EVOLUTION OF MUSIC by ANDREA ALVAREZ- GOMEZ (2008)

I'VE LIED TO GRANDMA. I told her I would spend 8 weeks in Italy studying history of art, and though I believed it at the time I now know just how off-mark I was in my limited description.

My lie became evident to me as early as Day 2 in Venice, when Jeremy Sams literally bounced into the nunnery and terminally dispersed my post-lunch drowsiness with a massive dose of opera. His infectious exuberance and outrageous inventiveness-his definition of Vivaldi as the most heterosexual composer of the universe and the image of Wagner "landing like an aircraft in the middle of the XIX century" may prove impossible to shake off-quickly made converts of us all.

The next lecturer to prove me wrong was Jane Glover through her epic Mozart trilogy. I'm quite certain she knows details of his life even his Father was left unaware of. I now feel comfortable addressing the legendary composer as 'Wolfie'.

Following on her heels was David Bryant, who effectively yanked us down from the stucco cloud of Baroque bliss and eloquently pointed out the many everyday nuisances the 150+ churches in XIV century Venice had to face-like musicians' wages, for one.

The fourth dose was optional and the 20 or so of us who chose to take it were not disappointed in the least: Rosemary Forbes-Butler's serenade in her stunning XVII century Palazzo made for the most enchanting of evenings.

Those of us who up to now thought the word ended & began with opera-understandably, given the previous lectures-were given the privilege of having our minds blown by Peter Phillips, by far the most technical of the merry band. 'Technical', however, is not to be confused with 'dull'-his vivid depiction of the evolution of music from the chant to Motorhead seemed to compress millennia into minutes.

When we left Venice, I thought our music education was done. I was, again, mistaken. A visit to the British Institute in Florence for Dr. Matteo Sansone's story-telling session on the very first opera-a Florentine inspiration-was to be the actual Grande Finale.