Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Opera a Firenze!

Last Thursday I went to see an opera in Florence. The opera was Verdi's "Rigoletto" - this opera was adapted from Victor Hugo's "Le roi s'amuse" original play. While I had never heard of this opera, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I had already heard a few of the songs from it. "Rigoletto" contains the song "La Donna E Mobile", which I have heard as performed by Pavarotti.

Now, while I thoroughly enjoyed dressing up and sipping on wine before the opera began, I have to say that I was thoroughly disappointed in the performance that I saw. Perhaps the most off-putting aspect of this production of "Rigoletto" was the set that was used. It did not look like a Duke's court with jesters and nobles as the time period of the story would have you imagine. Instead, the set consisted of a fake Rolls Royce that the Duke rode around in, a dog house that the main character (Rigoletto) and his daughter (Gilda) lived in, a boat, and a giant rotating black wall that didn't seem to serve much of any purpose. It is possible that the director was going for a modern spin on the antiquated story of Rigoletto, but it appeared as though the set was thrown together using leftover props from previous productions.

Aside from the aesthetics, I was not moved by the singing. While the singing was not bad, it was not what I would expect from a professional opera in Italy. But in all fairness, I had listened to Pavarotti's rendition of "Questa o Quella" earlier and the day, and Pavarotti sets a pretty high bar.

Luckily, the music itself was amazing - I really do have a lot of respect for the orchestra that performed that evening.

Aside from the opera, not much else is new. Except that it is now COLD here. Fa freddo! It literally happened overnight. Luckily it has been sunny and clear - though the locals tell me it will only get colder over the next few months, and you can bet it will start raining more frequently. I've had to go out and buy new sweaters and boots so that I don't freeze to death on the ten minute walk to class in the morning.
Today I could see my breath, despite the shining sun and bright blue sky. This did not sit well with me. I am a southern Californian girl - I am not familiar with cold weather.
This will be an adventure...albeit, a very cold one.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Wine Tasting in Tuscany

My apologies for lagging on the blog updates!

I never seem to have enough time to just sit down and do an entry - but thats a good thing! I am absolutely loving Siena.

Over a week ago I went wine tasting at Dievole winery in the Chianti region of Tuscany. This is where they make Chianti wine (among tons of other types of wine), which is my favorite red wine. There the director of my program (who happens to be a sommelier) in Siena gave a group tour of the winery and taught us how to hold wine glasses and analyze every aspect of a wine. We sampled four different wines. The white wine was accompanied by some bread and olive oil, the Chianti was complemented by prosciutto, we ate heavenly goat cheese with some red wine, and nibbled on biscotti while drinking a desert wine in an old chapel. I left the winery with 2 bottles of wine - I'm saving the nice Chianti for a special occasion - maybe my birthday?

The winery itself was absolutely stunning. It is a beautiful, mid-sized winery that sits atop a hill from which you can see the rolling hills of Tuscany. Here are some photos from Dievole.








My Italian classes are coming along pretty well. I feel that Italian is an easy language for me to learn after studying French for so long, but I freeze up whenever anyone outside of class starts to speak rapidly in Italian. Non capisco! I wish I could speak to the locals more easily, but learning a language (unfortunately) takes time. I'm impatient and want to speak it NOW! Ho voglie di parlare italiano adesso!