Bardi Palace – a visit to a home with a real story to tell.
Last night we were invited to a party in the Bardi Palace , the building, and the very apartment, where Opera Lyrica, as we now know it, first began on 14th of January 1573.
The “Camerata Fiorentina” was a group of scientists and scholars, which was led by Count Bardi, who lived in this Palazzo, and included Galileo Galilei’s father musician Vincenzo Galilei (1520 –1591), who used to meet in the apartment shown above.
The room shown below was originally the theatre of the Palazzo, it was not unusual in those times before TV for noble families to create their own plays and public performances, and the strings hanging from the ceiling that can be seen here towards the right of the picture below would have been part of the pulley affect to move the stage furniture!
The members of the Camerata Fiorentina agreed on new principles for music making which they developed into a musical accompaniment to the 33rd “Canto” of Dante Alighieri’s Inferno, which is generally accepted as the first Lyrical Opera.
But guess what? The 33rd Canto of the Inferno features poor old starving Count Ugolino – the subject of an earlier Blog that I wrote last month!
mmmn – I wonder whether under these circumstances it is right to mention that the food at Mary Ellen’s party , provided by caterers, was simply wonderful?
caterers and waiters
