...ma il mio nome è Lucìa... or bugìa... or poesìa... YES! There you go!

Il mio nome è POESIA, mi piaccion quelle cose che han nome Poesia.

It's all about finding that nome, that noun, that chiave to the stanza that makes the world rhyme around (it).

I've been really overwhelmed by your response to my Ognissanti newsletter, thank you.

If you want to deepen the mysteries of the wintery Bohème -opera where the curtain opens, or better, is blown open by the chilly draft of a chromatic melodic cell signifying a shiver of cold (later heard again, from the brasses and slowed down, under "soli d'inverno", in the other duet)-

well, you can help yourselves with a playlist of my videos on the topic, here below:

And now, on to celebrating Santa Cecilia with yet another couple of lovebirds that came together, under yet another moonlight - another Luna- around the common love for Poetry.

Versi di prece, ed umile,

qual d'uom che prega Iddio

were often interpolated and transformed by ancient rappers such as Manrico , through the manipulation of Gregorian hymns.

Let's hear it from the voice of Leonora, who is yet another recipient of Poesia, holder of yet another nome (Eleonora, from èlios, the Sun) that is set as yet another chiave of yet another trobar clus:

In quella [prece] ripeteasi

un nome... il nome mio!

When it comes to portraying more inner landscapes, those of the human heart, though...

mal puote la parola.

Words won't do: so they'll be shattered and scattered into flashing strokes of brush, in that Impressionism ante litteram that the Belcanto coloratura of the cabalettas is.

Auguro una Felice Festa di Santa Cecilia a Voi,

who are my very own dead poets society.

La Maestra

"We opened this book by relating how, in the Florence of 1600, the Camerata de’ Bardi engaged in creating Opera modeled on Greek tragedy, borrowing its myths, and now we close our book having established and demonstrated how this Italian adaptation of classical culture ended up by creating a new national Olympus, which, exactly as happened to the Greek one, studs the calendar and celebrates its annual liturgies with new rites, mixing up these new pagan deities of a vocal nature with Christian saints and martyrs. The temple of Demeter and the cult of her daughter Persephone have given place to the temples of Opera where Mimì – whose real name we know to be Lucia, meaning light – meets Rodolfo every freezing Christmas night to ask him to light her candle, symbolizing the sun triumphantly reborn at the winter solstice; thus her putative “mother”, Violetta, is immolated as a sacrificial victim at Carnival only to be reborn, an immortal phoenix, with the arrival of Easter; neither can l’april flower again if Calaf does not melt the ice and the enigmas of Turandot, and fails to chant the spell of his own name upon her lips at the birth of every new day.

In this manual we have touched upon some essential points with the intention of opening some matters, but not of closing them; of encouraging interrogatives, more than furnishing definitive answers; all the rest must be taken on rôle by rôle, aria by aria, syllable by syllable, vowel by vowel, with your own coach: now we know that each word, if wisely pronounced, is a spell, that might set off a motion of cosmic import."

Cantare Italiano - The Language of Opera, chapter VIII

“extremely good at this” (Graham Vick)

"a fantastic coach, extremely helpful for young singers as well as experienced ones" (Barbara Hannigan)

“bringing the language, the music and the characters to life” (Paul Nilon)

“the foundation of a role” (Jennifer Rowley)

“magic conjunction of vocal technique, musical interpretation and building of the character: a radical rethinking of the act of singing” (Anna Piroli)

“incredible breadth of knowledge” (Heather Lowe)

“magic effect on the voice and our art form” (Jessica Harper)

“opened up a world” (Giulia Zaniboni)

“180 degree turn in my work with the singers” (Theophilos Lambrianidis)

“invaluable: she’ll make a role really succeed on stage” (Ariadne Greif)

“potentially life-changing” (Amy Payne)

“brings life to operatic drama” (Maria Sanner)

“enlightening, professionally and humanly” (Clara La Licata)

“thoroughly prepared and professional” (Marie Kuijken)

“truly unique method and insights” (Jasmine Law)

“a lingual and linguistic genius” (Peter Tantsits)

“entirely devoted to the art of Opera singing” (Ida Falk Winland)

“incredibly informed, consistent, knowledgeable” (Michael Corvino)

“carrying the torch of finest Italian Opera” (Nathaniel Kondrat)

“a crucial basis for all the singers” (David Cowan)

“a cure and a respect of the Music and the words’ musicality that can be learnt so deeply nowhere else in the world” (Matilde Bianchi)