WORTH REPEATING
“Open my heart and you will see, graved inside of it, 'Italy'." - Robert Browning, 1812-1889
IN THE NEWS
November 5, 2005 – Boston Globe (Milan, Italy) - Italians in Couture Clash with Chinese
Designers sound alarm over the rising prowess of Asian manufacturers. Italian designers may help set the status quo on the runway, but China’s manufacturing prowess threatens to unravel the fashion industry here. Despite the European Union’s progress in setting quotas on Chinese-made clothing, everything from accessories to zippers is increasingly being produced in China -- sometimes with Italian machinery. The trend is marginalizing Italian production of hosiery, for example, dropped 6 percent in the last year and has been on a steady decline since 2001, according to FAST, an international hosiery trade show. In 2004, China produced 4.5 billion pairs of hose, while Italy lagged behind with only 1.8 billion pairs.
For the complete story visit the following link:
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2005/11/05/italians_in_couture_clash_with_chinese/
November 6, 2005 – CBS News (Rome, Italy) - Wall Collapses at Roman Forum
A stretch of wall at Rome’s ancient Forum has collapsed, raising concerns that the site is no longer safe for tourists. About 50 meters of the five-meter-high wall fell onto a walkout that leads to the Arch of Titus and the Colosseum. At the time, the Forum was closed and there were no tourists in the area. It was once the center of political, commercial and religious life in Rome. But now it’s in such a state of ruin that Italy’s cultural authorities have stepped up debate over what needs to be done to safeguard what’s left of both the Forum and Colosseum.
For the complete story visit the following link:
http://www.cbc.ca/storyview/MSN/world/national/2005/11/06/colosseum051106.html
November 6, 2005 – The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH) - Search for Lost Caravaggio
Jonathan Harr’s account of the search for a lost 17th-century masterpiece might be this year’s most exciting detective story. The pace and skill of reporting draw you in, whether you know the story or care little about painting or art history. “The Lost Painting” depicts the hunt for Caravaggio’s 1603 work called “The Taking of Christ” from several unique perspectives: that of Sir Denis Mahon, the eminent British art scholar and authority on Caravaggio, now in his 90s; Francesca Cappelletti, a young Italian graduate student; and Sergio Benedetti, an Italian-born restorer at Dublin’s National Gallery of Ireland. “The Taking of Christ” was missing for more than two centuries.
For the complete story visit the following link:
http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/entertainment/1131186815295080.xml&coll=2
November 6, 2005 – ANSA (Rome, Italy) - Italians Make Asthma Breakthrough
Italian researchers have made a key breakthrough in the study of the causes of asthma in children. Rome researchers have found that nerve growth factor (NGF) plays a key role in making children susceptible to the disease. Asthma experts from Rome’s Universita` Cattolica and the National Research Council (CNR) worked with a team from Miami University to gauge NGF levels in newborn children. They found that NGF was very high in children that developed a common respiratory illness called bronchiolitis. The disease affects the tiny airways, called bronchioles, that lead to the lungs. As these become inflamed, they swell and fill with mucus, making it difficult for the child to breathe. The causes of the link between broncholitis and asthma have hitherto been unknown. “We knew there was a link between the two and decided to try to find the substance that caused it,” said Luca Tortorolo of the Universita` Cattolica.
For the complete story visit the following link:
http://ansa.it/main/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2005-11-06_1893482.html
November 6, 2005 – Washington Post (Pavia, Italy) - In Italy, Where Statues Weep, Scientists Test the Miraculous
Such is the supply of miracles in Italy that if a month goes by without one, it’s, well, a miracle. Weeping Madonnas, sacred blood that goes from solid to liquid and back again, lottery numbers divined by gazing on a photo of a deceased pope, sudden cures after contact with a holy relic: Miracles are old, old phenomena in Italy, the land where St. Francis tamed a wolf and wild doves and a veil taken from St. Agatha’s tomb stopped lava in its tracks. But this is also the land of science par excellence, the home ground of Galileo, Leonardo, Fermi and Marconi. So there are also voices that say, “Hold on a minute.”
