23.2.96 Torino
Waiting outside the hall where the rehearsal for Monteverdi's "Orfeo" is taking place. Surrounded by singers – half-loving, half-hating each other. Bitching, gossiping, trying to gain the advantage. Torino, a city I've been to once – a press trip for 36 hours, staying up to 2am, and rising at 5am to walk through the silent city. Typically, I can't remember the company that took me, but I presume it was Olivetti. Torino, the rectilinear city (I have memories of a de Chirico vista of facades). To Gozzano's Café - Caffè Baratti & Milano for obscene cakes (and fine pizzette).
To the La Capannina – excellent food, atrocious people – well, not really. Very atmospheric – saxophones on the wall, clocks in the cabinets, walkie-talkies. What looks like a group with three Indonesians to our left.
24.2.96 Torino
Museo Egizio. Like an abandoned film set the entrance – parts closed off, drapes – leading to an apology of a museum. For the first time, I feel the injustice of exposing mummies to the gawping eyes of the world. Typically Italian, alas, the neglect of these resonant objects. Most worryingly, the collections from the intact tombs – perfectly preserved objects – are surely rotting even as we speak. So little explanation, so little grandeur coming through. A parody of a dusty dull museum.
Scappiamo, and walk through the freezing backstreets, under the galleries (like Bologna), to the Mole Antonelliana – what is perhaps the most ridiculous building I know. It looks simply as if five or six constructions have been piled on top of each other, with no thought to harmony (including two Greek temples). But I like it, for some reason.
More destinations:
Waiting outside the hall where the rehearsal for Monteverdi's "Orfeo" is taking place. Surrounded by singers – half-loving, half-hating each other. Bitching, gossiping, trying to gain the advantage. Torino, a city I've been to once – a press trip for 36 hours, staying up to 2am, and rising at 5am to walk through the silent city. Typically, I can't remember the company that took me, but I presume it was Olivetti. Torino, the rectilinear city (I have memories of a de Chirico vista of facades). To Gozzano's Café - Caffè Baratti & Milano for obscene cakes (and fine pizzette).
To the La Capannina – excellent food, atrocious people – well, not really. Very atmospheric – saxophones on the wall, clocks in the cabinets, walkie-talkies. What looks like a group with three Indonesians to our left.
24.2.96 Torino
Museo Egizio. Like an abandoned film set the entrance – parts closed off, drapes – leading to an apology of a museum. For the first time, I feel the injustice of exposing mummies to the gawping eyes of the world. Typically Italian, alas, the neglect of these resonant objects. Most worryingly, the collections from the intact tombs – perfectly preserved objects – are surely rotting even as we speak. So little explanation, so little grandeur coming through. A parody of a dusty dull museum.
Scappiamo, and walk through the freezing backstreets, under the galleries (like Bologna), to the Mole Antonelliana – what is perhaps the most ridiculous building I know. It looks simply as if five or six constructions have been piled on top of each other, with no thought to harmony (including two Greek temples). But I like it, for some reason.
More destinations:
