Genial Ennio Went into Tears this weekend...

When I watched "Cinema Paradiso" almost twenty years ago, I was so mesmerized by its lyricism that all that I could come up with in the end was, "Who wrote this music?" This movie impacted me in such a way that my life couldn't be the same after that. But without this music would that have as much as an influence to all of us? Certainly, the music involves our emotions, and its so in sync with the scenes, that now it's impossible to dissociate image and sound. And so is the case with GEnnio Morricone. He's rather a genius! With only a sketch from what a movie is about and he can come up with a hole symphony of emotions and related atmosphere.


His life, his charisma, his style is so intertwined-tuned with what he provokes/creates that is not difficult to imagine what a soul, so sensitive to other people's feelings and emotions and the various tones of movement and sounds, would think of a project made for the future generation which main aim is to integrate poor children to society. And that's the case of a favela in Sao Paulo, where they develop children by teaching them music and dance. Morricone, two days after his last concerto in Santiago less than a week ago (which I had the privilege and pleasure to attend) went to the only concert he would give in Sao Paulo, but not before pouring some tears, overwhelmed by those little musicians/magicians from the biggest favela of Sao Paulo, playing "Tema d'Amore" which was the only one in their representation that they had included from his repertoire, the music who made me wonder who was its composer.
The report about his visit in Sao Paulo:
(Click on the pics to get a bigger picture:)


The Concert in the Bicentenary Park was huge. I sat on the last balcony. From there I could see most of everything. The mountains with ice on top, the long and wide road from afar, with fast cars sounding like waves on the ocean of a city that seems to never stop, and people all formally dressed up for the occasion, mostly in black and white (including myself!;) All of a sudden I viewed a glowing bald head appearing slowly in the middle of the Andes. No, it was not the grand Maestro yet. It was the big and beautiful bright full moon. The cameraman couldn't miss this prelude from the Concert for nothing in this world and he incorporated the full moon with an incredible zooming, showing the same image of the silver sphere (with its craters and lines now visible to our naked eyes thanks to his powerful lens) and project it into the two big screens they had reserved to show Ennio Morricone and the orchestra of Rome along with the choral from the University of Chile. People were already very excited, and they applauded the happy occasion of seeing the moon with its all splendour.

Then Ennio arrived with a big ovation from the public and started with Ave Maria Guarani so apropos with what we just had watched. When it arrived to the themes from Cinema Paradiso and Malena, I was almost in tears. Then when he played Gabriel's Oboe from the Mission I was in ecstasy. And I sang along with the choral in Latin. In the end we all stood up and applauded like crazy. I whistled many times and I clapped my hands calling him back. He came back four times. But I wanted more... I whistled and whistled, singing a little tune I had just invented but with all my breath, a little music like saying, "I love you, Ennio, please come back!" But then he was gone. Then I remembered when I went to see the Falls in Iguazu, south of Brazil. It was that sensation of jumping into a sea of a harmonic symphony, the world in unison. A divine and flamboyant Concert that will be forever in my heart!
I and The Falls from Iguazu

The Falls from "The Mission":