For the complete story visit the following link:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/06/MNGE0FJUA81.DTL
November 6, 2005 – SwissInfo (Switzerland) - Italians Leave Their Mark on Switzerland
There are more than 300,000 Italians in Switzerland, officially making them the largest expatriate community in the country. Although they are acknowledged to have had a significant influence on Swiss economic, social and cultural life, they are not yet fully integrated. “Switzerland would not have achieved its present economic position without the contribution of the Italian labor force,” said Claudio Micheloni, the Italian-born general secretary of the Forum for the Integration of Migrants. Italians first immigrated to Switzerland on a large scale between 1950 and 1970, mainly working the construction, engineering and catering industries. However, the road to acceptance in Switzerland has not always been an easy one. In the early days, Italian workers were not allowed to bring their families with them. Many lived in run-down accommodation in Italian “ghettos.” This, coupled with the fact that they didn’t know the language, meant that they had little contact with the local population.
For the complete story visit the following link:
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=108&sid=6186997&cKey=1131268942000
November 6, 2005 – The Journal Gazette (Fort Wayne, IN) - When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Pancakes?
With all the tragic news that seems to be coming out of Afghanistan and Pakistan these days, I thought that it might be nice to know that once upon a time something really great was discovered there. Believe it or not, I am talking about the lemon. Way back, about 300 B.C., lemons made their first known (written) appearance in literature, found in this currently beleaguered part of the world. Lemons quickly became a form of currency. Prized for their delicate flavor and unique healing properties, lemons were carried in caravans of traders to the surrounding region. Once only available to kings and nobility, the prized (and at that time expensive) lemon was eventually introduced to Europeans and then to the Western Hemisphere by Christopher Columbus and Ponce de Leon.
For the complete story visit the following link:
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/living/13096316.htm
November 6, 2005 – Courier-Post (Mount Holly, NJ) - Italians Plan Monument to Roots
Joseph Paglione left his mountain hometown in Italy at 15 for the big city of Rome, carrying boyish dreams as well as a suitcase. There he learned a trade and became a tailor of fine clothing. But greater opportunity called to him and Paglione set out for America. He arrived in 1958 in the last decades of immigration to the U.S. from Capracotta, a picturesque but remote mountain town in southern Italy. For more than 100 years, town residents left Capracotta in search of economic opportunity. Paglione, of Burlington Township, and other Italian-Americans with a connection to Capracotta are initiating a fundraising drive to finance a statue there honoring thousands who left in pursuit of the American dream. “The statue will honor all the courageous Capracottesi who left the town and immigrated here or anywhere in the world,” said Paglione, 65. Paglione met with the mayor of Capracotta in September to talk about the statue.
For the complete story visit the following link:
http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051106/NEWS01/511060358/1006
November 7, 2005 – ANSA (Rome, Italy) - Italians No Longer ‘Mamma's Boys’
Italian men are no longer mamma’s boys and feel they are forced to pay lip service to family affection, according to the latest survey. One Italian in two feels they “can’t be themselves” around their ‘loved ones’ and seven out of ten describe their family relations as “a prison they can’t break out of,” according to the popular psychology magazine Riza Psicosomatica. A clear majority of the 1,000 young people polled said they felt they had to “continually feign affection” for their family - and one in three said this was even the case for the once-venerated mother. According to experts quoted by Riza, this sea change in young Italians’ attitude to their parents is the result of having to live together too long. One consequence of this is that Italians are “not really growing up” and behaving like teenagers well into their 30s and sometimes 40s, Riza said. The chief gripe of a third of them is that they have to be constantly available, while a quarter are fed up of having to call their mothers every day. Top of the list was “constantly badmouthing girlfriends or wives,” followed by “heavy criticism that makes us feel we’re not hacking it,” “continual comparisons with more successful peers,” and “criticizing the way we dress or do our hair.” “These are the classic laments of generations of teenagers,” Riza said.
