So, goodbye Ferrara. I wasn’t disappointed, no matter the outcome of yesterday’s meeting with the abbess. I have my canon, and I hope it will be worth chasing up. And I think there is still stuff to do here, but it’s waited four hundred years, it can wait a bit longer.

It was so worth visiting this city. I was reminded, oddly, of Austin, Texas. Oh, maybe the punctuation there is ambiguous. I was reminded oddly of Austin, Texas. There was a slogan a few years back, plastered over the billboards in the airport that read, “Keep Austin weird.” Well, Ferrara, you have your weirdness. After I left the gallery and had lunch in one of the leafier squares surrounding the castello, I went to look at the books and found this guy busking on his theremin.

I’d seen him a little earlier in the day playing the saw, and he was a whole lot better at the theremin. I almost bought one of his CDs, as he was really good – I mean, really technically good. But the music was saccharine, sub-Mantovani stuff. Still, I would have loved to have known how he managed to synchronise what sounded like quite free chord changes in the accompaniment with the notes he was playing. Either he was incredibly well rehearsed, or his complicated looking instrument was a theremin-driven sequencer-type-thingy.

And while I was staring at him, these people in doublets, hose and black velvet caps and capes rushed past me. So, like Alice after the white rabbit – Reader, I followed them. They disappeared into the castello, and by the time I caught up with them they had just started doing this:
Flags in Ferrara
What I really loved was the fact that the trumpeters are all girls, and that there were some younger members of this troupe. Can you imagine a US/UK twelve-year-old dreaming of becoming a flag-tosser? (Don’t think about that too long, or an alternative meaning might occur that would fit some of our more zealous “patriots”….)

Anyway, there were a few ‘acts’ to the display, including a duo where they threw four flags between each other. This was like mega-juggling. And then this dude came on holding two flags, with his friend behind holding three. I had to move to get a better angle on him, so here is just the culmination of his act. FREESTYLING! WITH FLAGS! FIVE OF THEM! Mr Woo, eat your heart out.
Freestyling with flags
But the weirdness wasn’t over yet. I came out again in the evening to post yesterday’s installment, and found this happening in the via Garibaldi:

Che spettacolo di drag queen! In the pouring rain!

I retired to the bar opposite the Curia where I sat drinking my mojito granita (seemed like a good idea at the time, but never again…) and uploading my blog. I kept thinking that this city doesn’t seem to have lost any of the d’Este hunger for life and spectacle. OK, so the reason they had to set up so many oratori and conservatori for the poor is that they spent most of the taxes on parties, and the famine was so bad in 1590 that people were dying in the streets while Alfonso was still getting his cultural kicks. But there is still a sense in the city that collective fun is good for everyone. Sure there is an economic benefit in all this – for instance, free wifi means people like me sit around in the cafes, and maybe the central cafes pay a heavy subsidy to the city. But still it’s the city that takes responsibility for providing it, and it’s the community collectively that encourages the flag-tossers and drag queens to strut their stuff. Good on them. It’s a great town, and I’m glad I came. Never mind the cincini (“no-seem-ems,” as my mom calls them). I’ll know next time to wear repellent and keep my windows closed at all times. Addio, Ferrara, and arrivederci.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 12th, 2009 at 5:36 pm and is filed under Musicology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.