by Emma Moore
On our second day in Italy, we were to visit Lucca. After a somewhat early start, our bunch of fairly groggy students and teachers met by the piano in the hotel for a quick rehearsal before leaving for Lucca for the day.
When we arrived, we were given the afternoon free to explore. Almost every girl got lost in the fabulous Italian jewellery stores around town, and the teachers wisely found themselves a café to sit in for the duration. Having met up again at 7.30pm, we travelled to a little spa town just outside Lucca for our first concert.
Following a transfer from our coach to a shuttle bus for the steep roads to take us to the spa town, we arrived to find a somewhat eerie village. We saw only a couple of people, and wondered whether we were in the right place. Luckily we were, but had to wait a while for someone to come and actually let us into where we were performing.
The Barbershop took these minutes as sacred time to have a last minute practice while the rest of us looked around. When we were let in, we had a while to have a quick practice and get changed. Our audience arrived and the concert began. We were performing our Light Music folder, which I think was our favourite one of the two! After the interval, we and our audience were serenaded by the Barbershop Quartet. Having performed their line-up of English songs, they introduced their star guest, Ms. Sylvia O’Regan, to do an old Italian classic, O Sole Mio, which had been arranged by Mr. Barry Finn on the bus on the way to the concert! This went down very well with the audience.
Following the concert we were fed and watered by the residents. The hospitality was fantastic and a great time was had by all.
