Greetings From Milano-Cortina!

You have to see it for yourself to believe it!  And now that I’ve caught your attention, let me say that I haven’t seen it. But I would love to have written that as the opener to an article about being in Italy and calling in special reports.

I’ll admit, I’d be most interested in the atmosphere surrounding the Olympics. So maybe it’s best that I’m not there, while vendors compete for world record prices. Besides, I can still bring you Classic Mornings, knowing that many of you would love to be there too.

In anticipation of it all, I was reminded of the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Summer Olympics. George Frideric Handel’s little sinfonia known as “The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba,” from his oratorio Solomon, was used at the at the outset of a film that depicted the Queen arriving for the opening ceremony with none other than James Bond. Though I didn’t see it back then, I did recently. I hope it introduced lots of folks who were a part of the crowd and the worldwide television audience to the work by Handel. I have my doubts, since the film was loaded with crowd-pleasing distractions. And I haven’t seen any references to the title of the piece being changed in honor of its contemporary appearance alongside the Queen and 007

I was glad to learn that tenor Andrea Bocelli, mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli, and pianist Lang-Lang were part of last Friday’s opening ceremony. I’m still wondering if this year’s Winter Olympics audience will get to hear music by Evaristo Felice Dall’Abaco. He’s the Vivaldi contemporary from Verona, where the closing ceremony will take place. Last year, Verona celebrated the 350th anniversary of Dall’Abaco’s birth. My guess is that you’d better enjoy his music on Classic Mornings and not hold your breath to hear it on the telecasts.

I did check to see if La Scala, the famous opera house in Milan, is presenting any special Olympics offerings. There’s a performance of Wagner’s Die Gotterdämmerung next week with tickets available for $526.00 and $775.00. And the Milan-based ensemble, Il giardino armonico, whose recordings I feature regularly, is on the road touring at this time. 

I started to play a little game that turned out to be a fun way to learn about classical music and geography, while staying in touch with the Milano-Cortina Olympics. For weeks now, whenever I planned to play works by Italian composers, I checked their birthplaces, just to see if those towns or cities are in the vicinity of the Olympics or even hosting some of the events or festivities. 

You can look up the weather in those places, as compared to the weather at the Olympics. You can even look up the distances between those places and Milan or Cortina d’Ampezzo. Sure, travelers do that all the time. But this game has classical music composers, performers, or orchestras serving as the starting point. And you’re bound to learn a little history as well.

In anticipation of last Friday’s program, I looked up two composers. Giuseppe Tartini, a violin virtuoso as well as a composer, was born in Tirano. Do you know where that’s located? You’ll find it only on a historical map. It was part of the kingdom of Venice, well before there was an Italy which united many kingdoms like Venice. Today, Pirano is the city of Piran in Slovenia, near the northernmost point of the Adriatic Sea, and across the sea from Venice. 

Tartini’s music is not at all a part of the Olympics. It was a part of Classic Mornings. So was that of Luigi Boccherini, who was born in Lucca, nowhere in the vicinity of the Olympics. But olive oil from Lucca may well be served at venues which are in the vicinity. And I learned that the distance by car from Lucca to Milan is exactly the same as the distance from Piran, Tartini’s birthplace, to Cortina d’Ampezzo. What an interesting coincidence, related to the host cities of the Olympics and two composers whose music I just happened to feature on Classic Mornings!

I had an amusing thought, inspired by the French music ensemble Les Musiciens du Louvre.  It’s based in Grenoble, where the Winter Olympics took place in 1968. Yes, the group was formed in Paris, and took it’s name from the famous museum. It moved to Grenoble in 1996 to merge with another ensemble. Given their name and their proximity to a historic Winter Olympics region, I began to imagine an ensemble calling itself the “Musicians of the Luge.”

Tell those who didn’t read beyond the headline that I never left town. And tell them to join me for Classic Mornings, Monday through Friday from 9-noon on Illinois Classical 90.9 FM, or online at will.illinois.edu.