Orchestra Italiano | Part 10, HYSO Lightning Strikes Twice in Cremona

 April 5, 2024: Two Concerts, One Very Busy Day

On Friday, April 5, the HYSO was scheduled to play two concerts at Cremona's Teatro Amilcare Ponchielli. The first occurred during late morning and catered to local "high school" students. It included an open rehearsal, a Q&A session, and a brief concert. Later that evening, the HYSO performed their full program for concert goers in Cremona.

The venue, Teatro Amilcare Ponchielli, is an opera theater built shortly after the previous theater (dating to 1747) burned down in 1806. The interior of the theater took its design cues from the famous La Scala opera house in Milan that we would visit the very next day. The theater is named in honor of a famous opera composer born near Cremona.

Proof positive that we were in the right place!

Morning Youth Concert and Open Rehearsal

Within, the horseshoe-shaped auditorium featured seats on the floor with four tiers of boxed seating. It exuded exactly the sort of old world European charm and elegance that one might expect.

Photo by Yana from the neighboring box.

Kristy and I had never attended a performance in this sort of a box before! We shared our box with Mark and Dena for the morning performance.

As the local Cremonese children filed in, we immediately noticed a glitch in translation. These "high schoolers" were clearly what we would consider middle school aged. As a whole, they were remarkably attentive and respectful. In fact, when a cell phone came out, one of the local teachers pounced immediately and the student abashedly repocketed their device. Technological distractions clearly span international borders.

Casey put the HYSO musicians through their paces as they acclimated to playing in a new space. Through a translator, he paused periodically to explain that they were fine tuning challenging passages and ensuring that the group could stay together while adapting to unfamiliar acoustics.

When questions were first invited from the students, a long pause ensued that caused the educators in my box to exchange knowing glances. But once seeded by the first tentative question, additional queries came rapidly. The students were not only prolific questioners, but asked genuinely excellent questions. They asked how HYSO musicians were accepted into the orchestra, about how much practice time was necessary to play at their level, and which was the most difficult instrument to play. At the latter, all HYSO hands -- and occasional instruments where practical -- were raised by grinning musicians. There were so many questions that the organizers stepped in to close the Q&A session so that Casey and the HYSO could perform a 30 minute excerpt of the orchestra's full program. 

While difficult to see in this iPhone photo, The Bear is standing to take a bow for one of her solos.

Evening Concert

For the evening concert, HYSO parents were seated on the main floor, which gave us an opportunity to see the theater from a different perspective. We were later informed that an audience of nearly 1000 people filled the hall to hear our wonderful Hochstein musicians practice their craft.

View from on stage. Photo by The Bear.

Backstage at the Theatro Amilcare Poncielli. Photo by The Bear.

I could not see The Bear well from where I was sitting, but I did have a good view of Izzy (center) and Oliver (far right), another student from The Bear's school.

After a long day that included the earlier children's concert and tours of Cremona, the HYSO musicians played beautifully during their final Italian performance and rewarded all of the parents with yet another proud parent moment. Audience enthusiasm was sufficient that Casey returned to the podium to lead the HYSO through an encore.

The next morning, we would hike out of Cremona's central city, return to the motor coaches, and set out for Milan, the final destination of our Italian odyssey.