Saturday 16 May 2009

No!




In the Galleria degli Specchi of the Palazzo Medici Riccardi they are playing Lully tonight.

They're going to do it. They're going to have the Marche pour la cérémonie des Turcs, in all that glittering magnificence. I understand the Director has given way and will be giving time with a Tous les Matins du Monde staff walloping the floor.

Angels have their invitation but the plumber called this morning to install the automatic watering at the eco house. We will go for the watering, and look again at Youtube - but should you be in Florence, there are a couple of places...


UPDATE: FIGHTING IN THE VIA CAVOUR

Getting there early should have been mentioned. The world and his wife sauntered down the via Martelli and found they had a problem. Our musician, resplendent in bouffant black silk, and gold, and ancient Sicilian pearls round neck and woven into hair, descended to admit a guest and only the mob were able to impose readmittance. 'I'm playing' met with doubt from the guards and roars of laughter from the crowd. 'Even we don't normally dress so beautifully, IN,' they cried and musician and guest swept upstairs.

Adjacent rooms were opened and still the audience clamoured for entry. No Florentine would sit on the floor so it was possible to get a lot of leaning elegance into the space available. The seated unwise enough to exit for an ice cream in the via Ricasoli during the interval stood for the second half. Intervention by the musicians early let in their smallest pupils, front row, eyes wide with wonder, not least because en route their parents were left to their own devices. The temperature was at boiling point and the atmosphere a perfect recreation of Lully's world.

And the Turks? They had to play it over and over again.

3 comments:

Nomad said...

Believe it or not, way back in the mists of time I was once responsible (naturally on a totally inadequate budget) for the day to day maintenance of a place just like that. How the other half used to live...



[wv: foritt - looks like I will be now!]

a turc said...

My guest was able to make a short video before the concert started:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_gDIlC_vAA

ps the director was told by the Belle Arti that, no matter how authentic the stick for beating time, he was not allowed to ruin the marble pavimento. He had to bring a plank of wood from home and beat it on that instead.

hatfield girl said...

The concert from then on is awaited eagerly, Turc.