GRECCHINOIS
OCTOBER NEWSLETTER
I send you greetings from Rome, where we are in the midst of preparations for the opening of Kaija Saariaho’s Adriana Mater at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma next week. It’s a joy to reunite with my Grammy-winning colleagues from San Francisco and to have another chance at this extraordinary opera we all worked so hard to learn a few years ago in the Bay. The sweltering summer temperatures lingered on…
THE FUTILE ERROR OF MEN
“…show the world the futile error of men who believe themselves patrons of the high gifts of intellect, which according to them cannot also be held in the same way by women.” — MADDALENA CASULANA
In 1568, Maddalena Casulana published her First Book of Madrigals, the first complete volume of music by a woman to be published in recorded western music history. The quote above is excerpted from her dedication in the front of the book…
CHE SI PUÓ FARE?
Have a case of the Mondays? Urban Dictionary defines “a case of the Mondays” as: A fictitious disorder associated with the tiredness, irritability or distractedness that comes from returning to work after the weekend.
I feel like Barbara Strozzi might have been having one when she penned this incredible song…
PASSAN VELOCI L'ORE
The opening lines of Antonio Bembo’s Passan veloci l’ore really rings true in the context of this seemingly never-ending pandemic:
The hours pass by quickly
and yet that time does not arrive….
A SPRIG OF THYME
On this New Year’s Day, a sprig of of thyme.
“…Thyme it is the prettiest thing,
And time it will grow on,
And time it'll bring all things to an end
And so does my time grow on…”
THE SONGS WE CARRIED
CAIC’s broadcasts from the 2021 Collaborative Works Festival continue. This week’s broadcast is of the opening performance: CONCERT III: The Songs We Carried. This is my program note.
