Continuing a series of concerts by Ensemble Le Musiche, organised in collaboration with Simone Bernardini. Following the incredible effort of performing the entire series of Mozart’s piano concerti last year, this year there will be a more relaxed look at Bach chamber music and works by other composers including Dvorak and Grieg.
These concerts will take place not just in Barga, but also in the twinned medieval villages of Bagnone, near the sea in the province of Massa Carrara, and in Cutigliano , a small mountain village in the province of Pistoia. This evening it was the turn of Vivaldi and Mozart – a concert in the Teatro dei Differenti by the Ensemble le Musiche with Simone Bernardini , Carrie Dennis, Virginie Reibel and Victor Aviat. Also in the Ensemble was guest obe player – William Morriconi from Barga
Listening to this wonderful music in a half-empty theater, I wondered why the Commune doesn’t place large billboards at the Porta Reale and in the two principal piazzas announcing each evening’s musical events. At present only a small blackboard outside the office of the book exchange in Piazza Angelio does this. I an convinced that more prominent announcements, updated daily, would bring in a far greater audience.
Valid point; although it follows that given the absence of such promotion on the part of the Comune or, indeed, the Pro Loco (sorry, couldn’t resist the joke), the questions we should be asking ourselves are:
1. is the Comune even aware of such events taking place in what is, after all, a “communal†space?
2. are these events the result of an articulated program of cultural events which unfolds throughout the ‘season’?
3. if so, who is responsible (name, please) and what exactly is his/her mandate?
4. how are these manifestations funded and what is the overall budget?
5. are all the events (‘cultural’ or otherwise) subject to the same rules, regulations and by-laws which govern life in Barga Vecchia and which recently caused such uproar and divisiveness?
Just five little questions to start with which, if answered satisfactorily, would also provide the answer to your original query!
The answer in all five cases is that there appears to be no answer. If Jack”s subtext is that Barga needs — badly — a kind of cultural czar, I have to agree.
Although I doubt that Jack or anyone else will share that view
and I think “Jack” would be perfect for the post. After all, “Ask not…” just kidding.
Not so much your actual Czar: more of an elected ‘Assessore’ – deputised to cultural matters by a clear mandate voted for by (one presumes) the general populace at the prescribed time, having considered the issues at hand within the context of an open debate conducted during a communal garden election campaign aimed at juxtaposing alternative solutions to the problem.
Hardly rocket science – just an example of that old fashioned and for the most part forgotten concept: ‘democracy’!
Dear all,
I’ll be coming to Barga this weeknd for a week with my mum and I’m really looking forward to the music events. Until now I haven’t been able to find a listing. The events link doesn’t seem to work.
Could anyone help.
Thanks,
Liza
Try again, Liza. The events calendar seems to be working fine. Unfortunately, you’ll be coming in a brief lag time between the Opera Barga Festival and the Barga Jazz Festival.
Alas, Jack, if you put cultural matters to a vote by the general populace, you’re likely to wind up with Silvio Berlusconi and Mediaset. The proof? It has already happened.
I agree with the monk, lets try the large billboards first (by the way they also worked for Berlusconi) and if they don’t work
then we can have a local election.
ps: If we put the voting booths in the theater and hold the local elections on the same date and time that the concerts are on then we could garantee a good turnout.
Alas, you can’t fool me so easily!
I know for a fact that you are all too savvy and well informed to really believe that Berlusconi et al have anything to do with popular democracy. As careful observers over countless years of political and social intrigue, you will know all too well that what happened in the Italian media was the imposition by a restricted Masonic clique of an illegal (never mind immoral – such considerations have ‘ormai’ become altogether passé) allocation of licenses and band-widths.
That the above clique is the same one, or at least another embodiment of, which has governed the country since the end of WWII with the connivance of successive US administrations, the Vatican and Cosa Nostra and that to this day, in essence, Italy is still firmly in their grip will also not escaped the notice of wise commentators such as yourselves. Nor, I trust, that at a local level, such forces have been toying with local affairs since the ‘Risorgimento’ – sustained as always by the various Lodges (both ‘covered’ and ‘un-covered’).
So, to get back to the point, your concerns regarding popular expressions of culture are not to be laid at the door of the ‘plebe’ as such; but, paradoxically, at that of the very patricians who in any case are the only ones who in all these years have had the power to bring us to this sorry state of affairs. My (mostly rhetorical) proposal was to break with this murky past and to try something very unusual indeed: a communal approach to cultural affairs which gives responsibility for their management to a clearly defined person/body, having conducted an informed debate with the very people who (one presumes) are to be the beneficiaries of such matters and who (in any case) are called upon to pay for them – one way or another.
A sort of “no taxation without representation†: sound familiar?
After reading all the comments and musing on a possible solution I have come to the conclusion of
5 x 24†x 24â€.
ps: if the objective is to bring in a far greater audience then another solution would be to hire the marketing department of the local fish and chips festival.
The estimable Jack will perhaps note that I didn’t use the term “popular democracy,” as I share his view of its sabotage by certain forces. But Berlusconi’s power was greatly enhanced by a misinformed and utterly lazy electorate that rewarded the very people who were fleecing them. Is it elitist to insist that they share some of the blame? Or to excuse them, time and time again, as unwitting dupes? Italian voters are no more innocent in the maiming of their nation by elected scoundrels than are their Bush-voting American counterparts. Berlusconi’s intentions were hardly subtle.
Deety, as usual, has a brilliant notion. We need to deep fry our culture, wrap it in old newspapers, and get the bones into the rubbish bins as soon a spossible.
Deep Frying:-To keep in line with the first comment I just wanted to point out that they are the best billboard “hanger-ups†in town.
Ps: as to deep frying our culture and throwing the bones in the rubbish, well with todays differentiated bins the old newspapers may well find themselves recycled into opera programmes.
Thinking about it, what would be so wrong with merging the two events, The Barga Fish and Chips Opera Festival. The most cultured and best sung “sagra†in town attended by the most well fed opera audience in the world.
It could open with Bizets’ “Les Pêcheurs de Perles” The Pearl Fishers.