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A Spoleto Sojourn
By JOHN MCMURTERY
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| The orchestra's bass section
rehearsed for the final concert outside of the Duomo in Spoleto.
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When
I was approached with the opportunity to travel to Italy and participate in Spoleto's
Festival dei Due Mondi with the Juilliard Orchestra, I felt excited and honored.
On my trips to Europe, I had never traveled to Italy, though I had always wanted
to. My first thought was of the phone calls I needed to make to clear my schedule
for the five-week tour. That done, I looked forward to a wonderful music-making
experience.
During the week before our departure,
the orchestra rehearsed every day. Otto Werner-Mueller familiarized us with Wagners
Lohengrin, and Jeffrey
Milarsky led us through the music for our opening concert. Then, on the afternoon
of June 8, more than 100 members of the orchestra and several administrators piled
onto buses and headed to J.F.K. Airport, boarded an all-night flight, and arrived
in Rome at about 7 a.m. From there, shuttle buses took us the rest of the way
to Spoleto.
A small town about two and a half
hours northeast of Rome, Spoleto is located in the heart of the Umbrian region
of central Italy. It was once a Roman colony, and one of the Roman Empires strongest
military outposts. After Federico Barbarossa burned the city to the ground in
1155, Spoleto became one of the Vatican States until 1860, when it was absorbed
into the United Kingdom of Italy. In 1958, Gian Carlo Menotti founded the Festival
dei Due Mondi (Festival of Two Worlds), thereby ensuring Spoleto's place as one
of the world's major artistic centers.
When the bus dropped us off, we grabbed
our luggage and walked across a bridge that once served as an aqueduct. We marveled
at the scenery and serenity of this place, a far cry from the bustle of New York
City. Surrounding Spoleto are beautiful green hills, perfect for hiking. The unspoiled
air has a peculiar, soft quality that seems to massage the skin, particularly
in the evening.
We settled into our quarters, in
a building that was once a convent (convitto).
I was pleasantly surprised at the spaciousness of the rooms, the beautiful views
from the windows, and the hot water for our showers. A wonderful meal was waiting
for us downstairs in the convitto
cafeteria, where we would eat two meals a day over the next five weeks. Breakfast
consisted of croissants, bread, cappuccino, and fruit juices. For lunch, we enjoyed
a variety of pastas, salads, and meat or fish. Dessert followed—usually cheesecake,
fruit, and occasionally gelato.
The convitto
was on a hill, from which we could view much of the town below. A short walk down
the hill and we were in one of the town's famous piazzi,
an open town square featuring restaurants, shops, and places for people to sit
and visit. During the festival, these restaurants and shops stay open late into
the evening to accommodate concertgoers and festival participants. One we frequented
was a pub called a tutta birra,
which often stayed open until 5 or 6 a.m. The owner of a
tutta birra, Antonio, told me that the shops and restaurants
in town rely heavily on the income from tourists during the festival, as business
is rather slow the rest of the year and it is difficult to make a living.
Antonio was one of many warm, hospitable
people we met in Spoleto. He and the other locals I talked to said that life in
this particular part of Italy is very different from what we are used to in the
States. A typical day might consist of getting up early, going to work for a few
hours, taking a long afternoon siesta (for which the shops all close), working
again for a couple hours, and then staying out all night until the wee hours of
the morning. After a couple hours of sleep, they get up for work, and the process
repeats itself. I found myself adopting this lifestyle, as much as our rehearsal
and performance schedule would allow, as the festival wore on.
Our workdays during the first two
weeks in Italy consisted entirely of rehearsals. Those were the hottest weeks
of the tour, and we worked mainly in a large room of the convitto
without air conditioning. Electrical storms in the evenings would play havoc with
the lights, cutting short at least one rehearsal. The inaugural orchestral concert
of the festival—conducted by Riccardo Frizza and consisting of Strauss Don
Juan, Medeas Meditation
and Dance of Vengeance by Barber, and Ravels Daphnis
et Chloè—took place at the Teatro Nuovo, the main
concert hall in Spoleto. Built between 1854 and 1864 on the site of an ancient
monastery, this theater has been the focal point of the festival since its founding
in 1958. All our performances of Lohengrin
also took place there.
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| When the students arrived in Rome,
the Spoletina bus was at the airport to take them to Spoleto. |
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The second orchestral concert was
in the courtyard of a famous castle known as la Rocca.
Jonathan Sheffer, conductor of the EOS orchestra in New York City, led us in two
Copland works: Fanfare for the Common Man
and The City, as well
as Barber's Piano Concerto, with Christopher Guzman as soloist, and Gershwin's
An American in Paris.
We also gave five performances of Alexander Zemlinskys opera Eine
Florentinische Tragödie at la Rocca, under the direction
of David Syrus.
After a six-day workweek, everyone
was ready for a break. On one of our days off, the Juilliard staff organized a
bus trip to Rome. We all split up to enjoy the sights of this ancient city. My
group headed for the Vatican, where we visited the museum. Inside the Sistine
Chapel, I was literally breathless remembering that it had taken Michelangelo
four years (1508-1512) to paint the famous ceiling. Although I had seen detailed
pictures of various portions of the ceiling, nothing prepared me for the experience
of seeing it all at once, from many different angles.
From there we went to St. Peter's
church. Not only did we climb the stairs to the middle level, from which we had
a good view of the dome as well as the floor below, but we also climbed another
320 stairs to the very top. The stairway was so narrow, winding, and crooked that
it nearly made me sick. But it was totally worth it—for we got to the top and
beheld a breathtaking, magnificent view of Rome. Back on ground level, we went
into the church itself and down into the catacombs, where many popes are buried.
