For such a small and unheralded town, Spoleto has a long and rich history.
Much there is worthy of study. But as far as the city of today is concerned,
Spoleto is the Umbrian hill town that remade itself by investing in the arts.

Or, more precisely, it might be said that Gian Carlo Menotti remade the city.
And if the truth be told, Gian Carlo set out to remake Lucca in the first place.
But we were headed toward another piece of the puzzle before truth broke in.

Each year, if we are lucky, we find a new artist. Ground rule double: a local one.
The third requirement, to fit in our suitcase, has us stumped with this discovery.
The medium, to be revealed here below, is more than just a little bit recalcitrant.

The name of the artist is Luigi Piccioni. As often the case, we chatted at length.
Hanging on to each unfamiliar word, we pieced together the puzzle between us.
Using our phone apps to fill in the gaps, we figured out how he paints on metal.

In the slightly garbled translation on the back of the evening’s program, “La Furba e Lo Sciocco [The Clever One and the Fool] is a comic 18th-century intermezzo by Domenico Sarri, a composer not well-known or executed today.”

Now I don’t know about anyone else, but that seems like an excessive form of punishment to apply to a modestly ambitious entertainment. And besides, unlike Lontano da Qui it had rather good rhythm and the characters were dancing to it.

Lots of broad laughs. Even a couple of costume changes for Madame Sofia while she was onstage. Not something you get to see very often, and you wouldn’t believe how sexy she looked dressed up like a man in those white leather boots.

Was I supposed to say that? Non c’è problema. I just won’t tell Rebecca there’s a post today. I mean, “You think it’s as easy to crank out these things as it is to rhyme words in Italian? Or to earn a major role on the Neapolitan opera scene?”

That way, while remaining unknown and in character, the “stupid and pompous” composer will at least avoid being executed by the “clever, smart, cunning, etc” heroine, who once again had her hair in curls and her fine evening clothes on.

If only I had had my camera! But with the weather app calling for two days of rain, I took on responsibility for the two umbrellas. (And Rebecca isn’t given to taking selfies. So the best I could do was get her to photograph the curtain set.)