Lucca Jazz Donna 2009, 21-28 February

Coincidentally enough at the press conference for this the 5th edition of Lucca Donna Jazz, held in the Headquarters of the patrons  Fondazione Banca del Monte, the conversation spontaneously turned to this era of Lucca Jazz.
The board members reminisced their teenage pilgrimages to San Giorgio in the hope of a few notes from Chet’s last partner Ruth Young sang at the 2006 edition of the festival.

So don’t miss this week of top class  concerts taking place in the San Girolamo Theatre starting February 21st and presented by famous TV music personalità and DJ Claudio Sottili. Thi is the 2009 Lucca Jazz Donna Festival organized by the Circolo Lucca Jazz, dedicated this year to Billie Holiday on the 50th anniversary of her death.

As a side event the 1984 Emmy and Bafta award winning film Billie Holiday – The Long Night of Lady Day by Jhon Jeremy will be shown at the Cinema Centrale on Thursday 19th February.

The festival aims to bring female jazz musicians to the forefront, whether they sing, play, compose or arrange jazz music. Two mid-week evenings are dedicated to the 2009 Award for young talent and feature, six female groups from Rome, Palermo, Puglia, Milan and Lucca.

The weekend events in Lucca feature Michele Hendricks, daughter of Jon of legendary trio Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, Eileina Dennis from the US with her gospel background and hit recording with Randy Crawford and Zucchero, Tiziana Ghiglioni known as La Signora del Jazz Italiano and the captivating voice of Ada Montellanico with her guest Max Ionata.

A special tribute to Billie Holiday entitled Our Way to Lady Day will take place at Teatro Alfieri in Castelnuovo Garfagnana on March 27th with the Ricciardi/Premazzi Quartet.
previous edition have hosted dramme Kim Thompson, just on the cusp of fame, saxophonist Lisa Pollard and violinist Regina Carter, to name a few.

The festival is a showcase for Lucca to be proud of, adding sparkle and International glamour to the town during the drab low season of february. Spread the word!

Last year these shows were a sell-out so we recommend you buy tickets in advance from Telerecord, Via Santa Croce 11/13. On sale from 10th february. More info regarding the programme and tickets at www.luccajazzdonna.it; segreteria-eventi@comunelucca.it
Tel. +39 0583.442444, or centro.po@provincialucca.it Tel. +39 0583 433435
Listening also in What’s On Central pages.

Tuscany, Puccini Happy Birthday

The year -long celebration of the 150th anniversary of Puccins birth is now drawing to a close.

His actual birthday  on 22 december will be celebrate musically  with a concert in the Teatro  del Giglio with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and solo artists.

This has been a remarkable year in Lucca  for Puccini fans, old and new,with the opportunity   to see and hear almost his entire works, including  rarely performed operas such as  Le Villi and Edgar.

However , the Buon Compleanno concert is no so much Saynara as See You  Soon since  this gala event will be fallowed on the first of January  by chamber concert with a hour and a half  of some of his  most celebrate arias as well as music by one of his contemporaries, Emilie Tavan, who composed for silent films. In the afternoon what could be nicer after a Hogmanay party.

The 2008  Puccini Project was orchestrated by a number of bodies not  only to give an overview of his work but to help consolidate and develop the commercial and tourism potential of the maestro for the benefit of the Provincie of Lucca, as  a stepping stone to increasing business for hotels and other tourism-related commerce.

This year hotels and restaurants were given opportunity to buy tickets at 10E so they could offer guests and customers  a special package with significant cultural  highlight. The  aim , also, is to stimulate tourism during the off -season-the New years Day concert is an example of this and intended to be annual event.

