Duing the summer every town and village puts on festivals and events. In recent days we could have gone to festivals celebrating local winkles, local bread, local sausages or we could have gone to jazz concerts, one act comedies by local dramatic groups etc. We could even have gone to a re-enactment of Winston Churchill coming to the nearby town of Montemaggiore in 1943 to review the battle for Rimini. Instead we opted to go to Piagge (next village to San Giorgio) who put on a production of the rarely performed Donizetti one act opera “Rita”. As it was free entry we decided to treat our then guests Jeremy and Juliet to an evening out. We were joined for the evening by Pam and Michael, both keen opera fans.
The opera took place in the small piazza inside the walls of Piagge. The evening was like a step back in time when people in isolated villages would go to whatever was on offer. The stage was simple with some bed sheets as backdrop. Music was provided by a man on the piano and the opera has only 3 singing parts and so there was just about enough space on the stage. Unfortunately the singing was at best mediocre with the lady playing Rita even less than mediocre. Despite it all we all decided we enjoyed the evening but would not be rushing back for next year’s offering.