Day 3 Friday, 15 August 2014.
the well-tempered day:
It was 6 in the afternoon and we all sat at the stairs of Museo civico Pallazo Chiericati using it as an amphitheater for the day presentation of the 8 groups. A little over-heated, a little bit tired, a little bit anxious, each one of us was in a different rhythm and temper.
Prof. Gennaro Postiglione opened the session promoting us to sing the refrain of the traditional italian song “o sole mio”, while at the same time a group of elderly people was passing in front of us. Two men of this group turned to us impulsively and started to sing the song, and from this warmth of interaction our voices bent together with the strangers in couple and refrain.
The magic of the moment has a pre-history: At 4 o clock we visited Theatro Olympico, and prof. Fisker introduced us to the ancient history of the place and the Olimpic Academy. The scene was empty, the musty smell unbearable, the beauty unconceivable. There are no words to describe it. Of course Palladio had thought about that too: while you try to conceive all information at once the eyes follow the sculptures, the columns the colors and then in the up center of the scene you read:
“Hoc opus hic labor est”.
Try to imagine Oedipus Rex played on this place! That is how extravagance functions, and its aura follows you for a while. The magic of art is that when you are in-tune, life imitates theatre.
Che bella cosa na jurnata ‘e sole.
This moment has a prelude, that could be entitled: this is the hard work, this is the toil:
We woke up at half past six, and at seven we were already at the Piazza die Signori working with Juul van den Heuvel and we are waiting forward to meet her again at the same place the same time this Sunday.
Andre Klein and Yvonne Wendel’s lectures followed, then Prof. Gunnar Sandin’s lecture that was food for thought for our 5 hour session right after under the old tree of Piazza Matteoti.
