Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Back to our usual routine after our day off. We have rehearsals all morning, then the afternoon, after lunch, is free for us. This is when I have a short siesta and then work on my email and on the blog. I am still trying to download photos without spending hours. I may have to wait until we get back to Paris and then do all of them at once. We have dinner and then another rehearsal for about two hours. The works that we are singing are coming along nicely. We still have rehearsals Thursday and Friday before the concerts on Friday and Saturday evenings. More on the concerts themselves later. For those interested, we are doing four works: Stabat Mater by Scarlatti, Nunc Dimittis by Holst, Magnificat by Stanford, and Beatus Vir by Montiverdi. I am sure that you are all very familiar with these works.

We are a chorus of about 100 singers, most from the US but some dozen from such places as England, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, and Singapore. Our concerts will be Friday in the town of Terni, and Saturday here in Scheggino. Our conductor is Colin Baldy with whom we have worked many times before, once here in Scheggino in 2010, and a number of times in Canterbury, England between 2000 and 2008.

Wednesday and Thursday were rehearsal days, but there was an afternoon trip to the small town of Spello on Thursday. We were to visit a vineyard with tastings and some hors-d'oeuvres to accompany the wine. Unfortunately, it was at the very top of this hill town and the busses were too wide to go up the narrow roads so we had to walk. After about one third of the way, the old lega started to give out so we had to return to the foot of the village where we spent several hours having a bite and a coffee. The rest of the group did go all the way up and told us we missed some good wines and sone delicious food. Oh, well. We did enjoy the rest at the piazza Kennedy where the caffe was located.

Following is a series of pictures of Assissi where we had gone Tuesday.

This last photo was of our luncheon at a country restaurant that is well-known in the area. 

On Friday, we had a morning dress rehearsal and went to Trevi for a late afternoon concert. The concert was in the church which is located above an interesting museum. The concert was a success even though there wasn't a large audience. The conductor had three curtain calls. Here are photos of the church and some of the pictures in the museum.