For the complete story visit the following link:
http://ansa.it/main/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2005-11-07_1899950.html
November 7, 2005 – The Republic (Phoenix, AZ) - Italian Program Teaches Culture
Through grape stomping and fresco painting, preschoolers at GateWay and South Mountain community colleges are learning Italian and Italian culture. “It’s fun for the teachers and the students,” said Ann Cason, supervisor of the Children’s Learning Center. “We have a lot of arts and crafts, and this is where we’ve worked in aspects of Italian culture.” Funded by a grant from the Phoenix-based Resource Center Italiano (RCI), the preschool language program is called Alba, or “dawn” in Italian. It’s part of an effort to teach children in three languages: English, Italian and Spanish. Benefactor Amelia Viola Gallucci-Cirio helped make the program possible, said Michelle Nardi, executive director of RCI. “She is committed to broadening understanding of Italy, the language and culture, and hopes this is a beginning in the schools here in Phoenix,” Nardi said. RCI’s intent is to expand the program throughout Phoenix schools,
For the complete story visit the following link:
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/1107phxitalian1107.html
November 8, 2005 – Summit Daily (Frisco, CO) - Use Your Noodle
Pasta is an ancient food, and Italians have elevated it into an art. The ultimate Italian comfort food, pasta is expected on tables all over Italy every day. Once you taste proper pasta, you’ll understand why. As a chef growing up in an Italian family, I thought I knew pasta inside and out ... until I traveled to Italy. There, pasta dishes are treated with such love and skill that they come alive with texture, and are dressed in sauces so flavorful they sing to your taste buds like a symphony! I’m sorry, but pasta dishes in the U.S. are nothing like those in Italy (except in rare cases). What's the Italian’s secret? Attitude. Italian cooks won’t settle for average ingredients, and they don’t cut corners. A fine meal, shared leisurely with family, is the highlight of every day in Italy - and it’s heaven on earth! We can learn a lot about quality of life from the Italians!
For the complete story visit the following link: http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20051108/AE/111080027
November 9, 2005 – San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, CA) - Fior d’Italia Bounces Back
Nearly nine months after a fire shut down San Francisco’s famed Fior d’Italia, the historic restaurant is open once again at a new location. Just after receiving one final approval from San Francisco, Fior began serving meals Tuesday night at its new home at the historic San Remo Hotel at 2237 Mason St. “It was a surprise,” said owner Bob Larive. “We didn’t tell anybody. We opened the doors and people started wandering in. It was a lot of fun.” Larive said the new location is a perfect fit for Fior, a restaurant that first opened its doors in 1886 and claims to be America’s oldest Italian restaurant. “The San Remo is a very historic hotel,” Larive said, noting that North Beach landmark was opened in 1906 by Bank of America founder A.P. Giannini. “It was the first building he put up after the fire and earthquake,” Larive said.
For the complete story visit the following link:
http://www.sfexaminer.com/articles/2005/11/09/business/20051110_bu01_fior.txt
November 10, 2005 – Townonline ( Boston, MA) - My Study of Italian Has Influenced My Life
The study of the Italian language has played an influential role in my life. Growing up, I can remember at times listening to my grandparents and their cousins conversing in the beautiful language of their ancestry, Italy. They spoke so elegantly, and the words simply rolled off their tongues. I can remember wishing that someday I too would be able to take part in their energetic and beautiful conversations. Today, through the study of Italian, I can finally take part in the conversations I admired so much as a child. I can understand when my uncles speak of various topics such as food, sports, teams, other relatives, etc. Although I am not completely fluent in the language yet, I am able to understand what my grandparents talk about and at times put in my own opinion. Prior to studying Italian in school, I had had exposure to many entities of Italian culture. However, through the study of Italian, I became more aware of Italian culture in history and how many of the great minds in history were Italian.
