For all its charm, no one could describe the medieval town of Cortona in
Tuscany as a happening kind of place. Perched on a hilltop, a hour’s drive
from Florence, its “attractions” number three monasteries, two convents and
one preserved corpse of a thirteenth century saint, Margherita, which lies
in a glass coffin inside the main church.
Tourists tend to congregate around a small central piazza, offering a Spar
supermarket and handful of antique shops. Yet in August, this
unprepossessing corner of Italy is expected to attract 10,000 visitors for
the Tuscan Sun Festival - an event that organisers hope will put Cortona on
the map as one of the premier destinations for classical music in Europe.
For two weeks, the town will play host to the sort of internationally-renowned
musicians who could keep the Royal Festival Hall in ticket sales for months.
Opening the festival is Sophia Loren, whose conductor son, Carlo Ponti Jnr,
is directing the Russian National Orchestra in a recital of his film
producer father’s most famous scores.
Jose Cura will be performing an open air concert outside the Sancturio St
Margherita, while a chapel next to the Franciscan monastery will see a
low-key appearance by Anna Netrebko, the Russian soprano who, myth has it,
was discovered mopping floors in a theatre in St Petersburg. Says Barrett
Wissman, the Texan impresario who is staging the event, “I can think of few
other classical music festivals that have such a high level of artists in
such a concentrated way.”
Cortona is, naturally, not the only Italian town that is putting on a few
concerts this summer. July and August is traditionally opera season in
Tuscany, and there is hardly a square within a 100-mile radius that isn’t
temporarily turning itself an alfresco amphitheatre for performances of
Puccini or Verdi. In just five years, though, Cortona has pulled off the
feat of becoming as renowned for classical music as Bunel in Spain is for
tomato-throwing.
The reason? “The town has a very special feel to it,” says Wissman. “We may
not be have the biggest or most impressive line-up, but there is an
intangible magic to the festival that you can’t quite put your finger on.”
“Magic” aside, its strength is also due to considerable musical muscle.
Wissman is owner of IMG Artists, the management agency for classical
performers, while his wife is Nina Kotova, the cellist. The couple have been
holidaying in Tuscany since 1995, and initially devised the festival as a
one-off event for their friends. Wissman says that at first, he simply
wanted to get people inside Cortona’s Fellini-on-mothballs theatre, Teatro
Signorelli. “It was incredible to me that this beautiful place was hardly
being used. If it was in London or Vienna, people would be all over it.”
Wissman maintains the festival’s informal vibe has remained, despite its
growing international audience. The Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky has
praised the “bohemian” atmosphere, a word that may surprise non-classical
music fans. “The concerts all feel relaxed and intimate, with no more than a
few hundred people in the audience,” says Wissman. “There are parties in the
evening. People dress casually. It all makes for an electric atmosphere.”
It’s not exactly Glastonbury - you are still unlikely to see anyone on day-glo
stilts, or rolling around in mud - but it is the sort of event where you can
stumble, wine glass in hand, from dinner to open air concert to late night
recital. In fact, you’re encouraged to. In addition to the classical
concerts, there are plenty of extra curricular activities, including wine
tastings, cookery demonstrations, a retrospective of Carlo Ponti’s films in
a derelict medieval church and “wellness” seminars on everything from yoga
to Chinese medicine.
Wissman hopes that the diverse mix will attract not just classical music fans,
but also the British, French and German tourists who already holiday
Tuscany. So is everyone a winner? Well, not quite. “People in Italy are a
little conservative,” says Wissman, explaining the locals’ reticence to make
the most of cheap tickets. “They don’t like change. But this festival is
bringing business to the town, and a fresh image. People are becoming more
accepting of what we’re doing.”
For visitors, at any rate, the festival offers a chance to catch the biggest
names in classical music in a setting that feels like nothing less than a 3D
Renaissance painting. “We have some of the greatest artists in the world
performing in a place that lives and breathes history,” says Wissman. Many
people would go much further for much less.
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