Tuscany, Manon Lescaut

Puccini wrote Manon Lescaut between 1889 and 1892.
Neither of his previous operas ( Le Villi which has some charming music but includes spoken narration and rather a lot of hectic dancing, and Edgar with its huge canvas, huge chorus and undeveloped principal characters ) had had any real success.
Manon Lescaut, on the other hand, was a triumph. Its first performance ended with thirty curtain calls, hard-boiled critics confessed they’d wept and at the celebratory supper afterwards, Puccini was so overcome that he forgot all about the notes he’d written on his shirt cuff for his speech and could only stammer a few words.
What had happened? Two things, basically. The first is that for the first time it was he who decided on the subject of the opera.
His publisher, Giulio Ricordi, had already commissioned a libretto for a Russian subject but Puccini put his foot down. It wasn’t suitable for him. He’d been reading the 18th century French novel The Story of the CHevalier Des Grieux and Manon Lescaut and decided that here was his next opera. There was a snag. Massenet had written his opera Manon just a few years earlier, but Puccini brushed this aside. ” Manon is a heroine I really believe in, ” he wrote to Ricordi.
” She’s a woman who cannot fail to win the hearts of the public. I don’t see why there can’t be two operas about her. A woman like Manon can have more than one lover. ”
The second thing was the libretto. Puccini had accepted his first two libretti without demur but from now on he was much more demanding, engagingly so at times. His first idea, in fact, was to write it himself. Then two librettists were found and sacked.
In the end, at least five people contributed to it and since there were so many of them, they decided to put no names on it.
And with the right libretto, the composer was on song.
But to our tale. In act I, the beautiful ingenue Manon arrives in Amiens where she is to enter a nunnery. She’s accompanied by her  double-dealing brother, Lescaut. Two men are smitten by her – the rich old lech Geronte who is planning to abduct her and the student Des Grieux who has fallen in love with her. She leaves for Paris with Des Grieux.
Act II, however, finds her in Geronte’s house, having her hair done for a party and regretting choosing money over love.
Guests arrive and a madrigal is sung. Manon tells her brother she’s bored and he goes to look for Des Grieux.
There follows a dancing lesson and then the guests leave with Geronte.
Des Grieux arrives and Manon persuades him that she still loves him.
As they prepare to leave, Geronte returns briefly and departs with a menacing, ” A presto! ” Manon delays while she gathers jewels together. Geronte has reported her to the police and when she’s arrested, he laughs.
Offstage and during an intermezzo, Manon is convicted of being an immoral woman and a thief, imprisoned and taken to Le Havre from where she is to be deported to America.
Act III is set in the docks in Le Havre at night. Lescaut tells Des Grieux he has bribed a soldier to help Manon escape and he and Des Grieux go looking for her.
The lovers have a brief, anguished conversation through a window.
Officers are heard approaching. Lescaut appears and warns Des Grieux that the game is up.
Townspeople begin to crowd and stage. The sergeant calls out the names of the women to be deported, Manon amongst them, and they go on board while the chorus comments. Des Grieux begs the ship’s captain to take him too.
Act IV finds Des Grieux and Manon in a desolate place ( Louisiana according to the libretto ). Both are spent but Manon is dying. While he looks for water for her, she sings of her regrets.
When he returns, she tells him how much she loves him and dies.
He slumps over her body.

Wine Trails of Tuscany

The “Wine Trails of Tuscany” run through magnificent wine-growing areas which, apart from the obvious vineyards and wineries, offer an integrated tourist package of cultural, historical and natural attractions.

These trails are also a means of fostering rural development and of promoting so-called “Enotourism”, that is, setting wine production in a cultural, environmental, historical and social context.

Strada del Vino di Montecucco Strada del Vino Terre di Arezzo Strada Medicea dei vini di Carmignano Strada del Vino Montespertoli Strada del Vino Nobile di Montepulciano Associazione Strada del Vino Colli di Maremma Vernaccia di San Gimignano Comitato Strada del Vino delle Colline Pisane Strada del vino Colli di Candia e di Lunigiana Strada del Vino Costa degli Etruschi Strada del Vino Monteregio di Massa Marittima Associazione Strada dei Vini Chianti "Rufina e Pomino" Strada del Vino Colline Lucchesi e Montecarlo Strada del Vino "Chianti Colli Fiorentini"

Tuscany and Lucca’s Luminara

The picture on the front cover is very meaningful for everyone who claims to be Lucchese.
It was taken last year just before the procession of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross started to arrive in the Cathedral of San Martino.
The procession leaves from the Church of San Frediano and retraces the steps of all of the other processions which have traditionally taken place on the 13th of September every year – Piazza San Frediano, Via Fillungo, Via Roma, Piazza San Michele, Piazza Grande, Piazza del Giglio, Piazza del Duomo and Piazza San Martino to arrive at its destination.
When the head of the procession arrives in the cathedral, the last part of it is still waiting to leave San Frediano so this may help you to realise just how many people take part in it.
It begins with archbishops, bishops, parish priests and parishioners carrying banners to announce where they are from, with brass bands playing liturgical music and choirs singing hymns in praise of the Holy Cross, each person holding a candle.
The local councils are well represented as are all voluntary organisations, with local politicians, mayors from the province of Lucca and, of course, the mayor of Lucca.
They are followed by representatives of the Lucchesi nel Mondo Association who are so proud and happy to be present in Lucca on this special evening as a tribute to their Lucchese roots. Last but not least come the historical figures in beautiful, colourful medieval costumes – lords, ladies, children, militia and archers.
So great are the number of participants that I’ve probably not even mentioned everybody.
Seeing is believing, however, because if I hadn’t seen this procession I could never have imagined the greatness of it all.
Although there are hundreds, thousands of onlookers, there always appears to be space for everybody. Along the route, the architecture of the buildings, shops and houses is outlined with countless numbers of little glass holders containing lit candles illuminating the procession, adorning Lucca with an unforgettable sight. The front cover is only a taste of what is to come on the 13th of September.
When the whole procession has entered the doors of the cathedral, the mottettone is sung.
This is a piece of polyphonic sacred church music. In the past it was composed for two organs and two choirs.
In fact the mottettone has always been a characteristic of the Feast of the Holy Cross, so much so that it attracted a great number of music lovers, contributing to the international fame of this event.
After the mottettone, people start moving towards the Walls to position themselves for a great view of the spectacular fireworks that conclude a wonderful evening.