User:Scarabocchio/batignano

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[A rather fine] Inside back-cover blurb in Heap of Stones (available here: https://warwickleadlay.com/products/a-heap-of-stones)

"Did you do Batignano?" is the phrase most used by the many people who worked in the seventeenth-century [monastery] which for thirty-one years was the home of the opera festival in southern Tuscany. This acted as a trampoline for a wide range of mainly British talent from singers like Lesley Garrett to composer Jonathan Dove; conductors, Jane Glover, Christian Curnyn and Ivor Bolton; directors such as Graham Vick, Richard Jones and Rupert Goold. Productions ranged from many first performances in modern times of forgotten baroque operas, to the first performances in Italy of Tippett's King Priam and Bernstein's Candide. Among new works commissioned festival were several by Stephen Oliver and Italo Calvino 's dazzling text for Mozart's unfinished Zaide. In 2004, the festival's founder, Adam Pollock, whose story this is, was made a CBE for services to music and Anglo-Italian relations.

— blurb

Musica nel Chiostro was an opera festival that ran thirty years from 1974 to 2004 in the remains/ remnants/ ruins of the Convento di Santa Croce in Batignano, 60 miles south of Siena. The festival specialised in early and rarer works, and in contemporary opera. The festival commissioned works from composers Stephen Oliver, Federico Bonetti Amendola and Jonathan Dove, and giving the Italian premieres of works by Britten and Tippett OR (use blurb text on 'works commissioned' approach so we can get Calvino in the same sentence).

History

The festival was founded by ...

Basically a mix of local artisans and brits/

the festival was run on a shoestring, covering the travelling costs of the singers and crew, but no salaries were paid. Many young people at the beginnings of their career were happy/ prepared to work like this ["so"?] many now-famous directors, designers, conductors and singers had their professional debuts or important early breaks(?) in Batignano.

Anoter consequence was the wilingness to pitch-in, and there was a certain expectation to help paint/ sew/ .. and eat together. One fixed part of this that was commonly referred to by those that went was the shared washing up.

Supported by the locally-resident intelligensia .. Italo Calvino. valued support from Peter Moores Foundation,