For the complete story visit the following link:
http://www2.townonline.com/medford/opinion/view.bg?articleid=364239
November 10, 2005 – Townonline (Boston, MA) - My Italian Heritage Has Influenced My Life
The Italian language and culture has influenced my life and will enhance my future. Since all my family members are immigrants from various parts of Italy, they have brought some ideas with them to help me along the way. Without them, I would be half the person I am now. They taught me to value education, which is why always take my studies seriously. My father told me, “After high school, I had to go to work to help my family.” He advises that a college education would have helped him in the future because it would have opened up more doors. With his emphasis on an education, I continuously worked hard in school. Also, I have learned the true value of the dollar. I have heard many stories of my grandparents working on the farms in Abruzzi raising animals to provide them with food and clothing. With their stories of hard work, I also strive to be a determined, resourceful person.
For the complete story visit the following link:
http://www2.townonline.com/medford/opinion/view.bg?articleid=364238
November 10, 2005 – AKI (Mumbai, India) – India: Festival of Italian Culture and Fashion
A 12-day long Italian festival in India kicks off later this month in the major cities of India, focusing on Italian arts and culture as well as fashion. One of the highlights will be a fashion show on a battle ship docked at the port in Mumbai, where labels such as Trussardi and Ferrè will be presented, as well as art exhibitions, musical performances and appearances by the stars of cinema from both countries. Some 600 celebrities from the world of Indian culture, politics and cinema will be present. Representatives and personalities from diverse sectors of the economy and culture from all over Italy have been invited for the fourth edition of the Italian Festival. The festival will include events in all the major Indian cities such as New Delhi, Kolkata (Calcutta), Bangalore e Chennai (Madras).
For the complete story visit the following link:
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Trends&loid=8.0.227507505&par=0
November 10, 2005 – Pitch (KansasCity, KS) - La Dolce Vita: Life Is Sweet for Il Circolo Italiano
Sheila Syty and her group, Il Circolo Italiano, prove that some Americans want a cultural exchange richer than ordering pizza. Less than two years ago, the conversation and culture group was only an idea. Syty was learning to speak Italian in order to converse with her in-laws, who live in Italy. “At first we were able to scrape together four or five people who wanted to speak Italian,” she says. The concept resonated with people, and soon the group had attracted more than 80 members. The group’s latest endeavor, Pazze e Pentole (translates as crazy women and pans), is a chance to bring true Italian cuisine to the Midwest. “People get most excited about the food of Italian culture,” Syty says. They’ll go over recipes that use the extra lemons and add dashes of Italian cooking wisdom - all at the historic Bisceglia Italian Cultural Center.
For the complete story visit the following link:
http://www.pitch.com/Issues/2005-11-10/calendar/niteday.html
November 11, 2005 – Buffalo News (Buffalo, NY) - Stamp Honors Local War Hero: Sergeant Killed During Iwo Jima Attack Received Medal of Honor, Navy Cross for WWII Bravery
Sixty years and nearly nine months after Sgt. John Basilone died on the sands of Iwo Jima, the U.S. Postal Service unveiled a commemorative stamp Thursday honoring the Buffalo-born war hero - the only enlisted Marine awarded both the Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross in World War II. The ceremony aboard the USS Little Rock at Buffalo & Erie County Naval and Military Park thrilled Philip J. Yamarino of Williamsville, a Navy veteran who was the last family member to see his cousin alive, at California’s Camp Pendleton in 1944. He and Basilone spent an evening together before both shipped out to the Pacific, recalled Yamarino, who with his sister, Catherine, and other relatives unveiled a portrait of the handsome gunnery sergeant that will adorn the new 37-cent stamp. Yamarino was on a support vessel offshore when his cousin was killed Feb. 19, 1945, during the chaotic first hours of the Iwo Jima invasion, one of the bloodiest episodes in military annals. Basilone’s brother and fellow Marine, George, was on the beach that day and sent news of his death back to the fleet.
