Viva Verdi

As every year, the 2009 will be the year of Giuseppe Verdi.

Since 2000 (back then in january and in october) my hometown organizes a festival during the month of october (birth month of Verdi) with lots of exhibitions, concerts, photographic displays, conferences, all through the city, and a very complete opera calendar in our Teatro Regio.

Yesterday was the first day, it opened with a concert in the Cathedral, the beautiful Messa da Requiem.  It was supposed to be directed by russian conductor Yuri Temirkanov but he was ill, so we had the honor to have the great Lorin Maazel. I wanted to be present, but the ticket was € 100,00 each (about 120$) way too much for me. But I was glad to know our local tv was to broadcast the event live.

So yesterday night, just after dinner, I got rid of the other members of the family, closed the door, put on the headphones, and I was transported in the heaven of music.

Here are a few shot of the evening from the newspaper