year	composer	opera	dm	ms	notes
1974	Henry Purcell*	Dido and Aeneas	David Parry*	Patrick Libby*	d. Adam Pollock.
1975	Francesco Cavalli*	Ormindo	Henry Ward*	Patrick Libby*	d. Adam Pollock.
1976	George Frideric Handel*	Tamerlano	Jane Glover*	Patrick Libby*	d. Adam Pollock. July 24, 25, 27, 28; Opera mag (broken link)
1977	Claudio Monteverdi*	Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda	Jane Glover*	Patrick Libby*	triple bill with Il giardino, la serva padrona
1977	Stephen Oliver*	The Garden (as Il giardino)	Jane Glover*	Patrick Libby*	[WP] 27 July 1977 in Batignano. Commissioned by Fortune's Fire Lute Song Ensemble. Music and text by Stephen Oliver. Lei: Anna Benedict, Lui: Bonaventura Bottone. Published: Novello.
1977	Giovanni Battista Pergolesi*	La serva padrona	Jane Glover*	Patrick Libby*
1978	Henry Purcell*	Dido and Aeneas	Jane Glover*	Patrick Libby*	d. Adam Pollock; harpsichord of David Roblou ; recreation of opening prod Opera review (broken link); 1978 also included perfs of Tamerlano & Lo speziale at Riverside Studios in London, and Bastien und Bastienne at the Hotel Bordeaux Groult in Paris (secondo musicanelchiostro.com)
1979	Antonio Cesti*	Orontea	Jane Glover*	Graham Vick* (pro debut?)	Opera review (broken link) ; Pollock's scenery; Secondo mnc.com: Orontea also given in Riverside Studios in London; Monteverdi songs at the National Gallery; and Lo speziale at The Round House.
1979	Claudio Monteverdi*	Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda	Jane Glover*	Patrick Libby*	,, ; Pollock's designs
1979	Claudio Monteverdi*	Il ballo delle ingrate	Jane Glover*	Patrick Libby*	,, ; double bill with Combattimenti ; Pollock's designs
1980	George Frideric Handel*	Tolomeo	Nicholas Kraemer*	Graham Vick*
1980	Joseph Haydn*	Lo speziale	Jane Glover*	Patrick Libby*
1981	Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart*	La finta semplice	David Parry*	Patrick Libby*	designer Adam Pollock, lighting Matthew Richardson ; Opera review (broken link) also of Zaide
1981	Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart*	Zaide	Jane Glover*	Graham Vick*	sets Chris Dyer, lighting Matthew Richardson ; new version by Calvino; English trans for later London perfs by William Weaver; Opera mag (broken link) mnc.com: This production toured to Certosa dei Calci, Pisa; Chiostro degli Innocenti, Florence
1981					[WP] Musica nel Chiostro commission. Peri's Euridice in Oliver's orchestration and translation at the Riverside Studios in London. Published: Novello & Co.
1982	Jean-Philippe Rameau*	Platée (as Platea)	Nicholas Kraemer*	Patrick Libby*	(sourced from website) mnc.com: Zaide at the Old Vic, London (text by Calvino, trans Weaver); Zaide at Palazzo Grassi, Venice;
1983	Benjamin Britten*	The Turn of the Screw (as Il giro di vite)	David Parry*	Tim Albery* (pro debut)	Albery's 'first prod'
1983	Antonio Cesti*	La Dori	Graeme Jenkins*	Graham Vick*	mnc.com: Cesti's La Dori also given at Christ Church, Spitalfields, London
1984	Stephen Oliver*	Beauty and the Beast (as La bella e la bestia)	Nicholas Kraemer*	Graham Vick*	[WP] Opera review (broken link) ; David Cunningham's lighting.
1984	George Frideric Handel*	Apollo e Dafne	David Parry*	Matthew Richardson	,, ;
1984	Rinaldo di Capua	La zingara	David Parry*	Patrick Libby*	,, ; double bill with Apollo e Dafne
1984	Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart*	Apollo et Hyacinthus (as Apollo e Giacinto)	Graham Jenkins*	Richard Jones*
1985	George Frideric Handel*	Flavio	Graham Jenkins*	Keith Warner*	Opera review (broken link) ; July 25, 27, 28, 30
1985	Antonio Salieri*	La grotta di Trofonio	David Parry*	Richard Jones*	Allan Watkins costumes; lighting by Rick Fisher; Opera review (broken link) ; August 7, 8, 10, 11
1985					mnc.com: Oliver's Beauty and the Beast performed at St.Johns, Smith Square, London
1986	Claudio Monteverdi*	Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria	Peter Robinson*	Graham Vick*
1986	Giovanni Paisiello*	Il re Teodoro in Venezia	David Parry*	Richard Jones*	Opera mag (broken link)
1987	Ludwig van Beethoven*	Leonore	Peter Robinson*/ Robert Dean	Graham Vick*
1988	Johann Christian Bach*	Temistocle	Robert Dean*	Graham Vick*	Opera review (broken link)
1988	Jacques Offenbach*	Ba-ta-clan	David Parry*	Stephen Langridge*	,, ; set by Nigel Lowery
1988	Stephen Oliver*	Mario and the Magician (as Mario e il Mago)	David Parry*	Stephen Langridge*	[WP] Commission of the Batignano Festival ; doublebill with Ba-ta-clan
1989	Francesco Provenzale*	Lo schiavo di sua moglie	Martin André	Tim Hopkins*
1989	George Frideric Handel*	Rodelinda	Ivor Bolton*	Matthew Richardson
1990	Michael Tippett*	King Priam (as Re Priamo)	Ivor Bolton*	Graham Vick*	[Italian premiere]; trans: Luisa Saviori