The Merry Rainbow

Last night I didn't sleep very well. I was worried about getting up very early this morning to try get the tickets to see Ennio Morricone (composer of many unforgettable movies, such as The Untouchables, Cinema Paradiso, Once Upon a Time in America, Malena, among many others) in Concert next Thursday. It was the second time I tried, the first resulted in a total fiasco when they had the entrances over the internet and only a few lucky ones were even able to access the page. This time it was much more to the early birds sake for what before it was on line now it's in line! So I left home, not without my breakfast (as my granny always says, "An empty bag never stays up") and took with me only a pocket book. When I arrived there to see that huge line, my desire then was to run on the contrary direction. I didn't know where it finished I saw people running in many directions. I didn't know which way to go. Then I asked a guy who, by the way, had his mouth wide open while standing there, petrified through that immense crowd, where was the end of the line. He cracked in a nervous laughter and said, "I don't know. I think it is somewhere over there!" Very, very far, far away. But I had an unbreakable faith. I picketed the book from my pocket. There lies the author's biography and it was from the Irish Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, showing that it pays off to be resilient. I also rely on my partial Celtic heritage. "Luck is on my way!" I mentally envisioned the tickets already in my hands, touching it as a big prize. And believe me, I made it. I actually made it through those more than three hours waiting, standing on the sun, blisters on my shoes, suffering all the blues and through an evermore angry crowd and I have got the ticket now over my hands like a priceless trophy!! A woman who belonged to the organization staff saw my big smile, and told me, "And there it was worth it!" So much for my credibilities: Today is the day before (or after if you see on this year's calendar) of San Paddy's day, the beginning of the Holy week, it is the Palm Sunday. And I feel thrice blessed!

But my luck started yesterday (thanks, Saint Pat!:) I got the tickets that I so wished for the performance by the Santiago Ballet, The Merry Widow, which was first presented in 1975, by the Australian Ballet. With the mis-en-scene of English choreographer Ronald Hynd filled with ballroom dances from waltz to fox-trot, mazurkas and czars, this Ballet is a bombshell with a revolution of colourful designs and costumes, with scenery of a gigantic proportion, and a super production worth watching. If I were to compare it with a musical as this Ballet's twin I would name "Beauty and the Beast" with an unforgettable production which I had the privilege to watch (and twice) in a fancy theatre in LA.

So I watched the Ballet of Santiago from very far away, from the seat I had I could only watch a head in front of me. So I went upstairs and proved that the zoom from my camera still worked, though fairly. You can get a glimpse of what it was this last night event on the pictures below. For a picture is worth a thousand words.
Or you can always watch it on "Your Tube" by the same company and production:

The Ballet is about a widow, and she is always merry, not married (well, married she was, at least once) and guess what? Her name is Ana (like me:) All start with a married woman flirting with a man.

Her husband, the Baron, is too worried about Ana's inheritance (unlike me her husband actually left her a fortune) to think about his wife's infidelities. So he throws her a big party with many of the Royal members, so that she may choose one to marry, hence keeping her heritage in its original place.





In the meantime, there is already a man that Ana has an eye on, Danilo, with a love that flourished yet in their youth. But Danilo refuses to dance with her. He wants her to choose another partner. When they were both left alone, then it was she who refuses his attempt to get closer. To make matters wor$ the unfaithfully wife invites his lover to marry the widow, but also to a idyll.



Meanwhile, Danilo finds out that the widow is planning to invite the dancer ladies from Maxim's, and see that as a sign of reconciliation. But things get strangely complicated when Camille, the lover (not Ana's but the Baron's wife's lover), decides to marry Ana. And to save the reputation and not to hurt the Baron's feelings, Ana changes places with his wife, and therefore gets busted with Camille, which was not in Danilo's plan. He in the other hand get furious and goes to Maxim's to forget his misfortunes.




Now is the Baron's turn to ask Ana to marry him. "I will divorce my wife, she's been cheating on me!" (No kidding?) "I am a respectable wife, a lady with honour" those are the words left to the Baron by his beloved wife, therefore saving their marriage. Anyways, Ana had refused him already, saying that she would loose her inheritance if she decides to marry anyone. And she means, ANYONE! And then she tells the same to Danilo, who is smart enough to say, "hey, I am not anyone, I am your only one. And no worries over your tunes, I will take good care of your fortune." Then they get married instead. And all ends well. The scenes are in Paris, always, Paris, and the last act shows a Maxim and the Parisian bohemian life in all its splendour and that took me back to the Bateau Mouche where I once took a photo with the Eiffel Tower as a dazzling vision. And the last scene with the grand waltz, I got transported through time and space, in a dream's realm, as the gold in the end of a merry rainbow. Fascinating!