Getting (a lot) more than you pay for

Exploring the neighbourhood is a lot of fun. You get a phone call during the day. It’s Domenico, my next door neighbour – yes it would be easier to ring the door bell but that means he goes down a steep flight of stairs, I go down a steep flight of stairs and we talk in the middle of the roadway. Much easier and safer that we call each other on the phone, and then, because reception is impaired by the half metre thick solid stone and cement medieval walls, we each poke our head out of our respective first floor windows and look at each other while we talk to each other on our mobile phones. It is the medieval village version of a video call – you see each other while you have a telephone conversation.

The call is about what’s going down tonight. There’s not a lot of forward planning – it adds to the spontaneity of village life. Domenico tells you to be ready at 6pm because tonight we are going to Cave, about 25 km away. You don’t quite know what it is that you are going to see but that adds to the expectation. You don’t know quite what to wear – but dress in these parts is determined by the weather not the event, so it really doesn’t matter.

When you arrive at the destination you get to figure out what you have come for – sometimes a festa, others a dance, a dinner or, as on this occasion, a musical performance.

You are none the wiser regarding the details because there’s nothing to hint at what’s on. No big posters, no small notices, nobody seems to know. Everyone has shown up because their Domenico has told them a place, address and approximate time. Be there! All you know for sure is that something is going to materialise, you are going to have a good time and then you make your own arrangements post performance.

You are there early because, not knowing what’s on and who is going to come, you get there early to get a seat. There is no such thing as bookings and tickets at these events. It is like going to the hairdresser or the doctor, they take you in order of your appearance. First ones there get to pick their seats – those who come late get the dregs or they stand.

You go for a walk up and down the street and then return and have an informal tete-a-tete before the doors are formally opened. Nothing’s changed. It is not as though they have been locked. Someone has thought “OK, it’s about time to go in”.

So you dash for a good position. You and your mates “tag” the seats required for the group and sit back, waiting for a tell tail of what might be going to happen before your very eyes. You get no clues until the curtains, literally, are drawn.

Well, that’s just to set the scene. Read on to find out what the fuss is about.

Cave (pronounced carvay) is an historic and very picturesque village in the general neighbourhood of Genazzano, Valmontone, Artena and, of course, Giulianello.

The village is not, in itself, spectacular but it is a place where spectacular things occur, notably at the Comune Teatro citta de Cave.

Last autumn Cinzia, our local compari (we call them the wandering minstrels) and I attended a concerto conducted by the Cave locals. It was a wind instruments concerto, the orchestral members ranging through the teens, twenties, thirties and into the forties – all local lads and lasses who have day jobs and just get together to “jam” and conduct the odd public appearance where entrance is gratis and donations optional.

Not much fanfare, nothing flash about the presentation. Every effort was made by the performers to dress in black and white but colour was the only common factor. No MC and no introduction. Just absolutely absorbing classical music played magnificently. Refreshments afterwards consisting of a huge array of home-made cakes. I tried as many as I could possibly accommodate (and I am a sixty year trained consumer of home-made cake!) but I only made it through the openers.

Tonight it was the same place, different event, cake-less but the performance equally as extraordinary!

The show got off to a jerky start twenty minutes late with a video projected onto a screen featuring the plight of children and adults in Mozambique. The video ended and there was a bit of scampering on the part of a couple in the audience with one fossicking for a mike and the other making his way to the stage to provide an explanation to the audience of what was happening. It transpired that, in lieu of an admission, the audience was invited to make an unspecified donation that would assist relief organisations providing medical services in Mozambique.

Someone turned off the laptop, the screen was wound up and a couple of riff raff pulled the curtains closed and held them closed while the stage lights were switched off to conceal whatever was occurring stage side. The curtains were opened to reveal four young lads propped up with instruments and a middle aged fellow sitting with an acoustic guitar strung over a shoulder in the heart of the stage.

The middle aged guy said a few words and they started to play. And boy, could these guys play!

The singer had a Bob Dylan quality to his voice and to his general performance. The lyrics were mostly lost on this reporter (whose Italiano is rapidly improving but can best be described as poco poco). Had I been a little less ignorant of the content I am confident that I would have found it compelling – you get a good sense of the song from the sound and intensity of the delivery. The songs were all what I guessed as being folk songs but in this neck of the woods you need to be careful about what descriptions you use. Folk songs are usually the popular chants that have been handed down from medieval times accompanied by very lively bagpipe, flute and squeezebox music. Tonight’s performance was one of political resistance and protest music, magnificently presented. Lead electric guitarist, drummer, double bass and trumpet/squeezebox musicians accompanied the singer and each gave a magnificent performance. All are local Cave lads and each of them returns to his day job on Monday.

It is very difficult to describe the quality of the performance. Quite frankly it was not very different from attendance at a Joan Baez or even a Bob Dylan or Neil Diamond concert. That gives some indication of the event – conducted by local lads with minimal (no?) organisation with nominal (no?) admission charge! And this, in Italiano terms, is NOT such an extraordinary event! This happens on a regular basis in every region of the country, especially from June until September.

These events bear remarkable testimony to the astonishing musical talent in this country and to the natural humility of the people who don’t think anything of “throwing on a show” that people in other places would charge and happily pay up to $200 each to attend.

The organisation, administration and the marketing of events in this country are very, very rudimentary (mostly non-existent) but the quality of the performance is unbelievably high class.

It matters not whether it is an orchestral concerto, the band at a festa, a musical performance of some sort, any sort, or a military parade or even a complex medical procedure you can be left wondering how it happened, who brought it together (or, more likely, who DIDN’T bring it together) how the logistics were accomplished and how the hell people found out that it was on BUT what you won’t be in any doubt about is that it DID eventuate, it DID accomplish its basic purpose and it was highly successful. In this land everything of CORE importance is performed so exceptionally well that any of the shortcomings in the non-core accompaniments are easily forgiven.

Unlike what happens in other places, the Italians put ALL of their efforts into getting the thing done, in executing the performance and in accomplishing the key objectives. Everything else is purely embellishment that should not sap the resources from the main game – and it is hard to argue against it, unless, of course, you happen to be an Italian!

Would it be nice for the performance to have been widely publicised, start on time with a polished, slick introduction? Of course it would. But would it be the same performance? Perhaps. Would it have made a difference to the size of the audience if there was an admission charge? Fairly certainly it would have. Personally I wouldn’t take the huge risk of reducing the quality of the main performance by seeking to improve the embellishments.

That’s what things are like in the Italian paese. You simply enjoy the very best performances you will ever experience at very affordable cost. A performance that is absolutely vero, absolutely virtuoso and supremely thrilling. And to the locals it is nothing special – it is simply what they do when they are not at their day job which is no doubt why there are no bells and whistles.