A rather unusual time to give a concert: the cannon thundered, the church bells answered one another, the audience is seated, and the show can begin. The Montserrat Caballé foyer seemed a bit cramped for the numerous audience that came to listen to the Festino nella sera del Giovedi ‘grasso.
A piece by Adriano Banchieri, an Italian musician from the 16th and 17th centuries, born and died in Bologna (1568-1634). The presented work, Festin on Shrove Thursday, is a cycle of madrigals for choir, created in Venice in 1608. He is one of the most important composers of madrigalesque comedies of his time. The work offered to the audience in Nice is one of the main examples of the genre.
Let’s listen to the narrator tell us about these madrigals. There is a little, even a lot, of carnival in this show. Masked choirs, Venice, and the Grand Canal. The flower of beauty; one cannot taste sweetness if the heart is not in love, deprived of pleasure and sweetness, the nightingale despairs. A lesson in philosophy, a bit Epicurean, the lovers sing a madrigal. The animals arrive: dogs, cats, cuckoo, and even an owl. The lover is desperate, alone on this beach, who will help me, console me? Your beautiful golden hair, a rope for my heart. Beautiful lady, play us a game! The canteen girls invite us to drink, toast, and eat. You young lovers, taste the new and the pleasure, go, be happy!
One can see a bit of Rabelais in the pursuit of pleasures; Banchieri was also a monk. These madrigals are perhaps the ancestors of operettas, where the lover, or the beloved, despairs in their solitude. The Nice opera choir delivers a grandiose finale. Giulio Magnanini, the choir director, harpsichordist Roberto Galfione, and narrator Isabelle Bourgeais were applauded for a long time by an audience delighted by this musical midday.
The next concert will take place on Tuesday, March 17th, once again at a quarter past noon.
