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Italy 2 ways ~ Il Volo & Umbria

Today is a tribute to Italy two ways…

First, via the gorgeous voices of Il Volo, a young trio with voices of gold who've already gone platinum in Italy.  Their name, “Il Volo,” meaning “flight,” was chosen to signify the feeling that these three young tenors were about to spread their wings and fly.  And indeed they have!  You will be blown away!  (Thank you, Kaye Cloutman, for introducing me to Il Volo. Visit her lovely website, Clout&About)

 

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Teenagers, Piero Barone (17), Ignazio Boschetto (16), & Gianluca Ginoble (16)

And my second tribute to Italy, a painting of a peaceful olive grove in Umbria.  Umbria is the region of Italy often compared to Tuscany, without the touristy aspects.  Jim and I picnicked beneath these beautiful, old trees enjoying wine, salami and cheese.  It was a blustery day, like today, sunny one moment, cloudy the next.  

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"In the Umbrian Olive Grove" by Juliane Porter (Oil on 18"x14" canvas ~ Click for a better, larger view)

 

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The Met’s Capriccio, Starring Renee Flemming

I recently had the great fortune to attend Richard Strauss's masterpiece, Capriccio, at The Metropolitan Opera, starring world renowned soprano Renee Fleming.  

Brilliant.

Perhaps because it is a consummation of all the fine arts, (literary, orchestral, vocal, visual & frequently ballet as in Capriccio), opera hits me on myriad levels.  Breathtaking music from a phenomenal world-class orchestra accompanying the premier soprano of our time – in the setting of an 18th century chateau near Paris… all within the complexity of a great literary work.

A feast for the senses!

Take a peek at the final scene of Capriccio being performed at the Paris Opera House by none other than the magnificent Ms. Flemming herself.  Don't do anything else.  Just close your eyes and let the music sweep you away.  

Capriccio, Strauss's final opera, is a dramatized aesthetic debate over which is more valuable, music or words?  Swathed in achingly beautiful music one is likely to be persuaded by the former, though the opera itself ends without a decision cast one way or the other.  

As I toyed with the question, I flipped and I flopped.  

Words?  

I find generally, the fewer the better… as they're usually ego's favorite vehicle on a direct path away from authenticity.  Yet I couldn't do without Tolstoy, Bronte, Wilde…  

Music?

It has an emotionality that breaks open the heart.  

Ah - Why choose.  Especially when one there is opera, the consummation of all the arts!  Which happens to be the very resolution of Capriccio's story itself.

What would you choose if you could have only one?  Music or Words?

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Russell Braun, left, is the poet Olivier, Joseph Kaiser the composer Flamand and Peter Rose the theater director La Roche in Richard Strauss' "Capriccio" at the Metropolitan Opera. (Photo by Richard Drew, Associated Press)

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Richard Strauss, Composer