Our finest musicians from the University of Sydney’s Conservatorium of Music are in Italy for the first European Chamber Music Summer School. They are staging daily concerts in Verona, Mantova and Venice at prestigious venues like The Bibiena Theatre, Palazzo Te and La Pieta.  Our students report from Italy.

Wow! What a whirlwind week of masterclasses, orchestral rehearsals and settling in after a day and a half’s travelling! It feels like longer as we reach the end of our first full week of learning and performing in Verona.

Exactly a week ago, we wound our way through the streets and found ourselves at one of the city’s biggest and most beautiful churches. Sant’Anastasia, an elaborate red-brick gothic church in the oldest part of the city, towers over the street below, and the Conservatorium is literally attached to this beautiful church by a shared wall.

We have just had a full week of intense lessons and masterclasses, working on repertoire and technique with Lella Cuberli. Working with a soprano with such an impressive international career and such valuable and apt technical advice has been a privilege and so inspiring.

As well as our daily six-hour masterclasses, we also rehearsed with the orchestra under the expert direction of Eduardo Diazmuñoz. Again such an important and valuable opportunity to have been given.

On Friday evening, we stood in the open-air cloister of the Conservatorium (now a theatre and performance space) with the imposing tower of Sant’Anastasia above us and rows of shuttered windows overlooking us. Once a nunnery, the cells overlooking the cloister have now been transformed into practice rooms. Snippets of music, wisps of melodies float out from the rooms, windows flung open to escape the heat.

The space was being prepared for the evening’s concert – our debut concert of the trip and also one of our most exciting.  As a first for many of us, the opportunity to sing solo with orchestra was highly anticipated. And singing well-known Italian opera repertoire to a full audience of Italians did bring with it an element of fear! 

Around 9pm the sun started to set and the audience arrive. With the darkness the space became even more magical and we were all so excited to sing in such a stunning location.  The orchestra started the concert with Sarrier’s Sinfonia in D Major.

Tenor Damian Arnold started the vocal bracket of the concert by singing the beautiful aria “Dies Bildnis ist bezaubern schön” from Die Zauberflöte. I followed him with “Voi che sapete” from La nozze di Figaro, and then Baritone Daniel Nicholson closed the set with “Madamina, il catalogo è questo” from Don Giovanni. Walking onto the stage and taking up my position at the front of the stage, I was grateful for the years of language and diction classes. With my first note, it all became an exciting reality. Such a comforting and exhilarating feeling to have the support and energy of a full orchestra behind me. The Italian audience was large, and very interested and supportive of us.

The next night we performed an intimate vocal and piano recital in the celebrated Società Letteraria di Verona. Its beautifully restored interior rooms were the setting for solo repertoire from Verdi to Chausson to Dvořák, and also for the filming of an Australian television program in which we will be featured (further filming for which will take place this week in Piazza del Erbe).

The chance to hear and see the other Estivo instrumentalists and chamber ensembles from the Sydney Conservatorium, performing in beautiful venues throughout Verona is definitely another highlight of the tour.

Only half way through, this experience has already been so inspiring! With a week like we’ve just had, the anticipation and excitement for what is still to come is enticingly palpable.

Sarah x