Following my mother's recommendation, I went to see a beautiful exhibition of the works of Antonio Allegri, better known as Correggio, in Parma yesterday. My mom had read an article on this exhibition in the Herald Tribune and sent me off to see it. I hadn't heard of Correggio before nor been to Parma so I decided to take care of the two things together (the picture on the left is of Piazza Garibaldi in Parma with two sun dials on the walls of the building in the background).
The exhibition is a gathering of approx. 30 of Correggio's works, who lived and worked in Parma during the beginning of the 16th century. He is the most prominent representative of the Parma school of Italian Renaissance. His pictures are sensuous, colorful and somewhat daring. Though many of his works focus on religious themes, they are revolutionary in their humanity and naturalness.
What was especially nice in Parma was the chance to see, in addition to the works exhibited in the Palazzo della Pilotta, Corregio's frescoes made for the cupolas of the Cathedral in Parma and for the Church of San Giovanni. It is possible to go up close to the frescoes on the ceiling - using a special staircase built in the middle of the churches. The frescoes - of the Assumption of the Virgin and the rising to the heavens of San Giovanni (il Transito di San Giovanni) are lovely.
Here are two pictures I took of the frescoes (if you click on the pictures you can see them enlarged, or go to the other links I added to this post for better viewing of Correggio's work, by the way, the picture on the right was not eaten by a worm - it's one of the churches' windows...):
Parma is a very pleasant city and easily reached from Milan by train. I highly recommend anyone who can - to go there before the end of Jan. 2009, so you get a chance to see this very interesting and beautiful exhibition.
During the month of Sep. I had a chance to hear some good classical music - the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra playing Dvork's Symphony no. 9 (from the New World), the London Symphony Orchestra (playing Prokofiev), Ute Lemper singing Kurt Weill and some nice pieces of Mozart played by a young German orchestra - within the framework of the MITO Festival. Performances were held in Milan and Torino - excellent quality at very good prices (this is the 2nd year of the festival).
The one big disappointment was the "performance" of Lou Reed in this festival. The program said that he will be performing the Song of Songs with Laurie Anderson. What we thought was that he would somehow sing this, which sounded at least interesting. What happened in fact was that there were two parts to the concert - in the first some musicians played something that sounded like jazz which wasn't too bad. Then Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson and 5 a cappella singers came on. The singers made noises for half an hour which sounded like chalk grating on a blackboard and Reed and Anderson simply read the Song of Songs. They did not sing A NOTE. Such a disappointment. The place was packed because people were hoping to hear Lou Reed sing old material or new material - no such luck, just a bad and boring performance. I understand that those of you who went to hear Paul McCartney in Israel had a much better time and enjoyed the performance. If I were Lou Reed I'd just excuse myself, instead of taking part in this terrible performance, which sounded bad and was not even interesting. Better luck next time.
And so, a year has passed for me here and it's Rosh Hashana again. I'd like to end by wishing you all a Happy New Year. A year filled with health, happiness and good things. Shana Tova!
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