Advertisement
Published: July 11th 2010
Edit Blog Post
Last night we headed out of our hotel an headed out to
some villa or garden or something of the sort that where we were meant to be performing our joint concert with a group called Tempus Floridum. Things seemed to be going ok... Until we got to the address. Certainly didn't look like someplace we should have been giving a concert. Wrong address? No. Absolutely the right address. Just turns out that Flirence has two of the exact same streets and addresses. And we were at the _other_ one. Go figure.
In typical Italian style, 9:00 rolled around after our brief warm-up/rehearsal, and there was no one there. An no one seemed particularly concerned about starting the concert. I think that Tempus Floridum finally took the stage about 9:45, and their set lasted about half an hour. It was mostly early music (late medieval/Renaissance, and was really interesting. Choral music is not a strong tradition in Italy, the way it is in, say, England. The seven women that made up the group were all soloists, and their style was very interactive. Their bodies were integral parts of their interpretation, almost to the point where it was somewhat distracting.
Campo Santo
The cemetery in Pisa Having said that, their execution wasn't bad - a few pitch and timing issues, but not at all unpleasant to listen too. Especially since after hearing about previous tour concerts, my expectations were set quite low, and they successfully exceeded those expectations.
Our performance went fairly well too. We are still having some memory and timing issues (memory especially in Sida Rudaia, timing in Laudate Dominim), but we were roundly applauded by all all 20 or so of those in attendance (mostly friends and family of the other group) and even had to pull out V'la Le Bon Vent as an encore.
This morning it was up relatively early and onto the bus for a drive through the Tuscan countryside to Pisa. Where it was bloody hot. Stone reflects almost as much heat as it absorbs, if not more (especially the lighter coloured stuff). And the entire main piazza in Pisa is covered in... you guessed it. Light coloured stone. We were late and nearly missed getting to climb the Leaning Tower, but our guide, Alessio, managed to get us other entries. I was one of the first up. We got to the terrace and I was thoroughly
Inscription in Pisa
Bonus points if you figure out what year it's from... unimpressed. Netting everywhere. Although climbing the stairs was nifty in and of itself. You could certainly tell when you were fighting gravity to stay vertical! But we were unimpressed too soon. There were a further two levels with much better views (and new challenges to my fear of heights). Sadly my camera battery died overnight, and I wasn't able to get a new one before going up (I am again writing on my iPhone and pics will be a couple of days yet).
After the climb up hundreds of stairs in near 40-degree heat, we found gelato which was both the cheapest and best so far this trip. RR and I visited the CampoSanto (cemetery!) and then it was back into the bus for a leisurely stroll around Lucca lat in the afternoon before returning to our hotel in Florence and a tiring evening rehearsal.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.108s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 7; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0843s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb