The church of San Michele in Foro is one of the finest of Lucca’s hundred churches (actually Lucca has only ninety nine churches!) and is appropriately located in Piazza San Michele. The ’foro’ in its title refers to the fact that this was the site of the Roman forum and the piazza remains a busy central location in today’s city. The church is located on a stone dais bordered by marble columns connected by heavy metal chains and is flanked on all sides by medieval buildings.
San Michele has a Latin cross plan and is strongly influenced by the Pisan Romanesque style. The façade is adorned with four orders of loggias and surmounted by a large marble statue of the archangel Michael, with metal leaf wings, in the act of defeating a dragon with a spear with two angels, one on each side of him. I’m told that in particular light conditions it’s possible to see a green sparkle coming from the statue which, according to legend, is an emerald set in ancient times and never found. I regret I have not been lucky enough to see the sparkle. Perhaps I need to be further spiritually enlightened!
In respect of the subject I have this poem on Saint Michael:
MONT SAINT MICHEL
Saint Michael, light’s archangel, ring with fire
the subterfugeal dragon with your sword;
in heaven’s war lamed souls once more aspire
to walk the fragrant gardens of their Lord.
You speak from burning crests and keep the Word
creating sky and earth, the wind and sea;
and cast from north to south a line to gird
with strength this pilgrimage and set me free.
Beyond jade mountains lead, resist and fight:
your shrines are fortresses within men’s hearts
encased by swirling tide and gargoyled height,
enfolded in veiled clouds and shrouded arts.
Perfected force, revealing energy,
through your pellucid eyes at last I see.
*
MONTE SAN MICHELE
San Michele, arcangelo della luce, anello di fuoco
il drago sotterfugi con la tua spada;
nella guerra del cielo le anime zoppe aspirano ancora una volta
per camminare nei giardini profumati del loro Signore.
Parli dalle creste ardenti e mantieni la Parola
Volando il cielo e la terra, il vento e il mare;
e getti dal nord al sud una corda per cintare
con forza questo pellegrinaggio e liberarmi.
Oltre le montagne di giada guidano, resistono e combattono:
i tuoi santuari sono fortezze nel cuore degli uomini
racchiusi dalla marea vorticosa e l’altezza gargugliata,
avvolti in nubi velate e arti arcane.
Forza perfezionata, energia rivelatrice,
attraverso i tuoi occhi chiari finalmente vedo.
*
We were at the lovely church of San Michele in Foro last Saturday for the annual concert for the feast of Saint Michael the archangel. It was the first concert to be given there after the ghastly pandemic and so was a particularly poignant and important occasion.
I have written about previous Saint Michael Archangel concerts at:
2015
2016
On each occasion I have been impressed by the fine performances given by the Polifonica Lucchese choir and was particularly looking forwards to this occasion after the two years absence. This was the programme:
I consider Egisto Matteucci to be one of the finest conductors in our region with an unequalled brilliancy in dealing with choral music. Indeed, one of my English Tuscany resident acquaintances, herself a music teacher, has participated in Egisto’s choir and has nothing but praise for his technique and approach. On this occasion our local church choir conductor joined the Polifonica Lucchese together with his brilliant early music group ‘I Stereotipi’.
Mozart’s Mass in C minor K. 139 is called the Orphanage (’Waisenhaus’) Mass, because it was commissioned by Father Ignaz Parhammer for the consecration of the Waisenhauskirche (Orphanage Church) in Vienna on December 7, 1768. Mozart’s age at the time? Twelve. Unbelievable (almost). But, as someone quipped Saint Michael and his angels might sing Bach if they address God but prefer to sing Mozart among themselves!
(Vienna’s Orphanage church)
At Mozart’s time two types of Masses were composed for Sunday worship: the ‘Missa Brevis’ or short Mass for standard occasions and the ‘Missa Longa’ (also sometimes called ‘Missa Solemnis’) for more important church’s calendar events. Mozart’s Mass may be clearly described as a ‘Missa Solemnis’ because of its length and instrumentation which includes three trombones giving the work a particularly noble and dark sonority.
As a ‘Missa Solemnis’ Mozart uses the form of the cantata mass with arias, duets and choruses The ‘Sancto Spiritu’ of the Gloria and ‘Et vitam venturi saeculi’ of the Credo are each composed as fugues as was then customary. And what learned fugues for someone who was not yet a teenager! I was particularly impressed by three feature of the work: the soprano solo on the word ‘Resurrexit’ just before the choir steps in, the Gloria’s ‘Hosanna’ a melting soprano solo with choral interjections and the incredibly lively string figurations throughout the composition. It seems truly unbelievable that this masterpiece should have been composed by someone so young at a time when children today are busy with play-stations or skateboarding yet here was someone producing a complex liturgical piece of music for full choir and orchestra complete with double fugues and virtuoso arias which were rightly praised by the highest authorities of the age.
The concert’s two sacred compositions define Mozart’s entire compositional course: the ‘Waisenhaus’ Mass dating back to 1768 and the short and intensely felt ‘Ave Verum’ from 1791, the year of the composer’ death, written for the Corpus Domini solemnity. The contrast between the intricacies of the biggest work Mozart had composed until then to the calm, resigned simplicity of the little piece of meditative music seemed to show me that perhaps the greatest (and most difficult) thing in art is to achieve purity and conciseness of expression in all communication.
I need not qualify the evening’s performance except to say that the soloists were well up to their task and that the choir was most incisive. The magisterial conducting of Maestro Matteucci was full of energy and sensitivity, particularly remarkable when one thinks that his health has not been very good.
I wish Egisto Matteucci and his band all the best for a return to normalcy after the trials of the pandemic and definitely look forwards to their Concerto per San Michele for next year. It remains truly one of the highlights of the Luccan musical year and this showed in the packed church from which so many had to be turned away because of lack of space.
After the concert it was delightful to walk through Lucca in a gentle drizzle. We have really missed the rain here! But let not too much of the wet stuff fall now; we don’t want to face the tragedy so many in Italy have already faced with flooding and landslides.
I would like to thank Alexandra Cipriani for taking most of the photos in this post.