The last weeks have been quite busy with performances in Dublin and London, the series of performance lectures on the History of Italian Opera and the beginning of the exam period for some of my students!
The Bloomsday concert at the National Library of Ireland in Dublin was a great success: the reading room was full of enthusiastic music and literature lovers, who enjoyed the links between Italian and Irish operas and James Joyce's life and books explained by Professor John McCourt.
My colleagues Ilaria Zanetti and Alessandra Sagelli from Italy and Simon Morgan and Noel O'Grady from Ireland were great and we had great fun!
Right after the concert, we moved to Áras an Uachtaráin, the presidential residence, to perform some pieces from the morning concert at the Garden Party for the President of Ireland and his guests. After the Party, the First Lady was very kind and invited us to stay for dinner with her, President Higgins and some guests, like the well-known film score composer Patrick Cassidy - we had a lovely time!
The week after, with my friend cellist Riccardo Pes, we joined Anthony Howell's poetry reading in London and performed for the first time in public "The Forbidden Rose", a setting by Battista Pradal of Howell's poem written especially for us.
Now, in a few days, I'll be back to Italy for a hot summer full of concerts!
