performing at a scuola grande

Thanks to my sight-singing abilities and the great hospitality of my new Venetian friends, I’ve been invited to sing with two wonderful local choirs. One of these, the Complesso Vocale “Antonio Lotti” just happened — just happened — to be working on a 16c program, which we performed yesterday (20 Jan) at the Scuola Grande San Teodoro. Here’s the program:

• Arcadelt, Il bianco e dolce cigno
• Rore, Ancor che col partire
• Donato, Chi la gagliarda
• Lasso, Matona, mia cara
• Banchieri, excerpts from Festino nella sera del giovedi grasso avanti cena

Wow! What a treat! They’re such a jovial bunch of people, and it’s so great to sing this music with them!

This concert was my fourth since arriving here. The first three were with two permutations of a women’s choir formed from voice students at the Scuola di Musica “Giuseppe Verdi.” The big Christmas concert was held in Santa Maria Formosa. The two smaller concerts were held at the Waldensian hostel here in town (which is in a large, old palazzo at the end of the Calle Lunga S Maria Formosa) and, of all places, a small parish church in Ca’ Savio (a small resort town by the Adriatic…deserted in winter). Rehearsals were held in the parish building of S. Maria Formosa and in an old convent, now high school in Cannareggio. The Lotti choir meets in the parish building of S. Maria dell’Orto — which means I get to the other side of town at least twice a week.

I said I’m in two local choirs. The other is Coro Murianum (or some such…I’ve never seen it written). Most of the members are from Murano or Burano, but rehearsals are right in my back yard (at the parish meeting room for S. Salvator). Severe illness in the family of the director has kept this choir in limbo for much of the last two months, but they have a great repertoire of more modern fare (Bruckner, Poulenc, and even composers who are still with us). There are a couple of other women who go from the Lotti rehearsal on Thursday directly to the Murianum rehearsal — so I’m hooked up with some of the city’s hard-core choristers. There is a LOT of dialect used in rehearsals, so they are fantastic practice for me.

Happy New Year, by the way. Will see if I can’t post a little more often.