New Year's Eve in Italy in the time of Covid - Even in lockdown, some traditions remain

It will be New Year's dinner for 2
in 2020.

RST welcomes guest writer Mary Jane Cryan, who, originally from the US (she even went to college at D’Youville in Buffalo), has lived in Italy for more than 50 years. Mary Jane is THE expert on all things Etruria, the fascinating area just north of Rome that includes the lively city of Viterbo and of Vetralla, where she lives. See her terrific website here: http://www.elegantetruria.com/. Besides contributing to virtually every important guidebook to Italy and the region, lecturing on cruise ships, and speaking widely, Mary Jane is a prolific writer and publisher. Her own books in the past few years have focused on Etruria; her bibliography is on her website.

We have featured her fine work in two prior posts: one on Etruria, here: https://romethesecondtime.blogspot.com/2014/05/etruria-perfect-day-trip-from-rome-with.html

and another on a Borromini monastery (turned luxury hotel) in Rome here: https://romethesecondtime.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-borromini-monastery-in-trastevere.html

Mary Jane brings her particular insight to this very unusual “Vigilia di Capodanno” – New Year’s Eve – and New Year's Day.:

2020 will be remembered for decades to come as the year to forget. The latest, rather strict, rules for the holiday weeks here in Italy are being enforced from December 21, 2020 to January 6, 2021.

The table set for a festive crowd in a prior year
and hopefully a year to come.

 This means travel between   individual regions and autonomous provinces is prohibited, except to return to one's primary legal residence. For this entire period, travel to second homes in other regions is prohibited, making Italians even more creative since this is the time when families generally gather together.

There was a rush on trains to get to family homes before the shut down. On 25 and 26 December and New Year’s, January 1^st, leaving one's municipality was and is totally prohibited, except for work, health, or other urgent reasons.

Italians are coping with the restrictions by using their creativity: restaurants offer take-away menus which include bottles of spumante with orders. Country house accommodations (agriturismi) and hotels are serving dinner to guests in their own rooms or apartments rather than in the main dining rooms.   

Until this year, New Year’s was celebrated by young people gathering in major piazzas throughout the peninsula, mega concerts were held in Rome, and there was all night dancing in night clubs. I remember fondly one New Year’s evening spent at a concert in Bologna’s magnificent Opera House which ended with a rousing “Radetzky’s March” and bottles of spumante being shared with members of the audience and the orchestra.

What has been - and what could be - a rousing opera at a full opera house.

And a concert in a crowded
church.

Those who stay home play bingo and other board games while waiting for the countdown to the New Year. Multi-course dinners, spumante and panettone are followed with the traditional dish of lentils, for good luck, at midnight. This year the number of guests around the dining table is drastically reduced due to restrictions on travel between towns and regions.

Surely traditions like fireworks, wearing red underwear and throwing old things out for the New Year’s will still happen throughout Italy, and, even though separated by rules and distances, families will be united in spirit and by modern technology to welcome in 2021.

 

                                                                        Mary Jane Cryan

 

Sausages by the fireplace - for 2.

The Magic of Trajan's Market at Night

Baritone in the Great Hall

The views after dark Saturday evening at Trajan's Market (I Mercati di Traiano) were breathtaking.  The market itself was glowing with lights inside.  Add soloists from Teatro del Opera--two arias on different levels of the complex--and the night was magical.

Trajan's Market is an ancient Roman site we've enjoyed for years - mainly from the outside looking in - easy enough from via dei Fori Imperiale.  We have visited the site as paying customers once or twice in the past, always taking pleasure in its vast Roman streets, vistas, archways, rooms, and great hall (not to mention the bathrooms).

The Knights of Malta occupy this gorgeous palazzo and were preparing
for a fancy dinner on the terrazzo.

This time, and for only one Euro, it was simply spectacular. We also got in on the end of a guided tour in very clear Italian. Our guide, standing at the highest outdoor spot in the market, pointed out the places where Michelangelo and Raphaele lived, and where the Knights of Malta still own property (thanks to Pope Pio V from the province of Alessandria, hence the name of the road - now re-opened to pedestrians - and the district, Alessandrina).  He showed as well where 5 Roman castles could be seen - or at least located.  The presentation of photos showing the destruction of this area at the hands of the Fascists was intriguing as well.

This was a special evening. Anyone could take advantage of this well-documented and presented site (explanatory material in both English and Italian) for only one Euro, when the going rate is 13 Euro.

Because the market usually closes at 7.30 pm, only in the dead of winter can one have these wonderful views and the sense that one is stepping into ancient Rome.

Walking Roman roads in the market.

After all the complaining in the papers here about Rome's neglect of tourism, give Rome credit for pulling off this magnificent evening - one of several in April that the museums put on for this low price.

Dianne

Marilyn Horne: Masterclass with an Opera Diva

Among the pleasures of Rome are the world-class musicians and artists it attracts, often in unusual venues.  We were treated this past year to a masterclass by Marilyn Horne, the celebrated American opera singer.

World-renown opera singer Marilyn Horne encouraging a 35 year-old tenor  - at her masterclass in Rome - to get on with his career before it's too late.

Thanks to a note by Joie Davidow (www.inromenow.com), we discovered one could purchase a 20 Euro ticket to hear and watch Horne at the American University of Rome.  Not only had we never heard Horne, we had never set foot in AUR.  

The nondescript walls of the American University of  Rome;
one can see why we didn't know it was there.

AUR is tucked in, behind high walls, on the Gianicolo, near the American Academy.  We had walked by those walls many times, and didn't even know AUR was there.  Stepping inside, we realized it's an island of a US campus on the Gianicolo.  Usually eschewing all things American, we would - perhaps more so in the past - be aghast that students are so ensconced.  But this island of calm seemed totally appropriate, as AUR no doubt takes its in locus parentis seriously.  And we were warmly greeted by Timothy Martin, AUR professor and its Summer Vocal Institute Director, who seemed happy to see a couple of opera novices clamoring for the tickets.  

AUR's inviting, very California-looking patio.

At 80, Horne remains an imposing presence. She put four international singers through their paces, and I mean through their paces.  We thought she was very hard on them:  "Do you think THAT's what's going on in this piece?" "You are singing in so many different voices; which one do you want?" To a 35 year-old:  "You don't have a lot of time left; you better get on with your career."  And she ended by saying her classes the next day would be private, and then "I can really say what I think."

Horne, seated right, putting a soprano through her rigorous class.  The
masterclass was held in the American Academy in Rome's Villa Aurelia.

Horne knew every line and note the students sang.  She let them sing a piece all the way through, and then started to pick it apart note by note, syllable by syllable.  What sounded good to us didn't necessarily sound good to her.


One of her main lines of criticism was singing like one thinks an opera singer should sound - too far back in the throat. She coached the students to sing more in the front of the mouth. After a tenor tried it for a few bars, she said, "What do you think?" And he said, "I like it, but I'm not sure I can do it for the whole piece!"  I should point out, Horne did all of this with grace and a sense of humor.

Horne with AUR professor Timothy Martin - both were born in
Pennsylvania - who knew it was a hotbed of opera singers?

When we left this fascinating two-hour session, we wanted to run immediately to the nearest opera house (and one of us did). Since then we've seen a couple operas in Los Angeles, with its excellent opera company, feeling much more knowledgeable about opera - and enjoying it more -  thanks to Marilyn Horne.

Horne in 1961 with her husband, conductor
 Henry Lewis.  They lived in Echo Park, Los
Angeles, California

Dianne

More information on AUR, Horne, the masterclass at this link.