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