For the complete story visit the following link:
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20051111/1032142.asp
November 11, 2005 – ANSA (Rome, Italy) - Italy Shows Heritage-Saving Heroics
Rome exhibit reveals Italian restoration work around world. A new show here pays tribute to the work Italy’s skilled and frequently fearless restorers carry out in defense of humankind’s cultural heritage. A fascinating display of videos, photographs and archaeological finds at Rome’s Vittoriano complex reveals the results of Italian projects in 15 countries. “Italy is a leader in the restoration sector, something which enhances the nation’s prestige,” said Giuseppe Proietti, head of the Culture Ministry's Research, Innovation and Organization Department. “The exhibition was designed to illustrate some examples of Italian restoration work around the world.". The programs showcased range from those performed at ancient Roman sites in Libya, to others on the far side of the globe, in places like China's Forbidden City. Visitors can also see how Italian restorers have, in some cases, braved war zones and risked their lives to do their job. Special attention is given to the vital role Italy has played in helping protect archaeological treasures in post-war Iraq.
For the complete story visit the following link:
http://ansa.it/main/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2005-11-11_1926953.html
SICILY IS HERE
A Premiere Screening of “OLTREMARE.” A New Film on the Sicilian Emigration Experience (in Italian with English subtitles), Sunday, November 20, 2005 at 2:00 p.m.
The Center for Italian Studies at Stony Brook University invite you to the premiere screening of “Oltremare,” a new film on the Sicilian emigration experience, on Sunday, November 20, 2005 at 2 p.m. in the Charles B. Wang Center, Lecture Hall 1. (Enter campus at Main entrance, at stop sign Wang Center is on your right and parking garage is on your left, proceed straight into parking garage)
The film is in Italian with English subtitles. Special guests from Italy will participate in the event: Dr. Scoma, the Sicilian Secretary of the Labor and Immigration Dept., Prof. Saija of the University of Messina, cinema critic Prof. Gesu, and film director Nello Correale.
You will enjoy this somewhat bizarre story (based on actual events) of a group of people who left Sicily in the late 1800’s to make a fresh start in America. The voyage was filled with unexpected events, but eventually they reached land. What they encountered was equally unexpected and bizarre, but all ends happily, and the descendants of this group still inhabit the place where they settled! Admission and parking is free.
FRA ANGELICO FINALLY GETS HIS RETROSPECTIVE
The Wall Street Journal – Leisure & Arts – November 9, 2005 - By Matthew Gurewitsch
It’s no exaggeration-it’s an understatement, actually-to call “Fra Angelico” a once-in-a-lifetime affair. The Renaissance master on the marquee has gone without a major survey anywhere for half a century; the current show, installed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in that 20th-century ziggurat known as the Robert Lehman Wing, is his first American retrospective ever.
Significant cleaning and restoration have been undertaken for the occasion; various reattributions are proposed. Some 45 works by assistants and followers provide context for the nearly 75 paintings, drawings and manuscript illuminations from Fra Angelico’s own hand. Virtually anything of his that could be moved is on display. (A surprising number come from collections in this country, public and private.) Too bad that so many of the images in which he strikes the heart deepest or lifts spirits highest-and Fra Angelico does both-appear on panels deemed too fragile to travel, or in fresco on monastery walls. Lavish plates in the catalog spell out all too plainly what we are missing.
Though thrilled to have such riches assembled in one place, scholars must feel an unspoken pang of regret for the comparisons they wish they could make, for once, under a single roof. As for the rest of us many otherwise responsive art lovers may well feel like philistines, secretly bored by the cavalcade of Madonnas and Baby Jesuses, exquisite and various as they demonstrably are. Oversize banners of some of Fra Angelico’s most striking conceptions-the curiously protosurrealistic (because unfinished) “mocking of Christ” at San Marco, in Florence, for instance, which includes passages by another hand- only underscore such samenesses as a Sunday viewer may complain of.
