| Abstract |
Everyone knows that Italy has given the world many of the greatest masterpieces of art, architecture, and music. And while innumerable guidebooks pinpoint every detail of a fresco, every window in a church, few tell us where to find Verdi's piano, an intact Renaissance organ, a seventeenth-century Venetian opera house. On a tour through thirty-four cities and towns of Italy (from Arezzo to Vicenza), the author uncovers landmarks of Italy's lavish musical history - manuscripts to monuments - from antiquity to modern times. Adding to his own vast experience the letters, diaries, and notes of some of music's most prominent figures, the author has produced a book which is as readable for the armchair traveler as it is useful for the tourist. He relates composers, performers, craftsmen, and patrons to locales - and to each other. From cathedrals to theaters, the author leaders the traveler (or reader) to the exact location of important places in musical Italy. One visits the Bardi Palace, where opera was born, the gallery where Monteverdi gave his weekly recitals. One witnesses the earliest triumphs away from home of the young Mozart, the lukewarm reception of Caruso in his native Naples. For the truly intrepid tourist, the author supplies tips on how to gain access to theaters that are closed during the off-season, how to find church organs that are not played during regular services, and how to locate countless spots of historical or sentimental interest which are known to but a few people. |
