I have been fortunate to be in Milan for some major festivals of the Church year, and this year we were there on the feast of the Assumption. I went to Vespers, which included a procession around the building for which we were all supplied with a large oil-fired candle. The congregation were allowed to join in the small male-voice choir in the music but I couldn’t because it was not printed out for us and I didn’t know it. Possibly the plainchant was local Ambrosian rite. The more recent music sounded 19th century and maybe if I’d been a traditionalist Catholic I might have recognised it. The liturgy was slick as usual.
We witnessed preparations for another festival, the Sienese Palio, and heard what sounded like football chants sung with varying degrees of harmony and musicality by groups of young people. We worked out that these must be supporters of the various contrade.
We stayed near Lucca, the birthplace of Puccini and Boccherini. We visited the museum in Puccini’s birthplace, full of memorabilia from his career, including a spectacular Turandot costume from the Met, and for some reason lots of stuff relating to Edgar. (N.B. don’t visit the ‘Butterfly’ café opposite, or if you must, don’t sit down! Occupying a table incurs a huge markup.) While in Santa Croce in Florence, I saw Rossini’s tomb; his body was moved there from Paris.
My daughter went to a performance of Madam Butterfly in Lucca and you can read about it in her blog.