The family that owns the record shop where the Pope went by surprise: “He bought classical music from us, he is a lover of the genre, of opera, of great voices”
VATICAN CITY. Jorge Mario Bergoglio loves Mozart and Bach, listens to Beethoven, is passionate about Wagner. He loves the Tango. And as a child he was also educated with opera. He himself revealed this on various occasions in the nearly nine years of his pontificate.
In the recent interview with La Stampa e Repubblica he said that «on Saturday the radio he broadcast the recording of the operas, and his mother would tell us about them while she listened to them. He also took us to the theater, I remember we saw the tenor Tito Schipa at the Teatro Colуn ».
To Father Antonio Spadaro, director of La Civiltà Cattolica, in the first interview he had released by the Pope he explained: «In music I love Mozart, of course. That Et Incarnatus east of its Missa in Gd is unsurpassable: it brings you to God! I love Mozart performed by Clara Haskil. Mozart fills me: I can’t think about it, I have to hear it. I like to listen to Beethoven, but promethically. And the most Promethean interpreter for me is Furtwängler. And then Bach’s Passions. The Bach piece that I love so much is Erbarme Dich, Peter’s cry of the Passion according to Matthew. Sublime. Then, on a different level, not intimate in the same way, I love Wagner. I like listening to it, but not always. The Tetralogy of the Ring performed by Furtwängler at La Scala in the 1950s is the best thing for me. But also the Parsifal performed in ’62 by Knappertsbusch ».
In addition to Spadaro, Jorge Mario Bergoglio also said in the book «Pope Francis» by Francesca Ambrogetti and Sergio Rubin (Salani) that he admires the romantic music of the cantor of Siegfried and Brunhild.
Among his favorite scores is Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Leonore number 3” overture.
And then, his famous passion for Tango is known. He also talks about it in Stories of a Generation, the four-episode Netflix docu-series inspired by Sharing the Wisdom of Time, the award-winning book written by the Pope edited by Spadaro, published by Loyola Press (in Italy by Marsilio, 2018). “She likes?” the Tango, asks Spadaro; “Yup”. “Have you ever danced it?”; “Yes,” he replies with a big laugh. Pope Francis describes it: «To guide and to be guided, to have the responsibility to take care of the other… are all images of tenderness, aren’t they? The tango is a melody that evokes nostalgia and hope ». And then he reveals: in January 1970 «I learned that the great Argentine tango singer Azucena Maizani was very ill. I had been a priest for a month. I gave her the extreme anointing ».
The title and author of the box set of classical music CDs remain top secret his friends from the record store he went to surprise on Tuesday gave him. The Stereosound commercial establishment is next to the Pantheon, in the center of Rome; has been open for about 50 years. The owner, named Letizia, with her daughter Tiziana and her son-in-law are old friends of Bergoglio. Tiziana told the microphones of Tg2000, the TV2000 news, that “Pope Francis arrived around 7 pm. It was an immense joy to welcome him to our shop, we were speechless”. The Bishop of Rome «has been a friend of my mother Letizia for a long time and he also came here as a cardinal. Every time he passed through Rome he visited our shop. And yesterday seeing him in the guise of Pope was an immense joy. It was about 15 minutes. The best memory of yesterday’s meeting is the simplicity of an extraordinary man ».
When they saw the Pope cross the threshold of their shop, the owners of Stereosound didn’t know whether to be more incredulous or happy. He got out of a white Fiat 500L and entered on the fly passing the access corridor, occupied by a large window with a selection of vinyls on display.
It was an “intimate and exciting” meeting, Francis “paid homage to us with this visit, a great privilege to have had it”. The restaurant had been closed for some time because “during the pandemic we did some renovations”, and Bergoglio, having learned about it, expressed the desire to visit them also to see the renovations. But they didn’t know ‘when it would come. Of course, having him here to choose the records made us happy but we knew that it was not possible once he became Pope. He came to say a prayer, to bless the shop. It was a very intimate, fast and exciting thing. Much …. I don’t have other words ».
After having visited the place, the Pope exclaimed: «You have done a good job».
Before his return to the Vatican, the family wanted to pay homage to Bergoglio with a box of classical music: “He is a fan of the genre, of opera, of great voices.”
Unlimited access to all site content
€ 1 / month for 3 months, then € 3.99 / month for 3 months
Unlock unlimited access to all content on the site
#Popes #musical #tastes #loves #Mozart #Bach #listens #Beethoven #passionate #Wagner #loves #Tango