Music in Perugia

Monday, June 20, 2005

It is early Monday morning, around 8 and I am sitting out in our yard. The birds are singing and a gentle breeze is blowing. I hear the sound of neighbors coming and going, opening shutters and chatting among themselves. I am surrounded by greenery and directly in front of me small red roses climb on a lattice. The lavender by the walk is about to burst into purple bloom. The oleander by the wall is blooming white and the pink rose bush stands as tall as a small tree. The scent of honeysuckle tickles my nose and it sparkles along the outer edge of the garden, helping to obscure it from the view of the stairs on the other side of our wall. In the far corner of our yard there is a metal gazebo and marble-topped table with four chairs. I decided to bring the laptop outside and sit here and write, instead of staying inside. It's a bit overcast but comfortable with a light jacket. Our apartment is located at the highest point of the city and it is usually cooler here than in the lower part of centro, just a short walk from here. This is a fact I lamented when we first arrived, since it was pretty cold here some days! But now, with summer, we are glad of this fact and it is extremely comfortable.

We had another amazing few days here. We went to the movies to see Kingdom of Heaven starring Orlando Bloom (if Samantha is reading, I bet she liked this movie!) with our friend Miles (our new Australian friend who is married to Guiseppina who was born in Sicily but grew up in Australia) and it is a not-so-flattering story (not sure how it could be) of the Crusades and crusaders who slaughtered many in the name of "God" (right!). It was in a theater here that shows English language movies once a week and we have seen a few. It's a nice change from having to translate everything!

Perugia is a city filled with music events all summer long. We are looking forward to the Umbria Jazz festival in the early part of July where there will be stages set up all over the city with free concerts everywhere and some venues where you will need to purchase tickets. We will go see Al Jarreau and George Benson and then just enjoy the freebies around town. We experienced this the last time we were here in 2003 and it was really a blast.

On Saturday night we attended a free choral event in the Sala de Notari, an accapella choir "Harmonia, Coro e Orchestra dell'Ateneo Barese," from Bari, in Puglia, the region that occupies Italy's heel. (If you are reading Clara, I thought of you as they were singing) They performed a program of music from the Renaissance and a Requiem by Saverio Mercadante, an early 19th century Italian composer. In this beautiful medieval space the sound of these harmonious voices was extraordinary and we sat spellbound. The conductor had this amazing deep baritone voice as he sang solo the various parts of the Requiem and it reminded me of the High Masses of my childhood when the priest had an especially good singing voice that reverberated in the walls of the church and sent chills down your spine.

From there we went down the Corso Vannucci to Teatro Pavone for a swing concert! I recognized the woman sitting next to me as part of the choir from Bari and we sat and chatted in Italian, which she interjected with a few words in English and we enjoyed ourselves very much. The concert was amazing and surreal in a way.

They began with a rendition of a song called "Arcobaleno" which didn't take long to recognize as "Somewhere over the Rainbow (arcobaleno means rainbow, in Italian)! A band called "The Swingle Kings" along with a chorus from the University, did songs like "Summertime" and "Hello Dolly" (in English) and Stormy Weather (where they sang in Italian except for the words "Stormy Weather.")

This event was dedicated to the memories of the city (the 20th of June is a day of importance in Italy's history) and at the intermission of the concert an elderly gentleman was introduced and he came out and told stories. We admittedly did not understand too much of what he said but he is a very famous sculpture here, Artemio Giovagnoni who is also known for writing comedies for the stage in the Peruginian dialect. He told a funny story (translated by my friend from Bari) about meeting a woman who recognized him as the famous writer who didn't know he had a "hobby" of making sculptures! Everyone laughed at this, he talked too long - even the musicians on stage were fidgeting - and eventually finished talking and the concert resumed. Then the chorus concluded, went off stage and the Swingle Kings took over. It was like a walk through the songs of my childhood! Or like listening to all the songs on the "Mob Hits" album! They did songs like "That's amore, (when the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie...), Oh Marie, Angelina (in his best Louie Prima impersonation!), Volare, Buonasera Signorina and one of my favorites - Mambo Italiano and at least a dozen more!" It was so much fun, even the singers from Bari were dancing in the little balconies of this former opera house and everyone was clapping and tapping and singing along! It was more fun than I can tell you.

Afterwards we strolled back up the Corso stopping for a glass of wine at an outdoor café and did some people watching for a while before tumbling off to bed, the sounds of "Tu vo' fa l'americano" rattling around in my head.

Buona sera,
Rosemary & Bob