an Artistic Score Engraving update from May 2024
Dear all,
Welcome back to the monthly update. I hope you are well and that music, love, and compassion are with you, wherever you are.
NEWS
A whole new world
I have just returned from a week-long trip in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where I witnessed the premiere of the opera Zarqa Al-Yamama by Australian composer Lee Bradshaw, whose score and parts I engraved in 2023.
Detailed posts about this trip and a thorough review of the opera are planned for the coming weeks, but I am still struggling to process the miracle that unraveled in front of my eyes.
In theory, I should have not been there. Then, one morning, I woke up with the “Obi-Wan feeling” that I just had to be there, and so it happened. It was the craziest decision ever but, from that morning, it felt like the only right thing to do.
One interesting aspect is how little in the past I listened to my instincts and, now that my personal world is crumbling to dust around me, I’ve found it the most natural thing ever. Perhaps one needs to touch the bottom to find the motivation to fight on.
I didn’t know what to expect besides what the Western propaganda spread, and the fact that everyone already there replied to my queries with nonchalance was at least suspicious. In the end, they were right, and it was an absolutely incredible experience, where I witnessed a genie’s wish being granted.
Looking at the scores I had worked on resting on the orchestra’s stands, being able to talk to the conductor and to world-class artists (Dame Sarah Connolly sang the title role) about the engraving process, listening to the rehearsals and to the premiere, it was an indescribable honour.
The title of today’s update is dedicated to this fascinating trip: I am deeply grateful to every one who made this possible, and I am immensely respectful of the culture I found there. Now, I kindly ask you not to believe what I’ve just said, and anything you will read in my upcoming reviews: please just go there and see with your eyes. Nothing of what I say or write could ever be enough, and would be taken as an either overenthusiastic or sponsored report. Quoting Edgar Allan Poe1:
Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see.
Back to the mud…
As much as I witnessed a whole theatre going from mud to finished in eight days there—when the building where I dwell was on scaffoldings for fourteen months for insulation works—, I found my country waiting for me exactly as I had left it. I could grumpily ramble on it, instead, like I had two words for the trip to KSA, I have one word for the current state of my country: shame.
We landed in Milan two hours late, there was no bus driver, so we walked from the plane to the gate in the rain at 3 AM. We waited one hour for the luggage—in Riyadh, it was waiting for us after the passport control. With a 3-hour drive home ahead of us, we looked for a gas station to get some nourishment, and the food was so bad we felt sick on the road. This, at least in a country which bases its marketing on having the best food in the world, should just not have happened. To rub salt in the wound, the food in KSA was just gorgeous!
We are now back, but I’m finding it quite difficult to accept this after what I’ve seen… My desire for a decisive change is now stronger than ever.
NEW AND UPDATED EDITIONS
At the beginning of April, I managed to update the first edition of ASE, the Intermezzo from the opera Goyescas by Enrique Granados. It is available here.
A video recording of the previous version is still available here.
Late in the month, instead, I added another cello part to the edition of the song A Farewell for Voice, Cello, and Piano by Alfredo Piatti. This part contains my personal performance suggestions that may help clarify those spots that Piatti left blank. What’s more is that this separate part is available for free here, and is included in any purchase of the full edition. Please go listen to this fascinating piece.
While three editions were nearing completion by the end of the month, only one was finished in time for this update. It is the Largo for Cello and Piano by Gaetano Donizetti. While being quite popular among insiders, no truly faithful edition of this piece had ever been published before. The Critical Notes section counts over one hundred differences between the four sources, and M° Fabrizio Capitanio was once more crucial in creating a most professional product. Listen to how this sounds here, and secure your digital copy here.
Engravings & miscellany…
I am currently undergoing trial at two publishers, and I am deeply grateful for that. We will see whether this will turn the tide or not.
If we exclude the blessed parentheses in KSA, April was the fourth month in a row where things were just bad, and where no sign of recovery could be seen on the horizon.
The general feeling of the first third of the year was like being completely submerged in some murky liquid, with someone firmly keeping me pressed underwater. Going to Riyadh felt like having that hold suddenly release its grip, allowing me to resurface and take a deep breath of much-needed oxygen.
Now I’m back underwater, holding my breath, the grip once again firm over me. With me this time, though, are the memories of the melodies, the rhythms, and the harmonies of Lee’s opera, and at least I feel warm and safe, and no suffering will be able to remove the blissful smile from my face.
Whatever the future has in store for me, I am grateful for the opportunity to witness this miracle, I am grateful for meeting extraordinary people that made impossible things possible, and for the gorgeous music that framed all this.
The opera ends on a bright D major chord, with the text expressing hope that, while we may be gone, who comes after us will scatter love over our souls.
A new day is coming, a new dawn will arrive!
Thank you!
Bottom Line
Thank you for reading through all this, I deeply appreciate your time and support.
You can join my mailing list here, browse my editions here, and check what’s available for print in the HNE Store. My YouTube channel contains video renditions of most of my editions.
Until next time, thank you.
Michele
- 1845 November, Graham’s Magazine (Graham’s American Monthly Magazine of Literature and Art), Volume 28, Number 5, The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether by Edgar Allan Poe, Start Page 193, Quote Page 194, Column 2, George R. Graham & Co., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (HathiTrust Full View) ↩
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