Musica dolce

In the spirit of spontaneity, tonight I ended up watching the orchestra at Teatro Verdi (only a 15-minute walk from my house).

One of my new classmates is a pianist and music teacher originally from Durban, South Africa (Plurban, your nickname has a whole new layer of meaning now!) and during class, between homework corrections and grammar, he informed us all of a Mozart concert tonight with the Orchestra della Toscana and conducted by Daniel Harding--for only 10€!

A bunch of us went to the box office right after school. Judging by the poster, we'd be in for some Mozart and Beethoven. Rob (who is German) was quite excited. As was I, but not as much as when I scored some free tickets to another orchestral concert that I've had my eye on for awhile, featuring music from Verdi, Mascagni, and Puccini. I had seen posters plastered around the city but always felt dejected because it said ingresso aperto ad invito, or "entrance open by invite". And I know I would never be invited to this; after all, I still haven't gotten my residency!

But, my friends, ask and you shall receive. I inquired at the box office and all I had to do was write my name and phone number and then I immediately got a couple of free tickets! I was literally jumping up and squealing for joy. The best part is that the Coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (Florence's opera chorus) will be singing some of the composers' most well-known arias. I cannot wait.

If those two shots of music aren't enough, I was reminded of the upcoming concert of one of my favourite Italian pop artists, Elisa. I was initially yo-yoing between going or not, then I saw the prices online (80-100€) and I thought, "Hellz no. That's money I could put towards travelling!" (Yes, even when I'm on vacation I think about going on more vacation.) I'm going to return to the box office tomorrow and do some sleuthing.

Our seats in the theatre could not have been better. Our private box that seated five was on the fourth floor centre. And the music! Oh, it was exquisite. I was sitting on the edge of my seat the whole time and did not once fall asleep! At some animated point during the Beethoven symphony the conductor looked like he was challenging each side of the orchestra, as if he was from the ghetto. I could not help laughing to myself--silently, of course.

 View of the stage from our private box -- yes, that's right, we were right in the centre!

While looking through the program, one of my friends noted that, unlike the Russian- and Asian-populated orchestras you can find in Berlin or Moscow, most of the musicians tonight were Italian. I'm not that surprised. I wouldn't want to work in Italy either if they made it so hard to get anything done. La burocrazia! As an aside, one of my classmates had to wait in line for almost 8 hours to get a stamp on her permesso di soggiorno. WTML?!

The Orchestra della Toscana performs some Beethoven

All off-topic frustrations aside, we all enjoyed the concert very much. And I also appreciated the very short walk home!

Today's word of the day is palcoscenico, meaning "stage".