Bologna, Berlusconi, Biblioteca

I was in Bologna on Tuesday for a voice lesson with Paola Molinari, which was absolutely ottimo. I met her at the audition for Mirella Freni's masterclass -- she is the long-time collaborator of La Freni and others like Ghiarov, real legends. These people are the real deal. I sang Susanna, Gilda, and Giulietta for her, and I was struck by the difference between the style she was asking for and the way we are encouraged to prepare these arias at home. I can remember one coaching I had on Giulietta with a highly respected coach in Canada, who encouraged me to take artistic liberty with the bel canto repertoire; not so with La Molinari. The bel canto style is still alive and well in Europe and there is a way to do it, to sound idiomatic. The same goes for Mozart; I have never felt so strongly that my recit sounded legitimate and natural. Sometimes you just have to hear it from the horse's mouth. Needless to say, I hope to coach with her again.

Bologna is really a beautiful city. It is seriously old. It is home to the world's oldest legitimate university (founded in the 11th century), was a hub of European activity during the Middle Ages, and in my opinion is especially notable for its liberal viewpoints in the Renaissance, during which time women were allowed to attend the University and flourish in their chosen professions.

This photo isn't mine, but I still haven't figured out how to get pictures off my phone. It's the Piazza Maggiore, which I only saw in the daytime, but really is that cool. I took a bus from La Molinari's pad to the public gardens, ate my lunch sitting on a huge outcropping of quartz-like rock overlooking the greenish pond and watched the turtles go by. I walked up through the university and back down through the town and ended up at the Piazza Maggiore before I tripped back up the central Via to the train station.
The town itself, though beautiful, failed to impress me in terms of navigability (word?). Nothing is signed and the streets are a huge circular grid-like maze. Overhead view here-- also not mine.

Compare this to Milan, where EVERY street is signed and it looks more like this.

Have I mentioned I love Milan? I have yet to do anything touristy, but I do plan on it, and soon I will write an entry that will tell you more about it.

Anyway as you can see, in Milano, you can see past buildings to the next street, around the corners, etc, whereas in Bologna, walking down one street you feel as though nothing else in the world exists but that one, because the buildings are constructed such that they block the view of anything else and the streets' curvature makes it first of all impossible to see what's ahead, and secondly impossible to know in what direction you are heading. I went down so many streets for blocks and blocks before seeing a sign and figuring out that I had to turn around!

Despite all that Bologna is seriously cute. It has extreme Renaissance flavour and a really vibrant young population due to the university. There is a lot of graffiti and urine, though, but also great shopping -- it is like a mini Milan.

Shopping in Italy is very important, as I am sure you have guessed. There are no end to the designer boutiques, but for us mere mortals, Zara, H and M, something called Pimkie, and a department store called Coin (a lot like the Bay now that the Bay has gone all designer) reign supreme. Shoes are huge, and they have Timberland and Bata here, but also a great many independent shops and yes, even in Milano and Bologna, ad hoc markets in the streets, especially near public transit. Prices are a little higher than they are at home, even without the exchange - I think things are just cheap in North America compared to the rest of the world. The styles range from hipster to extreme runway and everything in between, but there are NO lululemons, no jogging pants, no running shoes (Converse, though, yes), no hoodies, except where young teenagers are concerned. I saw one shop called Canadian Flea Market in Bologna on a side street, whose owner is probably from Vancouver, which sold Roots and down parkas, which had me giggling. Other than that, absolutely no trace of what we consider comfort wear.

Anyway, I spent the day wandering and caught a regional train back to Milano, which was only supposed to be 2.5 hours versus a very expensive hour-long direct ride on a Eurostar. I spent 30 minutes waiting in Piacenza for my connection to Milano - oh, the joy of delayed trains!! -- and got home in time for a quick dinner and an extended conversation with my "housemates" about Italian politics.

My understanding of the situation is spotty at best; Italian news is in Italian, and the politics are hard to understand even if you've lived here your whole life. But the overwhelming sense I get is that Berlusconi is a bad man, and Italy knows it, and noone can seem to do anything about it. Simply because this post would become too long I won't go into everything here, but the current complaint is one of freedom of speech: it seems this weekend there will be a demonstration against the censureship of the press, which Berlusconi achieves by bribing advertisers away from publications that speak ill of him so as to cripple them economically, not to mention by owning Italy's complement of private TV channels. THe thing is, they are really only speaking the truth-- Berlusconi did this or that, and maybe it isn't so cool (prostitutes, 18-year-old heiresses etc), and whose fault is that in the end? I think his actions in these cases -- to create laws that make whatever it is he's up to legal, to manipulate the press, etc -- really just betray an insecurity in his own choices and demonstrate a lack of moral fiber, something that I think is a serious flaw in a political leader. It has led me to reflect on Stephen Harper in a different way. If I blogged about Harper like this, he wouldn't trace me and shut me down, but it might happen if this was in Italian and had a readership. Harper isn't a terrible human being, though we may take issue with his choices. But you can't even compare the two, because at the end of the day, it's apples and oranges. Berlusconi isn't even really running a true democracy.

Enough on that, and more when I understand it better. Oh! The big news of the day is that they just passed an OFFICIAL law against illegal immigrants, so everyone is scrambling to get their papers in order. There wasn't one before...??

I finally got to the library and got some books. It's great that anyone can be a member. I didn't have to show anything with my address on it. You can have books for a month, as well, and fines weren't mentioned although I am sure they exist.
Though the libraries are small and few in number, it's nice to make use of them. I am reading one Italian book for every English book I read; the selection is not great in terms of books in English so I picked up some Ian Rankin, and The English Patient, which I have been meaning to read, as well as Carlo Levi's Christ stopped at Eboli and some Nick Hornby, both in Italian. I feel like an addict or something -- it feels amazing to be turning the pages of something again!