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Ravello 2005 Boccaccio, Rufolo, Wagner, & the World's Loudest Trombone Section  In his Decameron, Giovanni
Boccaccio (1313-1375) devoted an entire tale (Second Day,
Tale Four) to the adventures of one Landolfo Rufolo, a
contemporary of his from the town of Ravello on the
"delightful...slope of Amalfi." Rufolo was rich but wanted
more; thus, he set off to seek his further fortune, became
a pirate, went down at sea, was rescued and eventually
found his way home to Ravello again where he built his
villa on a spectacular slope overlooking the sea. He then
"lived in honorable estate" until his death.Poster of first Wagner Festival, 1953  As if
from Snoopy's Dark-and-Stormy-Night school of great
coincidences, just a few years earlier (c. 1200) in
far-off Germany, Wolfram von Eschenbach had written his Parsifal, which,
centuries later, would inspire Richard Wagner's (1813-83)
last work, a tale involving the evil sorcerer, Klingsor
and an enchanted garden. Wagner visited the Villa Rufolo
in 1880 and was so inspired by the beauty of the garden
that he declared, "Here is the enchanted garden of
Klingsor." Did Eschenbach know Boccaccio? And what were
Mommy and Daddy von Eschenbach thinking when they named
their kid "Wolfram," a word that means "tungsten" in
German? And how would young Tungsten have rated Wagner?
(answer: "Really loud. Say, do you guys know anything by
Hildegard von Bingen?") And why is "Parsifal" a
pseudo-anagram for "Laugh His Rap"? Alas, we may never
know the answer to some of these questions, but see how it
all ties together? The gardens that so
moved Wagner were actually the result of a renovation of
the villa in 1851 when Francis Neville Reid, a Scottish
botanist, bought the property and went crazy with the
plant life. The restoration of the villa, itself, was in
the hands of Michele Ruggiero, a gentleman who then took
over the excavations at Pompeii. Significant parts of the
original villa are still intact, including the main tower
and intriguing Norman-Arab columns (photo, right)
along a passageway through the villa and to the back of
the property where the outdoor concerts are held. The
stage is set up at 1000 feet over the slope and sea
looking due east along the folds of the mountain range of
the Amalfi coast. The view is stunning.This year's festival started July 3 and will run through September 17; it has "sections" for orchestral, chamber, and film music, visual arts, experimental theater, and discussions on education. I went for the orchestral music—specifically, Wagner, because that is why one goes to Ravello. We heard the Orchestra and Choir of the Marinsky Theater from St. Petersburg. It wasn't all Wagner, but it was close enough and included, on two successive evenings, a prelude from Parsifal, the funeral march from The Twilight of the Gods, the overtures to Tannhäuser and The Flying Dutchman, and the introduction to the third act of Lohengrin. One non-Wagner item was Prokovief's great score to the Eisenstein film, Alexander Nevsky. I recall noting that there were two bass trombonists in the Parsifal excerpt, thus giving the collective low brass section the most lethal attack of decibels since the eruption of Krakatoa. It was fine! (Also see Ravello 2008) to main index to music portal |