1990	Gaetano Donizetti*	L'ajo nell'imbarazzo	David Parry / Paul McGrath	Tim Hopkins*	enWP says Paul McGrath (pro debut)
1990					Combattimento at South Bank Festival in London (cond Ivor Bolton; prod Richard Jones)(mncprods)
1991					Italian Cultural Institute London, Oliver: Exposition of a Picture. (cond: Paul McGrath, prod: Patrick Libby)
1991	Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart*	L'oca del Cairo	David Parry	Tim Hopkins	[WP] completed Oliver, text Oliver, trans: Luisa Saviori; design: Lowery
1991	Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart*	Zaide	Paul McGrath*	John Caird	extra text (structure) by Calvino johncaird.com; design Blane. opera mag (broken link) (xcheck omag cond info on this one (bolton?))
1992	Jacopo Peri*/ Stephen Oliver	Euridice	Dominic Wheeler*	Matthew Richardson	design: Anthony McDonald July 23– August 9 Opera mag (broken link)
1992	George Frideric Handel*	Orlando	Tim Lole*	Ian Spink*	design: Lucy Bevan ; Opera mag (broken link)
1992					Polish Institute, London. Oliver: A Man of Feeling (cond: David Parry, prod: Tim Hopkins, design: Lowery)(mncprods)
1993	Antonio Cesti*	Le disgrazie d'amore	Harry Bicket	Marcus Goodwin	design: Alice Purcell(mncprods)
1993	Leonard Bernstein*	Candide	Dominic Wheeler*	Graham Vick*	first Italian perfs ; Opera mag (broken link) ; design: David Manners. "Karl Daymond, just leaving the Opera Studio"
1994	Jonathan Dove*	The Little Green Swallow (as L'augellin belverde)	Jonathan Dove/ Brad Cohen	Richard Jones	[WP] Edition Peters ; design: Stewart Laing. Brad Cohen poss pro debut?
1994	Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart*	Don Giovanni	Dominic Wheeler*	Dalia Ibelhauptaitė	Dalia Ibelhauptaite first opera prod (HoS p304); Designer: Maria Bjørnson, Madeleine Fry makes costumes
1995					Her Majesty's Theatre, London. Irving Berlin: Watch Your Step (cond: Jane Glover / Dominic Wheeler*, prod: John Caird, desinn: Sue Blane, choreo: Matthew Bourne)
1995	Federico Bonetti Amendola (it)	I giganti della montagna	Dominic Wheeler* / Philip Headlam	Robert Delamere	[WP] ; Design: Yolanda Sonnabend
1995	Francesco Cavalli*	La Calisto	Robert Dean	Janine Wunsche*	Design: Alice Purcell
1996	Alessandro Stradella*	San Giovanni Battista (as Salome)	Dominic Wheeler*	Robert Delamere	Erotic oratorio. Designer: Tom Hadley
1996	Stephen Oliver*	A Man of Feeling (as Un uomo di sentimento)	Richard Hetherington (piano)	Nigel Lowery*	[WP]
1996	Robert Schumann*	Dichterliebe (as Amore di poeta), Frauenliebe und Leben (as Vita e amore di donna)			double bill with Oliver
1997	Alessandro Scarlatti*	Gli equivoci nel sembiante	Stephen Higgins*	Carlos Wagner*	Design: Laura Hopkins. Opera mag (broken link)
1997	Federico Bonetti Amendola	L'ombra	Matthew Rowe	Nigel Lowery*	[WP] after L'ombra. p. and d. Nigel Lowery.
1997	Kurt Weill*	The Seven Deadly Sins (as I sette peccati capitali)	Matthew Rowe	Nigel Lowery*	double bill with Amendola: L'ombra
1998					Delphina Studio, London. Weill: Speak Low (cabaret songs)
1998	Antonio Cesti*	Il pomo d'oro	Christian Curnyn*	Rupert Goold*	Opera review (broken link) Goold's first opera (HoS p.336)
1999	Stephen Storace*	Gli equivoci	Stephen Higgins*	Rupert Goold*	Opera review (broken link) ; lighting by Alan T. Boyd; sets by Adam Pollock
1999	George Frideric Handel*	Aci, Galatea e Polifemo	Christian Curnyn*	Netia Jones*	p. & d.: Netia Jones ; Alan T. Boyd and Andy Lane designed the neon lighting and the illustrative underwater projections ; Netia Jones as Netia Davan Wetton
1999	Johann Adolf Hasse	Marc'Antonio e Cleopatra	Christian Curnyn*	Adam Pollock* / Max Key	Serenata ; Design: Adam Pollock
2000	Johann Sebastian Bach*	Three cantatas	Christian Curnyn*	Aletta Collins*
					titles checked thus far
2001	Jonathan Dove*	L'altra Euridice			[WP] Edition Peters
2002	Carlo Pallavicino*	Messalina	Jonathan Gale	Julian Webber
2002	Adolphe Adam*	Le toréador	Stephen Higgins*	Jo Davies	Gemma Fripp sets; lighting by Mark Doubleday
2003	Jonathan Dove*	Le porte di Bagdad	Stephen Higgins*	Rupert Goold* (clash)	[WP] Edition Peters ; Opera review + more titles :Rossi's Zaida la mora, Monteverdi's Combattimento (broken link) ; Robert Delamare's staging and Adam Pollock's sets sprayed with 'Bush go home' graffiti. Mark Doubleday's lighting, Stuart Hopps's choreography and Sue Blane's costumes (ie, NOT Goold?)
2003	Jonathan Dove*	La dama ed il pulitore di Damasco			[WP] Edition Peters
2003	George Frideric Handel*	Amadigi di Gaula	Christian Curnyn*	Markus Bothe	Silvia Raggi Cose's costumes; Adam Pollock's set designs. lighting Mark Doubleday
2004	Florian Leopold Gassmann*	L'opera seria		Rupert Goold*