Born north of Florence in the decade before 1400 as Guido di Pietro, Fra Angelico was received into the Dominican order as Fra Giovanni (“Brother John”) of Fiesole, a hillside town in the Florentine ambit. The name by which the English-speaking world knows him derives from the Latin tag “pictor angelicus” (the Angelic Picture-Maker), originally attached to him soon after his death in 1455. Italians call him Beato (“Blessed”) Angelico, a handle legitimized by John Paul II, who beatified him in 1984, likewise declaring him the patron of artists-no stain yet, but that could change. The traditional patron saint of artists, of course, is Luke, to whom legend attributes an icon of the Blessed Mother and Child supposedly painted on the Holy Family’s kitchen table and brought to Constantinople nearly a thousand years before the birth of Luke’s potential rival.
A trope of received art history, uncontradicted at the Met, is that Fra Angelico’s style is monumental, regardless of the size of the work at hand; likewise unshakable in his reputation for psychological acuity. In the first gallery of the show, three complex biblical scenes-each framed within an initial from an unfinished illumination-demonstrate these qualities to perfection in the subtle medium of pen and faded ink, but Fra Angelico’s role in their creating is a matter of some dispute. In the same gallery, a panel from a hope chest (or “cassone”) showing episodes from an epic by Boccaccio, Venus makes an appearance nude, swathed in flame. To one side, nymphs disport themselves in a pool, likewise in the altogether. Here again, however, the attribution is uncertain. If indeed by Fra Angelico, this is his only surviving painting on a secular subject.
It shares with many panels that follow Fra Angelico’s wondrous gift for storytelling. Typically, such material comes from the narrow base of an altar (or “predelia”), where small images are laid out frame by frame, like pages of a picture book. (The place of honor above usually belongs to crucifixes, single saints, or that eternal, maternal Madonna.) In this illustrative line you will find the Virgin personally delivering the black-and-white habit to the bed-ridden Saint Dominic, St. Francis passing a trial by fire before the Sultan at Damietta, and the failed execution of Saints Cosmas and Damian. Here, Fra Angelico delights the eye with his vivacity, his invention (architectural as well as narrative), and a humane, unexpected playfulness we might even venture to call wit.
Along the way, there are other surprises. Look for the two group portraits of sharply individualized Dominicans, who bear-beyond hymnals-such attributes as fire shooting from the mouth, a bleeding heart, flame on an open palm, a cleaver through the cranium, and (less strikingly) a skull in the hand. The full-length figure of Saint Anthony Abbot, of haunting pallor, is radiant in his still dignity. The side panel of a Last Judgment in which saints dance with angels in party dress against a flowered landscape up into a golden sky possesses a serpentine grace that anticipates neo-Platonic rites in Botticelli, (in its proper context, this strip functions very differently, as the catalog shows.)
As for the obligatory Virgins Annunciate and Holy Mothers with Child, details of expression, composition, costume and pose lend them more personality that a general glance at the ensemble would lead one to suppose; as sheer ornament, the intricately worked golden backgrounds-executed not by some anonymous subspecialist but by Fra Angelico himself-often exert a powerful fascination of their own.
In images of the suffering Christ, the artist’s mood is more discreet than dramatic, yet the changes rung on the theme are profound. A panel painting from the Fogg Art Museum At Harvard University places the crucifix between the standing Virgin and St. John the Evangelist against the simplest golden ground; the donor of the painting, a cardinal, kneels in prayer. On this savior, the weight of the world rests lightly. His face is mildly solemn; his body shows no strain; though his side is pierced, he scarcely bleeds. An extraordinary drawing from the Albertina Collection, Vienna, in brown pen and ink, shows just the crucifix, and what registers on Christ’s features here is his patience, thrown into painful relief by rivulets of crimson tracing each arm and streaking the cross below his feet.
