Greetings to all!  I've been offline for quite a while, and am certainly
glad to be back.  I just returned from a long holiday in Italy.  Have
ventured to most parts of Italy, from Rome, all the way down south to
Sicily, and then back up to Florence, Venice, Milan and several places
in between.

I thought that some of my musical experiences during my trip might be
of interest to some on this List.  I had two musical encounters in Italy,
which is not bad considering that I wasn't exactly planning my trip to
coincide with any concerts.  In Perugia, there was an unmemorable recital
in the ghastly over-reverberent acoustics of some hall opposite the main
duomo (its name eludes me at this moment) by some young Italian pianist
called Pietro Maria.  I only heard the latter half of his recital, when he
played Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy, along with 4 encores.  The turnout was
quite pathetic (I think there were less than 100 people in the hall).  As
for the playing, I cannot comment on anything with any sort of conviction
as basically, the acoustics just made every single note mercilessly loud
and harsh, and every passage terribly mushy.

The second concert (it's actually an opera, so technically, not quite a
concert) I managed to catch was far more memorable.  By a stroke of good
fortune, I happened to be in Florence while the 62nd Maggio Musicale
Fiorentino was going on.  I missed Krystian Zimerman, Pollini and Ashkenazy
by just a few days, so that was quite a pity.  I did, however, catch an
opera (sadly, not Italian opera) at the Teatro Communale -- Wagner's
Tristan and Isolde.  Well, better than nothing, I guess.  It was quite an
overwhelming experience to sit through the whole thing for a whopping five
and a half hours (7pm to 12.30am), lengthy Italian intervals included!
Zubin Mehta conducted.

The performance was generally memorable, though Mehta's slick,
matter-of-fact efficiency was particularly troubling in the orchestral
preludes.  Stage direction and the sets for Act I left much to be desired.
Everything else was quite good, especially the lighting and the singing.
The cast was truly a starry, starry one, particularly in the Wagnerian
field:  Mariana Lipovsek was a firm Brangaene, and the smaller male parts
were very well-sung.  Most glorious of all was Debora Polaski's Isolde,
which seemed even more riveting when compared with Ben Heppner's reliable
but awfully wooden interpretation of the role of Tristan.

This production was staged in conjunction with the Salzburg Festival, so I
reckon that the same cast will be appearing that production.

Finally, to round off, here's a very interesting thing I came across:  some
time nearing the end of this month, at the same festival, Giuseppe Sinopoli
conducts a brand new production of Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande, and
taking on the lead role is none other than Ms Cecilia Bartoli!  "Bartoli
in Debussy?" you might ask.  Well, it seems like she's really looking into
diversifying her art.

Lionel Choi
Singapore
http://www.singnet.com.sg/~lionelc/dummies.html