On Friday, 7 July, we went with President and Sorella Allen first to Padova, about 2.5 hours, to tour the Ruffatti organ factory, which I had pre-arranged. They seemed to like it. It was fairly similar to the Mascioni factory, at least they both make pipe organs from "scratch." Mascioni seemed a little bit more organized, although wasn't quite as large, and the Ruffatti brother who does the voicing was in England installing a new organ, so we didn't get to see and hear that process, as we did at Mascioni. By the time we got there nearly everyone had gone home. They were nice to stick around late for us.
The factory is located in a residential area of Padova.
In this office the daughter of Piero Ruffatti, one of the owner-brothers, is learning from her father to design organs, all via computer. She will take over his ownership of the firm. Piero took us on the tour and was a very nice man, who spoke good English. He said he does marketing and design work, but does not voice pipes. Voicing refers to putting a newly made pipe on a small voicing organ, sounding it along with a standard pipe of the same pitch, and then making adjustments with a file to the mouth or end of the pipe to affect the pitch (tuning) and timbre or quality of the sound. It is a very difficult process, sort of like tuning a piano, but if you make a mistake the pipe is ruined. We asked if they use machines to voice, as piano tuners sometimes do, and they said they it is all done by ear. Neither brother is an organist.
They had many new pipes and old pipes being restored. Some were 16 feet long. They do make 32 foot long (bass) pipes for really big organs.
There were lots of trays of ranks (a rank is one pipe of a certain timbre for each of the 61 keys) of pipes ready to be installed in a new organ they were working on.
Some pipes are quite small. The speaking part of these pipes is only about an inch long, the rest of the tube goes down into the windchest. I put my pen next to them to show the size. They would play high notes on the upper right side of the keyboard.
This is the left half of a new organ, which is going to Ireland fairly soon.
It's actually a fairly large organ. This is one of two consoles it will have. The Tabernacle Organ has 5 manuals, this one 4, so it is not much smaller. Standing next to it is Piero Ruffatti, one of the brother owners, who took us on the tour.
He showed us where they melt the metal to make sheets to roll into metal pipes.
Then they pour the molten metal in the bucket and on the table for it to harden into a sheet, which they mill thinner and more even, before it is rolled on a wooden mandrill.
They use about 90% tin, and add lead and zinc, which are analyzed (weighed) using these little balls on the scale, to ensure the right composition.
They also make the wooden pipes. This is an old one, they did not make
But in their restoration of this antique organ, they are added wood to these pipes, rather than just make new pipes. That is quite a lot of work.
These are trays of pipes, including a wooden rank, with additional wood added to the ends.
This is in the wood storage room, with many varieties of hardwood, used for different parts of organs.
Holding a piece of ebony (black wood), which will be used for sharps and flats.
This worker was gluing parts of a wind line, made in wood. Mr. Ruffatti said that plastic or PVC would work better and probably last longer, but it isn't "traditional." He said they are experimenting with a lot of new materials which work better and longer than traditional things, including carbon fiber wire to replace wood for trackers.
This worker was gluing white sheep skin on bellows parts.
The organ consoles use computers, made in Italy (Cuneo) specifically for Ruffatti. He said their keyboards come from England, sharps from ebony and whites from cow bones.
Ruffatti said that a man in his 70s hand carves the fancy wood work for the organ cases and consoles. He has no apprentice, because no one wants to do this kind of work. President Allen said he would love to do it. We discussed that fact that this wood (oak) work could easily be duplicated using a computer and cut with a laser printer, like Kevin used to do at BYU with metal and wood. That wouldn't be "traditional" either, but it may have to come to that, Ruffatti admitted.
Piero is holding a hand carved "final" that goes on the top of an organ case, and behind are the reeds of big bass pipes that sound like deep farts. There is a pile of organ benches in the background. It was an interesting tour. It would have been better if we could have played an organ, as we did at Mascioni to see how beautiful the finished product sounds, because that's what it is all about. I tried to get Piero to give me a ballpark cost of a small organ for an LDS church, which he would't do off the top of his head.
