Day 2 began with a quick breakfast at the hotel.. rather decent, actually. It’s buffet style with scrambled eggs, a selection of breads, croissants, pastry, cereals, & fruits. And coffee. But not just any coffee, you see you get a choice of a brewed pot of espresso or a pot of American coffee. I found that almost amusing – I mean come on. You go to Italy and have “American” coffee? One cool thing is that they steam the milk here and have that in a pot as well – how smart is that. It definately keeps your coffee hot rather than cooling it down with cold milk or cream.

Breakfast was rather quick – we had a 10:30 rehearsal and quick meeting to go over the day’s events. Tonight we sing part 2 of the choral marathon and I’m told we are the last of 10 choirs. The saving grace in all of this, as tired as we are from just arriving yesterday, is that we should be done by 9pm and back to the hotel by 10pm. This will give me the chance to hopefully catch up on much needed sleep since my body clock is still working the 7 hour time difference.

Well that was a good thought or should I say wishful thinking… Jordan came back from the Director’s Lunch and while we waited for the bus told us the bad news. They have divided the evening up into 2 separate concerts – 5 choirs will sing their popular programs between 5-6:30 then there will be a break and at 9pm all the choirs will present 1 song each as an intermezzo to the beginning of the 2nd concert. We are to be last on the bill.

We sang pretty much in the heart of Milan – it’s just really too bad we didn’t have the chance to get out and explore, but were expected to sit in the audience and listen to all the choirs give their short programs. Good thing the theater was air conditioned – it’s been a little steamy here with temps in around the 90 degree mark. 

What was supposed to be 15 minutes per choir really ended up being close to 25-30 for most. By the time we presented our program, it was 11:30pm. One thing about The Rose – we are the only Early Music ensemble here, so our program was much different than the programs of contemporary choral music, jazz and show choir music that was presented throughout the evening.

We gave as much variety as we could pack into our 15 minute set – Kaulana na pua, Kim’s Na Luna hula, my Pretty Home solo, Star in the East and There is a Balm in Gillead. I’m proud of our group for the way we performed as exhausted as we all are, but I don’t think it really wasn’t out best show. It was just a long day and I’m happy to be back at the hotel.

This morning we met at 10:30-12:30 for a rehearsal for our first full sacred concert – Slavic music and music of St. Francis. We have added some wonderful instruments to the St. Francis half of the program with one of the Festival’s guides, Isscao, whom we met last year. He’s a brilliant medieval wind instrumentalist and will bring so much charm to this program. He and Ginna play beautifully together and I’m excited to hear their part of the program this evening.

We will be traveling to Missaglia and sing at Monastero Santa Maria della Misericordia , a 16th century Franciscan convent about an hour and a half north of Legnano in the Lake Como region. I’m not too sure if we will get a glance of any of the lakes while we are there, but the area should be stunningly beautiful. Our bus leaves at 6:30pm for a 9ish concert (to quote from last year, “we sing when the people come”).

Now it’s time for a quick siesta. Ciao for now and thanks for reading. Your comments are always welcome and I look forward to hearing from you!

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