beauty

The preparations for the evening hardly match the event: bottles of water for the heat, spray to ward off the mosquitoes, shoes that are Ok on cobblestones, throat lozenges in case I cough in the mountain air, hardly the glamourous kit! But once there... magic!
And of course, the winners of the international competition were fantastic.The Italian tenor was my favourite, out-performing the conductor. As I confessed once before, it is usually the conductor I fall for! The tenor is one to watch; every note was true, his voice full and mature but clear and eloquent... I could rave on...

The orchestra was the Dnepropetrovsk Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Maestro Fernando Raucci. I enjoyed being so close to the orchestra, able to hear every individual instrument. The flute and oboe were particularly beautiful, and the clarinet solo exquisite. There was a susbstantial string section, something often lacking in the open air concerts here. I loved that fact that the tambourine player had a bright red bow-tie to match his tambourine! His part was small, but couldn't be overlooked, a bright splash in a sea of elegant black.

Filignano is associated with Mario Lanza, although he was not born there.

I have been to Filignano only twice before, both times to meet a friend about military history and establishing a museum. The first time I asked the friend whom I was accompanying what I should wear. He replied "jeans". On the way there he found enough English to explain to me that the jeans were only for the cold; he actually preferred skirts. But no, there was no romance. When we stopped to look at the stars on the way home it was only so that he could wake up enough to keep driving, and reply to all his phone calls. And you thought that all Italian men were romantic?

The second time I remember, visiting with the same friend, because the friend with the museum cooked us an amazing dinner. The gnocchi was fantastic... but my plateful was enough to feed four people!

And now for a sadder post... about my little mountainside village.