Grace Notes: August 2014

Excuse the cheesy title.

Right now, I'm sitting at a cafe in front of Castelvecchio (the ancient castle as mentioned in a previous post) sipping on a delicious glass of peach tea. Ah. Life is good! We had a wonderful, relaxing and fun weekend.

On Friday night, Nathan kicked off the weekend right with an amazing performance! He and his colleagues performed a variety of arias by Mozart, Handel and several others. The recital took place at the Chiesa San Fermo, a church that can be traced back to the 8th century. So far, in all of the cathedrals I have been in, I've seen many, many tombs. So, I asked Madelyn (the administrator of the program) if they still had human remains in them, to which she replied most likely! Eew! Furthermore, she told me that in Italy, since there is very limited space, they don't have enough land to bury everyone. As a solution, they place the deceased into kind of a "filing room" of large metal boxes for the bodies to decompose. Unfortunate, right? But it doesn't end there. After 5 or 6 years, the family members have to return to collect the bones and remains in order to clear up more space. Now, I have yet to confirm this with the all-knowing internet, but it was an interesting story and concept nonetheless!

I digress. It was a wonderful concert and Nathan sang Dalla Sua Pace from Don Giovanni by Mozart along with a sextet from the same opera. I think Nathan has been working on this piece for about at least a semester now (?), but this was one of the best performances so far! Should you choose to listen to the video, be sure to admire his musicality in phrasing, his excellent technique in vowel modifications- especially in his upper register! and his development of consistent breath-support. In addition visually his character, Don Ottavio, is well portrayed as a sweet, but passive gentleman.

Here is the link to the video: Nathan Straub, tenor: Dalla Sua Pace from Don Giovanni

Stay tuned for a future blog post featuring Nathan Straub, tenor, and his thoughts and perspectives on studying music in Italy!

While Nathan was preparing for the concert, I had a day full of exploring! Our Italian teacher, Michaela, was gracious enough to drive me to the edge of town so I could check out the Piazzale Castel San Pietro. I didn’t really know what I was going to see, but everyone had suggested I go, so I was quite excited when she dropped me off! She said to simply walk up the stairs and I’ll know it when I see it. Well, a couple stairs turned out to be closer to 1,035,284 stairs (not really, but it felt like it). I think I’m in decent shape, but I was so out of breath when I got to the top! Since I didn’t know what I was in for, I was unprepared and didn’t have any water either! Regardless, it was absolutely worth the hike. The view from the top was so gorgeous. Truly breathtaking. I’m so grateful that God takes pleasure in creating such beauty for us to enjoy. I spent a peaceful hour up there just taking in the view.

Afterwards, I made my way into town and just had a great day by myself! I stopped at this adorable cafe and had a really great time with the Lord. (Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that yes, I toted my mini-bible, prayer journal and a book up that mountain, so gosh darn it, I made good use of them when I got down so it wouldn’t have been in vain! :P) Honestly, I was feeling rather anxious about spending the entire day by myself, but God just met me where I was at. I felt lonely and on-edge, but God spoke to me through his word. I opened my Bible and stumbled across Psalm 139.

“You hem me in behind and before; you have laid your hand on me... Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me. Your right hand will hold me fast.”

Psalm 139:5,7-10

God is so good. I was reminded that even though I am thousands of miles from home and family, God is always with me. What joy, peace and comfort in knowing that the Creator of the universe loves me and cares for me as his daughter. I am so blessed!

On Saturday, Nathan and I went to Venice with some of our new friends! It was so hard to get out of bed after a long concert the night before, but it was sooo worth it! One of the voice teachers from the program actually lives in Venice, so she showed us how to ride the train and showed us around the town for a bit. Now Joyce lives in Venice, but she actually is a very proper and strict and is your perfect British voice teacher- accent included! She is so great. We stopped at a cafe to look at a map and a couple of us wanted some breakfast. However, only 3 out of 7 of us wanted to order anything and apparently this was incredibly offensive to the waitress. She refused to serve us and Joyce had a very proper fit! She is fluent in Italian and gave the waitress an ear full of it! We left the cafe to Joyce saying in Italian something to the affect of “I’m telling all of my friends not to eat here! Shame on you!” It was quite comical. She also called the lady an absurd cow. Haha! I love her!

Shortly there after we visited the Chiesa San Fermo Maggiore- a Gothic church on top and a Romanesque chapel down below. It is filled with historic artifacts including the grave of Cladio Monteverdi. For those of you who don’t know him, in a nutshell he was one of the founders of Opera as we know it. I have essays on him if you want to know more ;) It was surreal to be standing just feet from his grave. What an honor!

As we meandered our way towards the St. Mark’s Basilica, we did TONS of shopping! Our friends at Oklahoma State take their purse shopping very seriously! :P We had such a good time bonding with them and getting to know them. The shops were super interesting too. There were all sorts of little stores carrying things from handmade glass art to Venetian masks and ball gowns! We also were able to appreciate the beauty and incredible architecture of the city built on the water. I felt like I was walking in a postcard!

Eventually we made it to the St. Marco’s Basillica. We’ve read about this historic church in textbooks and pictured what it might look like, but never before had I imagined that I would be so blessed to see it in person! This historic Cathedral was the venue and working space of many, many famous composers and musicians like Monteverdi. It is also significant as it is designed in a cross shape with four different “wings” for choirs. This was critical to the development of antiphonal choirs (multiple choirs singing in turns). Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to take pictures, but if you have a chance, I would highly suggest researching this incredible Cathedral as much of our Western music and film can be traced back to this foundation.

We finished our time in Venice with a ferry ride back to the train station in order to make it back to Verona in time to watch Turandot! Holy smokes. It was so good. I am fiercely loyal to my favorite opera, Lucia di Lammermoor by Donizetti, but boy was Turandot a close second! The music. Oh the music was and is brilliant. You probably have a taste of what I’m talking about as the majority of the population has heard “Nessun Dorma” sung by Luciano Pavarotti at some point or another. The tenor in this production did a really great job considering he was an understudy and is only 30. The soprano on the other hand, blew my socks off! It was good to know though that even professional productions at L’Arena have technical difficulties sometimes too- in the last act part of the wall got stuck in center stage! That was a good chuckle.

Sunday we slept in and watched an excellent sermon on youtube. If you have 50 minutes- it’s packed with wisdom! Here’s the link: Christ Centered Relationships

Afterwards, we went on a gelato crawl with our friends. We went to 7 different gelateria’s to find the best gelato shop in Verona! The shops were graded on taste, price, customer service, selection and bathroom cleanliness. We had a great time, but we were sooo full by the end! In the end there was a tie for the best gelateria. If you’re ever in Verona I suggest the Zeno Gelateria and Gelateria Savoia dal 1939. Mmmm! ... Somehow amidst eating all of that gelato, I forgot to take pictures... sorry :(

We celebrated a great weekend at the twins’ apartment sharing a delicious meal and chatting. We’re so grateful for all of the wonderful people here!

Hope all is well for each of you! Thanks for stopping by!

Ciao!

Hana & Nathan

Photos