And then there’s the close-up; “Christ Crowned With Thorns,” in tempera and gold on panel, from a parish church in Livorno. Where other painters have poured on the blood with savage abandon, Fra Angelico again limits himself to traces-but traces that account for the puncture of every thorn. Sharpening the indictment, the artist makes this Christ a beauty, richly dressed, with the curled tresses of a princess. But the brow is tense; the parted lips draw down in sorrow; and from pink whites, his gaze shoots straight through you.
CITY-BY-CITY CALENDAR OF SOME OF ITALY’S
TOP ART EXHIBITIONS
ANCONA - Mole Vanvitelliana: Leonardo, Genius and Vision in the Marche; until January 15; illustrates Leonardo’s work at the Ducal Palace in Urbino as part of Cesare Borgia’s visiting retinue in 1502, his major engineering and port designs at Pesaro. The centerpiece of the show will be the Virgin of the Rocks from a private Swiss collection.
BERGAMO - Galleria Nazionale: War is Over, 1945-2005; the show collects some 100 anti-war works by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Otto Dix, Paul Klee, Jasper Johns and Giacomo Balla; until February 15.
BRESCIA - Museo di Santa Giulia; Gauguin Van Gogh – L’Avventura del Colore Nuovo (Gauguin Van Gogh - The New Color Adventure) runs until March 19; compares the art of Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin. Some 150 works by the two post-Impressionist giants - 100 paintings and 50 drawings, sketches and other pieces on paper - have been borrowed from top international museums.
FLORENCE - Palazzo Pitti: Mythologica et Erotica (Mythology and Eroticism) at the Museo degli Argenti (Silver Museum) until May 15, 2006. The show features 213 works from Italian and foreign museums. The range of works on display is remarkably wide with paintings, murals, sculptures, ceramics, prints, jewellery, coins and various other precious items - all depicting erotic stories from ancient mythology.
- Archivio di Stato: Leonardo da Vinci: The True Image; the extraordinary life of Leonardo is recounted in a series of documents and letters collected for the first time in this new show. One of the highlights is the only record of his birth on April 15, 1452; closes January 28.
GENOA - Palazzo Spinola di Pellicceria: ‘Christopher Columbus In The 1600s’; a rare collection of silver plates and sketches commissioned by Agostino Pallavicino, who became doge of Genoa in 1637. Till December 18.
MILAN - Triennale: Keith Haring Retrospective; the exhibition devoted to American street artist Keith Haring brings together 100 paintings, 40 drawings and a multitude of sculptures and works in other forms. The exhibition includes his biggest painting, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Visitors can also see a documentary on the making of Haring’s mural on the outside wall of Pisa's Sant’Antonio church - the last major work he completed before dying of an Aids-related illness in at the age of 31. Until January 29.
- Palazzo Reale: Caravaggio e l’Europa (Caravaggio and Europe), runs until February 6. The exhibit charts the adoption of the Italian artist’s famous chiaroscuro techniques and his fascination with “real life” through works by a number of different artists. Although boasting around 200 paintings, only 16 are by Caravaggio himself. Among the pieces to make the final line-up are Boy Bitten by a Lizard and Salome With The Head Of St. John The Baptist, both on loan from the National Gallery.
- Triennale: Joe Colombo, Inventing the Future; the exhibit looks at one of the most famous Milanese designers of the 1960s, until December 18.
PAVIA - Castello Visconteo; Gustav Klimt - Disegni Proibiti (Gustav Klimt - Forbidden Drawings) includes 50 sketches that Klimt made for his private pleasure, never intending them to go on show. Until December 4.
ROME - Colosseum: The Secret Rite: Mysteries in Greek and Rome, runs until January 8; more than 70 works including statues, frescoes, ritualistic objects and private altars bear testimony to the increasing popularity of Dionysan, Eleusine, oracular, Orphic and Mithraic rites as adepts reached for meaning and salvation outside organized religion .
