by Annalisa on Wed 06 Jun, 2007 11:11 pm
I believe this is the last piece I translated last year - article that was written after the 2006 concert:
The Philharmonic Orchestra of Italy and Bocelli: Success at the Theater of Silence
Yesterday evening the orchestra directed by Marcello Rota accompanied the great tenor in the land where he was born
PISA - Old houses cling to a hill that rises 250 meters above sea level. From here the spacious 360 degree view encompasses the treasures of the most beautiful corners of Tuscany. Volterra with its Etruscan walls, the gentle hills of Peccioli, Chianni and Terricciola, the Valdera which connects finally almost confusing itself with the Valdicecina that already smells of sea air. This is Lajatico, the birthplace of Andrea Bocelli, whose voice from the Theater of Silence reached five continents in a worldwide telecast yesterday evening.
That "j," so unusual in the place names of Italy, is evidence of ancient Longobard origins, explains the mayor of this village of 1350 people, Fabio Tedischi, who is also the president of the Theater of Silence. Tedeschi, along with Alberto Bocelli, younger brother of Andrea, and Alberto Bartalini, an architect in Lajatico, and with the very same Andrea, succeeded in transforming this village near the center of the world for one night.
The Theater of Silence is hardly more than a valley, in a sort of natural amphitheater which opens onto the valley, where long ago rose Volterra which is clearly visible. A simple preparation, among the cypress and jasmine, in the middle of wheat fields now yellow gold from the recent harvest which contrasts with the green of the olives and rows of vines. Not one invasive intervention nor anything disrespectful of the environment. Banning cement, using only wood for the stage and the seats of the audience and VIP's on the terraced slopes.
For the background a small lake, which the farmers of this place have always used as a watering hole and which yesterday evening held a blue fiberglass head which the sculptor Igor Mitoraj made available to his friend Andrea Bocelli. Yesterday evening, from this Silence, Bocelli gave voice - his very famous voice - to the most beautiful notes of Puccini, Mascagni, Rossini, Verdi, along with the soprano Paola Sanguinetti and baritone Gianfranco Montresor, accompanied by the Italian Philharmonic Orchestra of Piacenza (with whom the tenor has already collaborated, both on tour and in the recording studio) and by the Choral Society of Pisa, under the baton of Maestro Rota.
Today like magic all this will disappear; the natural amphitheater will return to being what it always was, a hillside in one of the most beautiful corners of Tuscany. From today this place will recover its ancient silence, which will be broken in a year, when the voice of Bocelli will resound again in this valley with a new performance.
The tie between Lajatico and the Bocelli's is ancient, an old family of land owners who through generations have changed the face of this land, covering it with vineyards, olives and cultivated fields, enhancing the estate of their ancestors. Their property at Poggioncino and at La Sterza, where Andrea today rides his horses, now produces wines such as the red Terra di Sandro, which carries the Tuscan flavor across the world.
Andrea grew up here and the people of this place, "when they meet him, who today is known in all the world - says the barber of this region, Franco Tedeschi, who is also the mayor's father - he avoids talking about his successes,..., we prefer to talk with him about places and people of the past, about old acquaintances, about all those things that compose the memories of a child and to which he is still so profoundly linked."
And the concert of yesterday evening, in memory of his father Sandro, "The great person who is absent" to whom Bocelli gave the dedication in his own words at the beginning of the evening, is an indelible testimony to this bond.
Last edited by
Annalisa on Thu 07 Jun, 2007 2:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Annalisa
"The heart has its reasons that reason knows nothing of." Pascal