<<  -- 4 --  Bill Newman    CELEBRATORY PARADE

Enzo's wide range of personages are distinguished by delicately traced pastel colours, with bolder stretches of red, orange and blue highlighting foreground details like costume apparel or a dramatic backwash. Many are devoted to musical subjects -- the main opera repertory with principal characters, celebrities in concert, whatever the setting or occasion -- there is a marvellous one of the Spoleto Festival, the characters, audiences and their founder, another is Il carnevale di Venezia with the marauding masqueraders. Tristano e Isotta are pictured in white, nude with grey outlines against a pale yellow background. The sea beneath has a gentle turbulence, a startled face appearing on the wave crest.

But there are instrumentalist impressions, also, including a skull-faced cellist in evening dress, dancers in rehearsal and performance, and several studies in afterworld that demonstrates acute visionary leanings. The man himself is fascinating -- dark brown eyes that scan every facial detail, a subtle, mischievous smile that denotes eternal pleasure in his craft, and a strong desire to sing the whole baritone repertory in which I was urged to join in!

Back to musical fringe events held in various galleries. Victor's promises finally rang true. Another close friend with a very serious expression (I never learnt his name, so his photo must suffice) serenaded the ladies with a selection of Napolitana with guitar accompaniment, while another backed a sexy teenager girating through some current pop hits. 'Now for somebody special!' Victor plunged through his entrance to grab Wayne Hankin, one of the music providers for Daniel and the Lions, currently being performed at the picturesque Church of St Euphemia, on main street level adjacent to the Duomo.

Wayne lives in New York, and he carries his instruments around on shoulder straps, carefully protected in leather cases. Their Italian names are ciararnella, flauto dolce, cornamusa, and flauto dulciana, and he has ready-prepared programmes for displaying their distinctive tonal charms and piercing declamations, immediately casting a spell on listeners. One of the world's soft-spoken nice guys, his whole body moves in time to the music, and there's never a false flutter or an absent note during the performances.

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