Unless they've taken to spelling their family name C-I-A-O, I can't think of any reason for including the husband-and-wife piano duo of Angela Cheng and Alvin Chow on an Italian festival. But Massimiliano Frani can.
"The idea was to put together a festival that, musically speaking, would reflect the same kind of music festival that takes place in Italy," says the organizer of this week's "Italian Nights" festival. "And I thought if I was in Italy I would invite them. So I did."There is, of course, another connection. Both Cheng and Chow are former Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition competitors, from 1984 and 1978 respectively, as is Chow's twin brother, Alan, who took the silver medal in 1988. And the Bachauer, of which Frani is associate artistic director, is one of the festival's sponsors, along with the Italian Vice Consulate, the Utah Opera, Delta Air Lines, Gastronomy Inc., Frank Granato Importing and the University of Utah.
Hence, the Chows will be opening the musical portion of this week's festival with a free concert Wednesday, Oct. 30, at 7:30 p.m. at the Temple Square Assembly Hall. Again, there has been no effort to slant the program Italy-wards, consisting as it does of Poulenc, Schubert, Chopin, Dvorak, Ravel (the two-piano version of "La Valse") and George Crumb. But that will be made up for the following evening in another free Assembly Hall program featuring members of the Utah Opera Ensemble.
There, on Thursday, Oct. 31, at 7:30 p.m., they will regale their listeners with songs and arias of Bellini, Rossini, Verdi and Puccini (including the third-act quartet from "La Bohome"). Performing will be Lenore Odekirk, Ann Marie Wilcox, Robert Hoyt and Mark Huseth, with Frani himself at the keyboard.
(Earlier events will put a similarly Italian spin on things: a culinary launch Monday, Oct. 28, at 6 p.m. at Baci Trattoria; a free lecture on Italian art the same night at 7 at the U.'s Museum of Fine Arts; and an Italian cuisine workshop Tuesday, Oct. 29, at 7 p.m. at Frank Granato Importing's Holladay store.)
Then Frani moves to the podium to take part in a gala concert Friday, Nov. 1, at 8 p.m. at Abravanel Hall featuring the Orchestra di Benevento e del Sannio. The orchestra will perform not only with Frani but also with its own conductor, Paolo Ponsiano Ciardi, and piano soloist Eugenio De Rosa.
De Rosa, a Bachauer jury member in 1994, will be heard in Mozart's Piano Concerto in E flat major, K. 271, with Frani conducting. Before that, Frani will lead the orchestra in Suite No. 3 from Respighi's "Ancient Airs and Dances." Then Ciardi takes the baton for Bach's A minor Violin Concerto, with Carmelo Andriani as soloist, and Boccherini's Symphony in D minor ("La Casa del Diavolo").
Tickets to this event are $14 for general admission ($7 students) or $25 for reserved seating; prices include a buffet reception afterward at the Salt Lake Art Center.
Proceeds will benefit the Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation, which has been going through some rough times lately with squabbles among members of its board of trustees.
Earlier this month six board members stepped down at the organization's annual meeting, which also saw Nancy Halverson replaced as board chairman following a series of financial disputes with competition founder and artistic director Paul C. Pollei.
"Actually we have only received confirmation of four," Frani says of the departing board members. "I think that even those people who have expressed concern or disagreement have come to understand that this was exclusively a difference of opinion between Paul and Nancy, that the criticisms were not founded on any mismanagement or irresponsibility."
If so, it's a resolution no less welcome than the news Frani got late last week that his Italian orchestra could actually come.
"About six months ago, I was in San Francisco renewing my passport at the Italian consulate, and one of the secretaries said, `Why do you live in Salt Lake City when you travel so much?' " That led to an exchange of information about the Bachauer and an invitation to collaborate on a festival celebrating Italian culture in Utah.
"I had conducted this orchestra in the fall of '94 in Benevento, the little city close to Rome that they are based in, and thought they were extremely good to work with. So they checked with the American consulate in Naples and were told they did not need a visa to come. Then last Monday they were told, `Well, if you don't have a visa, you can't come.' "
Fortunately for Frani and his festival, some last-minute intervention by Sen. Orrin Hatch's office salvaged those plans, and the orchestra was scheduled to arrive in California this weekend for a concert in Stockton before proceeding our way.
And, as Frani points out, the possibility exists for people here to travel the other way, since purchase of a ticket to the Friday gala or experiencing the menu at Baci Trattoria will give them a chance to win a round trip for two to Rome. (For information call 521-9200.)
But for now Rome, or at least a part of it, is coming here. Unless, of course, the orchestra members find they need another visa to come from California to Utah.