During my holiday in Venice, I had hoped to go to the opera. I’d followed the fortunes of the La Fenice opera house since my teenage days when Italian opera was one of my ruling passions. Sadly, as usual, my Italian trip just managed to miss the opera session.

Luckily though, I noticed a poster advertising an orchestral concert at the opera house with the La Fenice orchestra billed eye catchingly as a “concerto straordinario.” It was, indeed, extraordinary – a Tchaikovsky night with three of his most well-known works. You can’t get more of a Tchaikovsky night than this: 1812 Overture, First Piano Concerto and the Pathetique Symphony. I was a teenaged Tchaikovsky snob and I would never have bought a ticket for a Tchaikovsky Night in those days. I have mellowed over the years and now I think the 1812 Overture is exciting  fun and that the First Piano Concerto and the Pathetique are truly great masterpieces on the classical repertoire. All together in one programme it was a wonderful way of reassessing the great Russian – especially as his music was played with such operatic Italian vroom.

I say Italian because the orchestra and the conductor were as Italian as you get but the pianist was the young Chinese prodigee, Chen Guang. The twenty-year old made a brave and exciting go of the piano concerto with a lot of noise in the right places but a lovely silvery tone when Tchaikovsky wants to melt our hearts. I wish him well.

The conductor, Alberto Veronesi, is a man of passionate extremes and he took the orchestra on a perilous journey where fast meant very fast indeed and where slow was all about the longest of long legato lines. Sometimes, he was asking too much of his band or was it that he sometimes forgot that conducting isn’t all about about feeling the music, it is also about giving the orchestra the beat? He was always fun to watch especially when in the 1812 Overture‘s most dramatic  climax when his feet literally left the ground in his enthusiasm. I felt for the orchestra though and realised why one of the violinists crossed himself and winked before starting the Pathetique.

For me, the star of the night was the opera house itself. Now fully restored after it was destroyed by an arson atttack in 1994. The perpetrators were builders working on the site who had got into financial difficulties and who are now serving prison sentences. La Fenice is, after-all an opera house where melodrama is at home. I was thrilled to be there and to enjoy its splendidly clean accoustic. Next time I come here, it has to be for an Italian opera.

Later on my holiday, I decided, loving Tchaikovsky as I do these days, I really ought to hear some Italian, even Venetian music. I went to the deconsecrated church of San Vidal near to one of the liveliest of Venice’s squares, the Campo San Stefano.

I was supicious that some Vivaldi concerts in Venice are hurriedly put together for relatively undiscerning tourist audiences but this was anything but true of  the exciting Baroque ensemble, Interpreti Veneziani, who were scheduled to perform Vivaldi concertos along with music by Galuppi and Rossini – pretty Italian then.

It was  my last night in Venice, and this music on such a hot night was perfect. Vivaldi, forever popular, is loved because he’s so good, I’ve decided. The musicians, a small tightly controlled group did him proud finding the excitement and passion as well as all the notes. They really looked the part too.

Here they are rehearsing in San Vidal – I think you’ll see why I had such a good time. They’re playing Vivaldi’s Concerto for Violin and Cello in B-flat major, RV 547. The church bells in the middle add rather than detract from the Italian atmosphere.

 

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STEPHEN DEARSLEY’S SUMMER OF LOVE BY COLIN BELL

My novel, Stephen Dearsley’s Summer Of Love, was published  on 31 October 2013. It is the story of a young fogey living in Brighton in 1967 who has a lot to learn when the flowering hippie counter culture changes him and the world around him.

It is now available as a paperback or on Kindle (go to your region’s Amazon site for Kindle orders)

You can order the book from the publishers, Ward Wood Publishing:

http://wardwoodpublishing.co.uk/titles-fiction-colin-bell-stephen-dearsleys-summer-of-love.htm 

…or from Book Depository:

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Stephen-Dearsleys-Summer-Love-Colin-Bell/9781908742070

…or from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Stephen%20Dearsley’s%20Summer%20Of%20lovefeature=mhee

COLIN BELL’S PUBLICATIONS:

Stephen Dearsley’s Summer Of Love
Ward Wood Publishing
October 30, 2013

http://www.wardwoodpublishing.co.uk/titles-fiction-colin-bell-stephen-dearsleys-summer-of-love.htm

Genius Floored: Uncurtained Window
Soaring Penguin Press
June 15, 2013
Poetry anthology


http://www.soaringpenguinpress.com/publications/poetry/genius-floored-whispers-in-smoke/

Genius Floored: Whispers in Smoke
Soaring Penguin Press
June 6, 2014
Poetry anthology

http://www.soaringpenguinpress.com/publications/poetry/genius-floored-whispers-in-smoke/

Reaching Out
Cinnamon Press
December 2012
Poetry and short story anthology

http://www.cinnamonpress.com/product-item/reaching-out/

Tic Toc
A Kind Of A Hurricane Press
June 2014
Poetry anthology

http://www.kindofahurricanepress.com/2014/06/tic-toc-is-now-available.html

The Blotter
The Blotter Magazine Inc.
November 2009
Three pages of poetry in the American South’s unique, free, international literature and arts magazine.

http://www.blotterrag.com/back-issues/2009-11.pdf

The Fib Review
Musepie Press
My Fibonacci poetry has appeared in this journal from 2009 until the present

http://www.musepiepress.com/fibreview/writers.html

Shot Glass Journal
Muse Pie Press
My poetry has appeared in various issues of this short form poetry journal

http://www.musepiepress.com/shotglass/writers.html

Every Day Poets Magazine
Every Day Poets
I have various poems of the day published in this 365 days a year poetry magazine.

http://www.everydaypoets.com/?s=Colin+Bell

In The Night Count The Stars
Bittersweet Editions
March 1, 2014
An “uncommon anthology” of images, fragments, stories and poetry.

http://www.bittersweeteditions.com/in-the-night-count-the-stars.html#%2EU8ZFXY1dXoo

 

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