We drove the hour from Padova to Verona and found our AirBnB, in the house about in the middle of this pix.
We had a pleasant room, with our own entrance, in a private home, for €101, including tax.
With its own bathroom.
We walked across this bridge over the river, about 1 km, to get to the older part of town.
And reached the arena, built by the ancient Romans.
There were many restaurants in this part of town. It was also hot and humid.
I had this tuna salad, for €15, which was good, but the cold frizzante water was the best thing. I dressed the salad with olive oil and vinegar. The black thing was sort of a tasteless cracker, used for presentation, I suppose. Italians eat a lot of canned tuna, which can be very good.
Myrna had this chicken Caesar salad, also with a presentation cracker thing, with a white dressing (the first we have ever been served in Italy--definitely for Americans.)
President Allen had a plate of lasagna. (Sister Allen had what Myrna had.)
And then we found our assigned entrance to the arena.
And entered into the bowels of the 2,000 year old Roman amphitheater. (Actually built in 30 AD and could hold 30,000, now only 15,000 for security reasons.)
Finding our seats among the throng. The lady from the AirBnB loaned us some seat cushions, because the metal chairs, which had backs, have no seat cushions. We had €75 seats, which were actually very good: we saw and heard well, maybe better than if we would have had floor seats, which costs hundreds more, although they come with free wine and antipasti. The opera started at 9 pm, and we got there about 15 minutes early. There was a little lady from Argentina whose seat was between us (we got her to move), who said she goes all over the world, by herself, to see operas.
The sun hadn't yet set when we got there, and we could see very well the large building, a set representing a "temple." The opera we saw was Nabucco, or Nebuchadnessar in English, written in 1841 by Giuseppe Verde. (Joe Green in English.) It is about the Israelites being taken captive by the Babylonians in Old Testament times. When Verdi wrote the music (he didn't write the words), the people in Lombardia (Milan province) were ruled by the Austrians who, of course, they didn't like--they wanted their freedom. It would have been politically incorrect for Verdi to have composed an opera against the government, because the government was a patron of the arts, but it could have been taken either way (and was): ancient Israel against Babylon or Italians against Austrians. In this production of the opera, the sets and costumes were done in mid-1800s (called Resorgamento) period, with the Italian flag hung over the large and spacious building (or temple of Jerusalem), with the Austrian flag replacing it. There was lots of violence, e.g,, gun shooting, cannons, etc. a little non-scriptural love story thrown in to make it more interesting, and a very heart rending--patriotic ending. It is one of the most beloved operas in Italy, the chorus of the Hebrew slaves (Va Pensiero sul ali dorati--Fly thoughts on golden wings) is sung near the end. It is also the last hymn in our Italian LDS hymnbook, where in the US hymnbook we have the "Star Spangled Banner." It is very beloved in Italy. When Verdi died in 1901, over a million people lined the streets in Milan to see his hearse go by, and they sang this song.
The large orchestra (there was also a separate band on stage) was directed by a conductor wearing a black Jewish kippah or skullcap, so I assume he was Jewish. The back of the arena was not used for seating (anciently it was), but they had cannons back there which exploded from time to time, for the battles. Although I didn't get good pix of them (it was hard to take pix and the program said no pix) at one time I counted 16 live horses on stage, being ridden by soldiers and pulling carriages, etc.
A few full sized horses are in this pix.
There were two large monitors on either side showing the words they were signing, in Italian on top and English on the bottom, which we greatly appreciated.
The principal divas (women soloists or prima donne ) were very large (like the fat lady sings) and had very powerful voices. In fact, no one on stage used any kind of microphones and you could hear them very well. There was a PA system for announcing (in Italian, English and German) the intermissions, etc., and the sound quality from that was horrible, but the music from the orchestra was well balanced with the voices, whether solos, duets, or full chorus, with no amplification to over 10,000 in a Roman era stone arena. It was amazing.
