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maltatoday | SUNDAY • 26 JANUARY 2020 6 CULTURE Book Review Balluta Blues WHILE it is a fact that the young generation of 60s writers and poets is, today, in the physical state of the third age, many of them are still highly active and productive in their own vari- ous realms, not least Maltese poetry. They were the protagonists in the enormous cultural and socio-political change of the Six- ties, a small Maltese wave within the world- wide tsunami that changed completely the way people looked at their lives and all that impacted on them, from the moon landing of exactly fifty years ago to war and the winning of rights and liberties that had still been denied up to two decades from the end of the Second World War. Among the various literary genres, poetry was probably the most that underwent this remarkable change, with the new, the inno- vative and, sometimes, the risque' and the experimental taking on the traditional thanks mainly to the new thematics which gave it a completely new face. Until the furore ended and tranquillity returned to the enduring cycle of generations. Charles Flores reflects all this in his new col- lection of poetry "Balluta Blues", just out on the market by Horizons (www.horizons.com. mt) . "Balluta Blues" is the direct result of the in- spirational fire of that great and burning forge, distant from the fumes and the smells of yes- teryear, but providing an attractive form and a solid structure that only time can help cre- ate. Flores's message is not the past, however nostalgic he can often be, but today's, thanks mainly to verses and inspirations that are ex- pressly of – and meant for – the 21st Century. The book is embroidered with the caligraph- ic art of Gordon Pace Flores whose contribu- tion to "Balluta Blues", according to writer and poet Victor Fenech in his introduction to the book, "makes the work artistic as much as it is reflective." Soprano Katherine Watson at Valletta Baroque Festival Albert George Storace THIS had nothing to do with some hush-hush, seditious activity. When seeing the content of the concert presented by British soprano Kather- ine Watson accompanied on theor- bo by Elizabeth Kenny, I noticed that the bulk of the concert was of pieces by Barbara Strozzi (1619-77) born 401 years ago and Francesca Caccini (1587-post 1641). That rang a bell: in those days and until well after that women were not supposed to accomplish such macho activities as composing. They were forced to remain very private, never dared publish their own works and if they played or sang or did both they had to do it in pri- vate. With Strozzi's four pieces and Cac- cini's two and just one by Montever- di AND the performers it was almost unchecked girl power. Monteverdi's Lettera Amorosa is a tender and impassioned message to the beloved whose long tresses have the admiring lover in a painfully be- sotted state. This was also one of the longest pieces and the only one of which the author of the lyrics is known: Claudio Achillini. Some of the songs seemed to have a hint of the improvisatory. All were sung with a certain degree of wit . On the other hand, especially in Strozzi's case, since her father was a librettist she could have used his source ma- terial. Caccini's father was the fa- mous Giulio so she could rummage through his library. There were several facets to the clandestinity of various pieces. Pretty daring in the semi-explicit nature of Strozzi's Amor dormiglione for one which men of the time could have taken as a sign of a woman's brazen- ness. On the other hand L'Eraclito Am- orosa is at once a lament and an ad- monitory piece. La Caccini is no less straightfor- ward, Ch'Amor sia nudo and no less honest and admonitory. Her Dispie- gate is a beautiful love song project- ed with great warmth. Then break- ing with her role as steadfast and supportive accompanist, Elizabeth performed the concert's only instru- mental solo. This was a Toccata by Girolamo/ Hieronymus Kapsberger a work with some pretty difficult passages which Elizabeth Kenny dealt with rather deftly. Katherine Watson continued in her very communicative warm manner two more works by La Strozzi the sad Ardo in tacito foco and the rather funny and tongue-in-cheek L'astrat- to which could very well be based on Strozzi's own experience. I think these two ladies are two of a kind. When they emerged to offer an encore Elizabeth Kenny who came out with a lute said, "Honey I've shrunk the lute!" On a more sober note Kath- erine Watson sang And is it night? by Robert Jones (1577-1617). Katherine Watson and Elizabeth Kenny at Verdala Palace (Photo: Mark Zammit Cordina)