To the Glory of God

GIUSEPPE PENNISI visits
the Sagra Musicale Umbra,
celebrating old and new continents

As I mentioned in my review here last year, the Sagra (literally 'A Local Feast') Musicale Umbra is the oldest music festival in Italy. It has special features when compared with any other European festival: it is a nine day journey (10-18 September 2011) through an entire region where it combines the beauty of landscape, monuments and art with few parallels anywhere. Of the main towns in the region, only Spoleto does not participate in the Sagra -- almost to recall that around the year 900 it was an independent Duchy -- and this year it juxtaposes to the event a nearly pathetic opera season (just Butterfly and a few intermezzi) entrusted to young singers and to a makeshift orchestra. Another feature is the very strong local participation in the Sagra: financed almost entirely locally (and privately), private estates are open to the general audience for the concerts and, sometimes, the owners offer bountiful buffet dinners when the musical part is finished...