A couple of nights ago, one of our concerts was postponed because the entire town of Spoleto lost electricity. The concert (which is now rescheduled for tonight) was actually one of my favorite pieces we’ve been working on here, and all of us were extremely sad to have it canceled, so we are very excited to be able to perform tonight.
The venue for this concert is at the Rocca, a castle at the top of Spoleto where Lucrezia Borgia lived, and also where one of the popes in the Renaissance was also rumored to have lived for a time. The Rocca is gorgeous! Not only do you have a fantastic view of Umbria, but the walls are full of frescoes (mostly intact) and several lovely courtyards, one of which we are using for the concert. Keep your fingers crossed that it doesn’t rain! I don’t want the concert to be canceled again!!
When it became clear that night that the electricity problem in Spoleto wouldn’t be solved any time soon, we gathered in the Piazza del Duomo and sang an impromptu concert on the porch of the Duomo. TV cameras were already there because of the blackout, and they ate up the fact that we just spontaneously started singing. I have to admit, it was pretty cool. We could only get a couple songs out before the sun finally set, and then we just couldn’t see anything, so we had to stop.
After that, we all dispersed to go find something to do in the dark. A couple friends and I went to a restaurant, where they had torches and candles brightly burning on the deck. The kitchen obviously wasn’t fully working, so they gave us large portions of everything that was going to go bad due to lack of refrigeration: huge hunks of cheese, mixed vegetables (raw as an antipasto, and then grilled veggies for me as a first course). My friends had the same, only they had grilled meat for their dinner.
The electricity came back sometime around midnight, and there was much rejoicing outside my window at the Piazza del Mercato.