In this pix you can see the big crane behind the arena, which is used to move the large sets. In this scene they are having a procession, taking a statue of the Madonna down the street, as they do in Italy. We have seen these, led by the priest, holding a big cross, with altar boys behind, a statue on a carrying board and a lot of people following behind. I suppose in the opera it was showing how they (Italians) worship their idols vs how the Babylonians worshiped Ball--probably not a lot of difference.
The king, Nabucco, (mid stage) was played a large bass with a powerful voice.
At two points,, the large building turned around to reveal the king's private office.
The building turned again so the Austrian flag, being put up by force of the army, could replace the Italian flag on the building. (Evil replacing good, then good, the Italian flag, at the end.)
The building turned again to become an opera house, with a Jewish menorah on the stage.
Then the menorah was removed so the Babylonian Baal god could be worshiped. The Hebrew slaves were on the stage singing "Va Pensiero," the famous chorus, and they got an encore, so they sang it again. It was a tear jerker for me, having sung the hymn at the back of the LDS hymnal. ("Oh mia patria, si bella e perduta!--my country, so beautiful, and lost" is very meaningful.) In fact, our Navagli ward had a talent show last year, and I sang this number, for which I accompanied myself.
Then, through gunfire, actually from the opera house on stage, the false god Baal was toppled.
Towards the end (fourth act) Nabucco (bottom) sang duets with one of his daughters (on the portico above), before he converted to worship Israel's god, Jehovah.
At that point, the yellow Austrian flag was replaced with the Italian flag.
It was over at 12:30 am when we left the arena, which was quite orderly, and walked back to the AirBnB, which was a pleasant stroll, because it wasn't so hot and we weren't hurrying.
The next morning we drove, a lot, because of detours, through the province of Verona, where they make hard grateable cheese, like Parmesian, but different, not quite as strong.
And found the porcelain factory Myrna wanted to see, where the owner opened the shop (she lives above) and let us in. We bought some beautiful flowers.
Because we needed to use the restroom, we got to go back into the factory, which wasn't in operation on Saturday, and we saw where her 20 employees work on these colorful works of art.
They sell porcelain objects all over the world, but not much from the showroom, where a 30% discount was given to us.
The restroom back in the shop, which we used, featured an old style Italian squatter.
They even make porcelain dolls there.
From there we drove another hour or so to a factory, near Vicenza (and the American base) where they make ceramic pottery, where the Sorelle bought more beautiful things.
There were several sizes of chicken pitchers.
Lots of cute veggie and animal serving trays
More of the same in different animals and veggies
Salts and peppers of all sizes
And many more of the same
Including cute pigs (think DeLoris).
Dishes and serving trays.
And more and more cute and useful fired and painted pottery.
I thought these asparagus bowls with a hard boiled egg on top were cute, probably appealed more to Italians than Americans, because Americans don't eat them this way. There were lots of American customers shopping there, from the base.
In fact, Myrna had to wait a while to get her items wrapped, because some American ladies, for whom the government would ship their stuff home, were buying lots of pottery.
On the way back to the freeway, past kilometer after kilometer of fields of corn and wheat, we saw this trattoria (restaurant), where we had a good lunch.
I had this spaghetti alla carbonara (bacon with egg sauce), which was excellent. I am still working on perfecting my technique for making it. We finally got home, after a long drive (President Allen drove), and then I took a nap. It was hot and humid and the AC wasn't working well in our bedroom, but I was able to sleep. Then we set the alarm for 3:45 am so we could go down to watch our grandson,
When we went to church today (rode with the Allens), we saw Sorella Ney and her daughter riding to church on their scooters. (She came to our 4th of July dinner.) They come this way every week (they don't own a car), but I have never been there at the right time to take a pix. They take their scooters in the church, and one of their daughters rides a bike, which she also takes into the church.
Well, ciao for now.
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