It was an early morning. I did not stay up too late, having fallen asleep sometime around 1:30a.m. I woke up at 7am, to a beautiful morning sky.
After having experienced a sky like this almost every morning, it has occured to me that all the artists painting those frescos of the light of God shining down upon the earth did not to need look very far for inspiration, if they were early risers. So today, I was an early riser. A charter bus picked us up on this morning, and took us to Assemini where we met up with the group that had been with us from day one.
We were on our way to Orgosolo, an old mountain town, to perform in our final concert. I asked Gianluca how long it would take to get there. He said to me, "Oh, uh, one hour or so, very easy". An hour later I would ask Gianluca how long it takes, and he would say, "Oh, uh, one hour or so, no problem." But the weather was a problem.
It had rained very hard the day before, and it was a rainy day today, and very windy. So the near three hour ride became an adventure. As it turned out, many of the roads we took had been washed out by a massive flood and is was interesting watching snow plows shoveling mud off the roads in places where the highway was down to one passable lane. But eventually we made it into the mountains.
View from the van was a wonderful one as we made our way through some very narrow, and windy passages. Eventually we landed ourselves in Orgosolo
Below: Daevidas and Sophie fresh off the bus.
where we headed to what was the best meal I have eaten yet.
The table was laid out beautiful. Already laid out was the house wine, both Sparkling water and Natural water, and our first course, Antipasto. I took a few olives, some pancetta, a little proscuitto ham, a few slices of salcizze (Sardegnian sausage), Ricotta Cheese, and Parmagiano. All of it made fresh in Sardegna. All of it exquisite.
The Second Course was Ravioli, with a lamb meat sauce. Again very fresh, made with fresh pasta, and wonderful.
The next was the main course: Ensalata (salad) and baby pig (I forgot the Italian name for it).
I didn't eat much of this as I was already full and had eaten enough for the entire Offensive Line of the Rams (which really isn't saying much this year). Anyway, it's gotta be over, right? ....nope. Dessert. Sebadas. a dessert ravioli filled with fresh mozarella, lightly fried, and honey drizzled on top. Very light, not overly sweet, and my new favorite dessert.
A truly beautiful meal from start to finish. I was stuffed. Most of my time here I have eaten very lightly, apples, yogurt, and Salcizze, so this was a LOT for one sitting. And just a few hours before the concert. We packed up and headed for the Auditorium.
Okay, so I had said it was raining. I didn't realize Sardegna had declared a state of emergency and was requesting help from the federal govt. The flood had wiped out the sheep and Yaks. That's a problem, there are a lot of Yaks here. The emergency helicopters had been put on Yak rescue duty. Another problem was our auditorium flooded. Our concert was in doubt until the very minute we arrived. When we got there the stage was still wet, it was freezing cold inside, and we found out there was no piano. The acoustics were HORRIBLE, and I had forgotten my dress shoes. It sounded like outreach to me. So these were not problems, after doing Outreach shows for the past 3 years. But for the other established professionals, they were horrified (understandably, in some cases). And to top it off, there was another problem: There had been a death in the town. It is a small town, everyone is very close. The funeral was at 4pm. Our concert was at 6:30p. People in Small towns in Sardegna don't go to a funeral and then celebrate with an Opera concert afterwards. They mourn the loss of there friend. Final attendance was 9, not including our group, which outnumbered the audience. We decided to cut the program to 6 songs. I did three. Here's a shot during the show. Below: Rehearsing prior to start, with half of our audience already in attendance.
Above: Sophie and Yali sing Ave Maria with Gianluca playing
Below: Gianni watches intently with wife Anna, while holding his niece
There wasn't much to it. One of the people in attendance was the mayor of Orgosolo. He was gracious, and presented us all with gifts. The ladies recieved pieces of jewlery. The men recieved very nice necklaces with Sardegna pendants.
After a quick reception, we were back on the bus. And for three hours I enjoyed working on my Italian with Gianni, Anna, Karen, Liliana, Carlo, Sophie, some other guy, Gianluca, while the others tried to sleep. I would have slept myself, were it not for Gianni wanting to re enact the Finale of Verdi's Otello. And that was after he and Sophie sang every single Sardegnian song since before Christ. So I stayed awake, learned a little more Italian, sang O sole mio, Finiculli Finiculla, The Christmas Song, etc.. and took in what continues to be a very special experience with these extraordinary people.
From the left: Carlo could sleep through anything, Liliana, myself, Gianni next to me, his wife Anna, and bottom right is Sophie.
But what made the night was that beautiful voice. Every one loved her. She sang with grace, power, elegance, humor.... she showed a little bit of everything in her program. She demonstrated how far she has come in such a short time at Westminster. She was great. And devestatingly beautiful, as you can see. I was very proud. For the encore, we sang a duet, in which we waltzed. It was a wonderful end to a beautiful presentation. We celebrated with a small reception in the student center afterwards.
She had people come from CA, Boston, North NJ, and Philadelphia to be there for the recital. It was a success, and I'm still beaming with pride. My manager at starbucks actually snapped at me today for talking with so many customers about it today. So another Congratulations to my wife for completing this phase of your training with such a bang!