http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/O004373?q=Batignano&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit

Batignano.

Village in Italy near Grosseto, Tuscany, the site of an opera festival since 1974. The festival, which takes place during July and August, was founded by the designer Adam Pollock on the site of a ruined monastery, Santa Croce; the theatre is an open-air cloister in which performances are given in the late evening by the company Musica nel Chiostro ('Music in the Cloister'). It was inaugurated by a performance of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, sung by a mixture of Italian and British artists, in which scene changes were accomplished by moving the audience from one part of the building to another.

http://www.scenofest.org/CVs/AdamPollock/AdamPollock.htm Adam Pollock worked as a designer mainly in opera ( Maggio Musicale, Opera North, Scottish Opera,and companies in Canada and the U.S.A.) He met Maria Bjornson in 1972 when they were both designing for the Wexford Festival and became close friends. In 1974 Pollock founded the Batignano Festival which in the following thirty years acted as a trampoline for many young directors, conductors, singers and designers included Richard Hudson, Anthony MacDonald, Nigel Lowrey, Tom Cairns, and Colin Richmond).

on being there

[The] Convento di Santa Croce, in Batignano, is the home of Adam Pollock's legendary opera festival, Musica Nel Chiostro. For thirty years this was the favourite summer destination of countless British singers, instrumentalists, conductors and directors. I spent several idyllic weeks there in 1985, as rehearsal-pianist for Salieri's La Grotta di Trofonio. It was an intoxicating experience: playing the piano under a fig-tree at 8 in the morning (by 11 it was too hot to rehearse in the olive-grove, so we all went to the beach until late afternoon) – eating together at long tables, sharing a monastic cell with other musicians and the occasional baby scorpion. No-one was paid, everyone had to wash up – and at The End of it all, there were magical performances under the stars. I was hooked.

— Jonathan Dove, programme notes for L'augellino belverde, on his website.

Even after I had given up playing the piano for opera-rehearsals, I couldn't keep away from Batignano, and returned several times as audience – usually accompanying my great friend and mentor, Stephen Oliver. Stephen had written Beauty and the Beast to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Musica Nel Chiostro. He died in 1992, and Adam asked if I would write an opera for the 20th anniversary.

The Little Green Swallow celebrates this anniversary, and is dedicated to Stephen's memory. It was the first of five works for Batignano.

