Concert in Rome - Part One!!!

 

OUR PERFORMANCE AT TEATRO MARCELLO

 

 

 

Unlike last year, this year we spent the first five days in an hotel downtown, right by the Teatro Marcello where we had our concert. This was special not only for the obvious reasons of being able to walk around Campo dei Fiori every morning to buy some fruits for lunch, or walk through the Ghetto to rehearse, or run to throw some coins in the Trevi Fountain between rehearsals, or learn where the best water fountains were, to name a few...but also because we managed to meet real Romans. We made friends with two very nice guys at the nearby cafe (obviously one of the best in Rome as it was the meeting point at mid morning for the nice old ladies, the garbage collectors, ...) where we were greeted each morning with "the usual"!

 

 

 

Also, and this was really special, we were allowed to practice in the nearby San Nicola in Carcere, where we became friends with these incredibly nice people who let us work there each day for an immense number of hours, even when the church was closed. So, we had our own personal and historical rehearsal church where our music was often met with applause by the tourists visiting the wonderful church.

 

 

  San Nicola in Carcere

As most of other Roman buildings, even this church was build on top of something else and recycling most of its materials: in this case, three temples from around the III and II Century BC, of which one can still clearly see the columns on the outside of the church and all the foundations, when visiting the crypt underneath (like we did, of course!). In the crypt, it is still very visible the path between these three temples and in particular the spaces where most likely the money exchange had his shop. The church is indeed close to the river and most of the goods from the empire would arrive to the Capital here and people would need to exchange their money...very much like us today!

TEATRO MARCELLO - ROMA

In about a week Kasia and I will be playing in this incredible space!

In the intimate area between the Teatro Marcello (on the very left of this picture you can see the double row of arches) and the Temple of Apollo (two remaining colums are also relatively on the left of the picture) the Roman nights are brigthened by classical music, performed live by musicians from all over the world during the Summer months.

One of the oldest theaters in Rome, the Teatro Marcello was started under Julius Caesar, but was completed only by Augustus. In 13BC he dedicated this grandious theatre to the memory of his nephew, Marcello, whom he had designated as his successor, but who had died already in 23BC. - in case one wonders (we love comparisons and numbers), the Colosseum was started in 72 after Christ and finished in the year 80 and it could host about 50.000 people, while the Teatro Marcello, finished about 90 years earlier, had space for about 20.000. -

This is a reconstruction

It seems that it was still in use as a theatre in the V Century. Afterwards, a common practice for the Romans, parts of it were recycled for other constructions and, in the Middle Ages, it became a fortified castle! As a private palace, it changed several owners until it became property of the Orsini Family for seveal centuries, and, until very recently, various shops were allowed to utilize the spaces under the arches for their business. 


The concert series we are part of is called Concerti del Tempietto, though, not of the Teatro Marcello. The name is given by the three remaining white cloumns which belonged to the Temple of Apollo Sosiano (after Gaio Sosio who restored it in 34BC). The area was sacred to Apollo from long before that, though: already in 431BC there was a temple dedicated to the god; it was several times destroyed and changed, at one point also to make space for the Teatro Marcello. The temple completely disappeared until around 1930, when parts of its columns were found buried in the arches of the Teatro, when the theatre itself was being renovated. So, in a way, even if the Temple was mutilated by the construction of the Theatre, it was the latter's importance that gave life back to the former.

This is how it looks today and where we will play on August 8th!

TWO DAYS IN THE MUSKOKA DISTRICT – My Idea of North

I finally visited the Muskoka District in Central Ontario! 

For my friends who have never heard of it, this area is only a small part of the famous “cottage region”, where all real Ontarians spend all their weekends, sometimes just in the summer, sometimes all year along, lining up on the main highways with other thousands of people on Friday to go North, only to do the same in the opposite direction a few days later. 

I was lucky enough to visit a “real” cottage, built all in wood literally directly on the rocks that are so typical of this region: the red-shaded rocks of the Precambrian Shield. I drove for hours between hundreds of little, and not so little lakes, and hidden bogs covered in water lilies and floating logs.   

I also managed to spend a few hours jumping in and out of the fresh yellowy waters of a lake, rimmed by the typically white-bark of the birches (betulle, for my Italian friends), which accompany pines, maples and oaks all the way to the water line. Very much like in the paintings of the Group of Seven.

Tom Thomson - in the Northland

Thank you to all the wonderful new and old friends that made this experience possible! The loons will have to wait for next time!

BACH D MINOR KEYBOARD CONCERTO - Jesu Juva

An enormous THANK YOU! to all the dear friends that came to hear the pre-tour Bach Concerto “Run One”on Tuesday!

This Concerto is among the most beautiful works to be ever written, a long time dream of mine. One of those pieces in which you can experiment with and always enjoy new tempos, new colours, new proportions and relations.  One of those pieces that make their way in your brain and happily accompany you for days. One of those pieces made, on the surface, of very simple material that constantly changes direction, intention, meaning, and in so doing sounds always new and evolving, very much like life, really. 

I am incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to be performing it. Thank you again for being there for me and helping me in this continuous discovery!

Trevi Fountain, started in 1732

SONNET 128

 

How oft, when thou, my music, music play'st,
Upon that blessed wood whose motion sounds
With thy sweet fingers, when thou gently sway'st
The wiry concord that mine ear confounds,
Do I envy those jacks that nimble leap
To kiss the tender inward of thy hand,
Whilst my poor lips, which should that harvest reap,
At the wood's boldness by thee blushing stand!
To be so tickled, they would change their state
And situation with those dancing chips,
O'er whom thy fingers walk with gentle gait,
Making dead wood more blest than living lips.
   Since saucy jacks so happy are in this,
   Give them thy fingers, me thy lips to kiss.

...and this is me!

Day 1 at my Blog!

Well, this is quite exciting, but..first of all, WELCOME ALL to my very first Blog!

I wanted to have something simple and fast to update my friends on my activities, to be able to share my profound thoughts and new discoveries, in particular with an eye to the upcoming tour in the Fall in Eastern Europe.
Yes! I will be visiting at least four countries on which I had never set foot before.

I am bringing on tour any audio/video device I can think of, to be able to take you all with me, I am starting to study the history and geography of these places...not to speak of all the gorgeous music that I need to have ready!

More more more to come!

Baci,
Erika