MOSHERS IN ITALIA, Summer 2008

During the winter David Adams from C-CM (the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, where Allan got his doctorate and I did my undergraduate studies) called to invite Allan to teach at the Opera Theatre and Music Festival of Lucca this summer for five weeks in Tuscany, Italy. This is a program co-founded by our late mentor and friend, Lorenzo Malfatti, whose family was from Lucca.

Not only would he get to go, but we decided Julia and I would have this adventure, too! Hurrah! I studied in Perugia in 1993 at L'Universita per Stranieri, but never made it to Lucca, Puccini's hometown. We began to get passports, make travel plans, and the months went quickly.

We flew from Cleveland to JFK June 13, then on to Pisa overnight. Allan is teaching voice lessons, singing on a faculty recital, and giving a vocal masterclass. Julia and I are going to shop for daily necessities, look around, play, practice, speak Italian and enjoy the opportunities that present themselves.

It took most of the first week to get used to the time change, heat, and getting one's bearings in the winding streets full of similar buildings made of the same native stone, mostly with red tiled roofs. Allan sang arias from Puccini's EDGAR and Verdi's LA TRAVIATA on the opening faculty recital June 20, accompanied by Timothy Cheek from the faculty of the University of Michigan. --June 24, 2008