'My favourite year was the third, when I went as a cook. The kitchen became the hub, as kitchens do, and everyone congregated there, chopping onions, peeling garlic. One day I realized we had all the right voices for the second-act finale of Figaro, so we did it. Adam was on the telephone to an incredibly important critic from Rome, trying to persuade him to come and review the festival. The man asked if it was a rehearsal going on, and Adam said, "No, that's just the kitchen staff". He came.'

— Lesley Garrett, quoted in her Opera magazine profile.

http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/2004/02/21/chiude-batignano-il-festival-dei-geni.fi_030chiude.html Chiude Batignano il 'festival dei geni'

Stavolta Adam Pollock non scherza. E da Londra dichiara la volontà di far calare una volta per tutte il sipario su «Musica nel Chiostro», il festival che inventò nel 1974 dopo aver rilevato alla fine degli anni Sessanta l' antichissimo convento di Santa Croce a Batignano, in Maremma. Un evento che, grazie ad una programmazione raffinata, imperniata sul melodramma barocco e sulla musica contemporanea, ha fatto di questo piccolo borgo nel grossetano il cuore di un pellegrinaggio coltissimo (Italo Calvino era uno dei frequentatori e collaboratori del festival). E che ha lanciato personaggi oggi di importanza assoluta nel mondo della lirica: come il regista Graham Vick... Vick realizzerà anche un film sulla vita spericolata di questa «comune di geni», come lui stesso ha definito una volta il festival. «Musica nel chiostro» chiude dopo 30 anni «trascorsi sull' onda dell' entusiasmo - dice Pollock - ma adesso, a 67 anni, mi chiedo: perché continuare se il clima politico non è nel segno dell' accoglienza? Se ormai siamo considerati un "corpo estraneo" che non porta voti e quindi non degno di considerazione da parte dei politici locali?». L' attuale giunta comunale di centrodestra ha dato il colpo di grazia a un progressivo taglio dei bilanci iniziato a metà anni Ottanta con un sindaco di sinistra, Valentini: «Oggi i finanziamenti comunali ammontano a 10 mila euro, altri 10 mila arrivano dalla Provincia: troppo poco - dice Pollock - ci è venuta in aiuto la Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze che eroga da tempo 50 mila euro annui a fondo perduto. Se non fosse stato per la lungimiranza della Fondazione avremmo chiuso da tempo». L' assessore alla cultura Fulvia Perillo, indipendente di area Forza Italia, si dichiara sorpresa della decisione di Pollock, «mi auguro non definitiva: spero che troveremo insieme una soluzione» dice. Ma ricorda che il budget comunale per la cultura è esiguo, «su di esso pesano i finanziamenti dell' Orchestra sinfonica grossetana, che svolge una meritoria attività concertistica». Pollock, secondo la Perillo, è troppo esterofilo nelle sue scelte: cantanti, registi, direttori d' orchestra arrivano dall' Inghilterra, «ci piacerebbe - dice - che "Musica nel chiostro" coinvolgesse più grossetani». «è una polemica che dura da quando il festival è nato - replica Pollock, antipatico sia alla destra perché troppo di sinistra che alla sinistra che lo accusa di snobismo - i miei più stretti collaboratori sono di qui, i materiali di scena vengono forniti da artigiani locali. Mi piacerebbe coinvolgere artisti italiani: peccato che non siano disposti a lavorare senza cachet e a rimborso spese». E adesso questo invidiatissimo sognatore coltiva un altro progetto: «Aprire a Batignano una scuola di alta formazione che insegnerà la lingua italiana ai cantanti lirici stranieri».

http://www.elysianfilms.com/tmp/while.htm While the Music Lasts: Celebrating Musica Nel Chiostro Adam Pollock was a highly successful, London-based scenic/interior designer who 'dropped out' in the 60s and bought a dilapidated 17th century convent 60 miles south of Siena. Having restored part of the building, he was cajoled by friends into making use of the wonderful space, and in 1974, he decided to put on an opera.

