Showing posts with label Venice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Venice. Show all posts

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Death of the soprano Montserrat Figueras

I shall never forget a balmy August 1986 evening in Venice, when Christine and I took the vaporetto across the Giudecca Canal for a concert of Baroque music in the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore.


The principal performers were the viola da gamba maestro Jordi Savall and his soprano wife Montserrat Figueras.


At that hour of day, the hordes of tourists had abandoned the islands of the Lagoon, and the concert audience was quite small. I had the impression that it was almost a private recital. Thanks to a rare amalgam of excellence—music,  artists and place—that concert in Venice was magic.

At the end of the evening, on the vaporetto back to the Piazza San Marco, we found ourselves standing alongside an unexpected pair of passengers, returning to their hotel: Savall and Figueras.