During our garden tour in May we saw Classic Tuscan Gardens like La Pietra, where they perform Concerts from all over the world and English Classical Plays like Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” in an outside theatre.
Theatre at La Pietra
This is a complete contrast to The Glyndebourne Opera Company in England where they now produce Italian ( and other) Opera’s inside in the superb Opera House – but the English still love to picnic in the very typical English Garden.
Glyndebourne
We were fortunate last week – the weather was perfect – but given the notorious vagaries of the English summer it is better for performers and audiences to hold our performances indoors and enjoy the sights and sounds of the gardens with our champagne in the long Intervals.
Given the English reputation for reserve and rigidity it is strange to notice that our gardens are much less formal and well manicured that those in Tuscany!
Maybe this is where our repression breaks out?
La Foce Gardens
The photo to the left shows the end of the first interval at Glyndebourne, the other one of Cecil Pinsent’s designs for Iris Origo’s garden at La Foce.
However Tuscan gardens usually move from these formal close cut hedges, through an arched wisteria walkway,to a wilder – sometimes wooded – area beyond. The Photos below illustrate this feature at La Foce and La Pietra
Wisteria walkway at La Foce
Walkway at La Pietra