Singers who have performed (and in many cases begun their careers) there include: Lesley Garrett, Eiddwen Harrhy, Bonaventura Bottone, Marie McLaughlin, Diana Montague, Nuala Willis, Della Jones, Anne Dawson, Neil Jenkins, Jonathan Best, Patricia Rozario, Alison Hagley, Derek Lee Ragin, Omar Ebrahim, Pamela Helen Stephen, Susannah Waters, Mary Plazas, Karl Daymond, Hilary Summers and John Daszak.

Directors (many of whom produced their first operas there) include: Graham Vick, Tim Albery, Tim Hopkins, [[Stephen Langridge*]] and Richard Jones.

Designers (creating miracles with virtually no budget) include: Maria Björnson, Yolanda Sonnabend, Richard Hudson, Sue Blane, Antony McDonald, Tom Cairns, and Nigel Lowery.

And conductors include: Jane Glover, David Parry, Nicholas Kraemer, Martin André, Ivor Bolton, Stephen Higgins and Harry Bicket.

In addition to discovering and encouraging performers, directors and designers, Adam Pollock has been uncompromisingly brave in choosing the festival's repertoire: always rarely performed and, more often than not, world premieres of very old or very new works.

Flights, food and accommodation are provided — but no one is paid, and everyone is roped in to do the infamous communal washing up on a rota system. And it's all hands to the deck — no one worries about their job descriptions — the cast help haul scenery and sew their own costumes, the stage crew double as extras. It's a bit like opera summer camp — except that the standards are a great deal higher.

The 'Batignano experience' is undoubtedly testing but also great fun — up to 90 British opera professionals locked together in a magnificent, crumbling, 17th century Tuscan convent, working incredibly hard all day, partying equally hard at night.

http://opera.archive.netcopy.co.uk/article/november-1979/39/batignano-cesti-revival (broken link) The small orchestra directed by Dr Glover was superb. The irony of all this is that this extraordinary effort, by a group working as a sort of commune without pay, risked being disbanded even during these highly successful performances. Until now aided by Brian Dickie of Glyndebourne, Tilo V. Watzdorf, Massimiliano Magnani of the Municipality of Grosseto to which Batignano belongs, and especially by the Peter Moores Foundation, MUSICA NEL CHIOSTRO needed the enthusiasm of illustrious guests such as Sir Georg Solti, Alberto Moravia. and the producer Liliana Cavani, as well as rave reviews in major Italian papers, to convince the usually enlightened Grosseto government to cancel its announced plans to discontinue financial support, and so, at the time of writing, 'Music in the Cloister' will after all have a sixth year and. I hope, many more.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/4203658/Bowing-out-of-Tuscany.html 12:01AM BST 17 Apr 2007 Opera founder is to sell his restored monastery, reports Zoe Dare Hall

When Adam Pollock gave up a career as interior designer to the stars in Swinging Sixties London for life as a farmer in a Tuscan monastery, he thought he was retreating from the world. Instead, the world came to him, after he set up an annual opera festival that would help launch the careers of such names as Lesley Garrett, Jane Glover and Graham Vick.

Overlooking the medieval hill village of Batignano in southern Tuscany's Grosseto province, 90 minutes from Rome and Pisa, the Monastery of Santa Croce was built in the 17th century to house 21 monks. By the time Adam stumbled across it in 1968, it was a ruin. "It had no windows, doors, water or electricity," he recalls. ...

He bought Santa Croce in 1969 for £10,000 and spent £10,000 more on a new roof. While tending goats and lettuces, he began the vast project "to return the monastery to how it would have been when the monks lived here". He revaulted the high ceilings and restored vestiges of 17th-century frescoes....

In the early years, a stream of friends came from England promising to mix cement and paint walls but were invariably distracted by the beach, 20 minutes away. "I started to think that it would be much nicer if we were doing something," Adam recalls. "Someone suggested staging an opera in the cloister."

http://opera.archive.netcopy.co.uk/article/july-1992/39/a-handful-of-operas/Batignano (broken link) Adam Pollock on the Stephen Oliver operas

http://opera.archive.netcopy.co.uk/article/january-2000/89/italy-inventing-tradition/Batignano