtless, fun to compose for the gourmet musician. Again, the soloists, Stefano Cucuzella on cello and Pauli Pappinen on double bass, gave an exemplary performance combining humour with virtuosity.
As an encore an exquisite Corelli trio sonata concluded this most bewitching evening. I remain so grateful that good friends invited me to the occasion otherwise I would have missed a great deal.
What other memorable musical events lie on the Barchigiano horizon?
I would be sad to miss the nearest Barga gets to Opera Seria this year: Vivaldi’s serenata ‘La Ninfa e IL Pastore’ given on 9th August (6 pm) in the San Francesco auditorium at Lucca and at Barga’s Piazzale Del Fosso on 11 August (9 pm). Although we now tend to associate serenate (literally ‘evening music’) with instrumental works such as those written by Mozart and Dvorak the serenata originally included any piece written for a ceremonial occasion such as a wedding or birthday. Thus, vocal music would be comprised in the category as in this performance which cannot possibly be ignored by any fan of that doyen conductor of Vivaldian opera, Frederico Maria Sardelli, who first attracted me to the delights of Opera Barga way back in 2005.
Three cheers (and more) to Opera Barga for carrying on its precious task in these hard times, somewhat reminiscent of the spirit of those wartime National Gallery concerts occurring during a past generation.