The remains of St. Peter are there, locked away in a box that can be viewed through
glass.
Rome is a place of layers. There
is a sense of magnificent history unequaled anywhere else, except perhaps in Greece.
At the Colosseum, for example, one is able to observe the various attempts at
restoration over the years. Many of the underground tunnels that once housed animals
and people have been exposed, and I can easily imagine archaeologists turning
the place into an excavation site after it closes and the tourists leave for the
day. What amazed me about the Colosseum is its tremendous size, rivaling any major
sports arena today.
From there we went to the Forum. Because things were not
particularly well marked, we had to use a guidebook to figure out what everything
was. We finally happened upon the Circus Maximus, the site of the ancient chariot
races. Surprisingly, the Italians do not seem too concerned with preserving much
of this site; heavy stone artifacts that one might expect to see in a museum were
left on the side of the path for anyone to touch.
Before heading for the Trevi Fountain,
we took in a fabulous dinner. It is not expensive to eat well in Italy; even in
Rome, a multi-course meal with wine was quite reasonable. By the time dinner was
over, it was dark, so we saw the Trevi Fountain all lit up. We had just enough
time to visit the five-star Hotel Excelsior before rejoining the rest of the Juilliard
crew back at the buses.
Once back in Spoleto, many of the
student chamber groups rehearsed for a series of midday concerts known as the
Concerti di Mezzogiorno,
coordinated by B䲬i Nugent (Juilliard's assistant dean and director of chamber
music). The venue for this concert series was the Teatro Caio Melisso, which looked
like a smaller version of the Teatro Nuovo. Juilliard students and staff received
passes to these concerts, allowing us to hear our colleagues perform.
"The Mezzogiorno
concerts were the result of a team effort," explained Nugent. "While still in
New York, the students (all of whom were also playing in Spoleto's orchestra and
opera performances) selected almost all of the repertoire themselves, formed into
groups, and began rehearsals. In Spoleto, the specific schedule was created with
Gian Carlo and Francis Menotti. They added several European artists to the Mezzogiorno
roster, including a marvelously theatrical Italian a
capella vocal quartet, who danced while singing."
"Originally," continued Nugent, "it
looked like we could sit back and simply enjoy the results! But challenges arose
when groups had to be re-scheduled at the last minute because of orchestra rehearsals
or student illness or injury. Several students jumped in to fill unexpected vacancies—a
very generous act in what was already a packed schedule for them. The joy was
seeing it all come together, through the hard work and generosity of all concerned."
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| The orchestra and chorus rehearse
under the baton of James Conlon in front of the Duomo. |
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This Mezzogiorno
series was also a wonderful opportunity for us to interact with festivalgoers.
One couple from England I met had been attending the Festival of Two Worlds regularly
for the last 25 years. They told me of the many artists who had graced the festival's
stages during that time, some of whom are now very prominent performers. I saw
this couple at nearly every chamber-music concert, and they seemed intent on meeting
many of the Juilliard students after the performances. They were also excited
to hear the programs offered by the Juilliard jazz students. As they left to do
some sightseeing, they said they would be following our careers during the years
to come.
Rehearsals for the final concert
of the festival—an all-Russian program, conducted by James Conlon—began about
a week in advance. The concert opened with Shostakovich's Festive
Overture, followed by Mussorgsky's "Grand Coronation
Scene" from Boris Godunov,
and Shostakovich's little-known Execution of Stephan
Razin for bass singer, chorus, and orchestra, Op.
119. The State Academic Symphony Capella of Russia, under the direction of Valery
Polyansky, joined the Juilliard Orchestra for this outdoor event. Two dress rehearsals
were scheduled: one for the sound check and the other for the television crew
that would broadcast the concert live on RAI. The venue was the Piazza del Duomo,
one of the most beautiful squares in Italy. Everyone worried about the weather,
as the orchestra had been forced to take cover during a rain shower at one of
the dress rehearsals. Though it was quite windy during the concert, the rain clouds
delayed their downpour.
The orchestra was departing for the
States the next morning, and many people stayed out all night, saying goodbye
to the friends we had met during our stay. When our buses left the station in
Spoleto at 7 in the morning, many Italians were there to wish us a fond farewell.
From there, we scattered; some people flew back to the States while others stayed
in Italy a bit longer to enjoy the cities we had not been able to visit during
our trip.
Flutist Heidi Torvik said the Spoleto trip could best be
summed up by the advice James Conlon gave to the orchestra. "Just before he raised
his baton to begin the first rehearsal, he shared some of his own experiences
in Spoleto 30 years ago, as a young Juilliard student," said Heidi. "He said that
we would undoubtedly work hard and grow a great deal musically, but the most important
thing was that we go out and experience the beauty of all that Italian culture
has to offer—the food, the wine, the people, and the countryside, the indescribable
beauty of the art and architecture—because it will change you forever, and become
a part of who you are."
Spoleto 2003 was a fabulous experience,
due in large part to the Herculean efforts of the Juilliard administration—including
Mike Finn, Doug Quint, Bÿrli Nugent, Suzanne Ohlmann, and Chris Clarke. There
has been talk of establishing a Juilliard residency at Spoleto. Mike Finn acknowledges
that, even though this year's experience was fantastic, there is always room for
improvement. He added, "We would hope to go back with programs in place a little
sooner in the calendar year. I would also like to see the orchestral and chamber
music programs in a more integrated schedule."
John McMurtery is a D.M.A. student in flute.
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