In May 2002, Ilse and I came to Italy and began organising concerts with a small chamber orchestra in the Botanical Gardens in Siena. We soon added a tenor to make the programme more varied and found the Anglican Church in Siena as a venue and its base in Florence. At 6 p.m. there was a concert in Siena and at 9 p.m. the next one in Florence. ‘How many people are in the audience today?’ asked Fr. Lawrence MacLean. Eight, then twelve – it was a tough road. Lawrence had spontaneously answered YES to our telephone enquiry about whether we could play in the Anglican Church in Siena, even though we had never met before – ‘that's exactly what I had in mind for the church!’ At first we only played concerts, but too few people came, so we had to leave the orchestra and get a pianist to accompany the tenor. When there wasn't enough money for that either, I suggested to Ilse (instead of returning to Austria defeated) that I sit down at the piano myself. ‘But we can't charge admission for that,’ was her reply. ‘Give me three months,’ I said, and threw myself into studying – with the help of our pianist Ivan Yanakov and Elina Yanchenko. A year later, I recorded a CD with 58 minutes of piano music, one take and only ONE mistake.‘Do you hold auditions?’ A tall tenor stands in front of me and my answer is: you can start tomorrow! Thomas Praestegaard from Denmark is taking an Italian course in Siena, and it is the beginning of a friendship that continues to this day. He brings his girlfriend from Poland, Katarina Mizerny, along with him. In autumn 2005, the two of them make a suggestion: why don't we do a whole opera?No sooner said than done – the rest is history!4 December 2005, La Bohème by Giacomo Puccini in the Anglican Church in Florence, Via Maggio 18. Katarina Mizerny/Link-Mimi, Thomas Praestegaard-Rodolfo, the other performers are Mila Pavlova-Musetta and Joseph Chi-Marcello. At the piano was the organist/pianist/composer of the Anglican Church, Brian Marble, a musical genius who played La Bohème prima vista (!!!). Fr. Lawrence himself helped out as narrator, a brilliant speaker and actor, giving an impeccable and humorous performance. The hard pews made it difficult to enjoy the music, but did not prevent the resounding success of a classic from the opera repertoire, performed with a table and chairs and simple costumes. 55 and 45 visitors on 4&5 December were completely enthralled, and Opera at St. Mark's Florence was born. Men and women leave the church in tears, moved by the bravura of the voices, the piano accompaniment (which easily replaces an orchestra), and Lawrence's introduction, which makes the story understandable. Twenty different operas are performed in succession – the Anglican Church, actually a Medici palace that once belonged to Niccolò Machiavelli, is transformed into a small-scale theatre with small stage sets, costumes mostly by Cerratelli (tailor for Zeffirelli, Visconti and Strehler), a few pieces of furniture, and to this day there is no end in sight to its success. Since 2011, it has been number one among all events and attractions in the city of Florence, and since 2020, it has been among the top 10% of all attractions worldwide. The charitable aspect of the events should not be overlooked either, with almost €150,000 going to a children's home in India. Almost 150 singers from all parts of Italy and abroad contribute significantly to the success of the project. To list them all would be too long, but everyone, singers and audience alike, will always remember the performances. Thanks to the decisive factor of CHANCE, the proximity of the audience to the performers, making the emotions of the opera palpable, the legendary high quality of the singers and the humorous presentation and explanation of the operas have created something that is still unique today – you have to experience it for yourself. Thousands of enthusiastic comments give voice to the emotions of the audience, because they are the ones who decide whether they enjoyed it. They did enjoy it! With Fr. Chris Williams and his wife Bernadette, we are delighted and grateful to still have the full support of the Anglican Church after 20 years; the loyalty of the English is legendary. Ad multos!
We welcome new Mascerade Opera Students who have come to live in our building.We had a lovely evening in the cortile, as we shared food and drinks together. We learned a little about each other and we look forward to the next 10 months.
Take a look at some of the photos and video we have been able to take of these wonderful little birds.It is amazing to see how hard the parent birds work to feed and look after the babies. It is a non-stop job.It reminds us of the verse in Matthew 6 which says, '26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?'We are very excited about having them and think maybe we should install a birdcam for next time!