- Complesso del Vittoriano: Eduard Manet: the show brings together 150 paintings, drawings and etchings from top museums around the world; until February 15.
- Museo di Roma: Walker Evans. Carbone e Argento. (Walker Evans. Coal and Silver); until January 8. The Great Depression shown through 100 shots taken by US photographer Walker Evans between 1935 and 1937.
- Castel Sant’Angelo: Riflessi DiVini (Reflections On Wine/Divine Reflections) features both artistic and practical objects that explore wine in a variety of contexts. Includes etching, paintings and artifacts; runs until January 15. - Chiostro del Bramante: Federico Zandomeneghi; runs until March 5, 2006. The show explores a turn-of-the-century vision of Paris, through the eyes of a Venetian impressionist. As well as 130 pieces by Zandomeneghi, there are paintings by Monet, Renoir, Degas and drawings by Toulouse-Lautrec .
- Scuderie Papali: ‘Burri. Gli artisti e la materia 1945-2004’ (Burri. Artists And Material 1945-2004); runs from November 17 to February 16. The show uses Burri as a springboard to explore a variety of 20th-century talents that he helped influence. The selection of artists whose work is on display includes Antoni Tapies of Spain, Jean Fautrier and Jean Dubuffet of France, and Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Towmbly and Franz Kline of the US.
TURIN - Cinema Museum: Cose da un Altro Mondo. Viaggio nel Cinema di Fantascienza; A major show bringing together props, posters, toys and gadgets from science-fiction movie classics stretching back over a century, including a priceless collection of 600 Star Wars action figures. Till November 27.
ITALIAN AMERICAN PERIODICALS/NEWSPAPER
BOOK REVIEW
Girls of Tender Age by Mary-Ann Tirone Smith
Smith (Love Her Madly, 2002, etc.) intertwines delightful stories from childhood with a grim chronicle of a sexual predator whose murder of the author’s grade-school classmate has haunted her for decades.
By alternating chapters on the pedophile stalker’s sorry life with chapters on her youthful past, Smith creates almost unbearable tension as she makes the reader wait for the two stories’ lines to intersect. Her vivid account of growing up in a working-class Italian Catholic neighborhood in Hartford, Conn., is filled with memorable characters: besides a raft of close relatives, there’s her indifferent mother, perpetually ‘on the verge of a nervous breakdown,’ her hardworking, distracted father and her autistic older brother, who chews on his arm if he hears noise, cannot bear the color red or the word ‘Thursday’ and is fixated on World War II - he advises the White House via his Campbell’s soup-can phone.
As the normal kid sister, Smith is largely overlooked, gulping swigs of Hershey syrup for her breakfast before dashing off to school. In fifth grade, everything changes when Bob Malm abducts and strangles 11-year-old Irene a few blocks from Smith’s house. Adults try to protect the children through silence, telling them nothing, keeping newspapers from them and forbidding them to discuss Irene. Smith says her memories of the next two-and-a-half years are blank. Years later, when she is an established writer, she includes Irene’s story in an essay for a Hartford literary journal that triggers a call from Irene’s brother and launches her on a quest to, as she puts it, ‘build a memorial to Irene.’
From newspapers and court records, which she quotes extensively, she garners details of Malm’s life, of his trial and appeal and even his execution, an electrocution that went awry. The reader may not know Irene better, but Smith, who gives only glimpses of her own life after fifth grade, illuminates Malm.
The childhood memories are great fun; the crime reporting workmanlike; the portrait of the adult relationships touching.
http://books.monstersandcritics.com/nonfiction/reviews/article_1060192.php/Book_Review_Girls_of_Tender_Age_by_Mary-Ann_Tirone_Smith
COMMUNITY EVENTS CALENDAR
For a listing of many Italian and Italian American programs visit the John D Calandra Italian American Institute’s Community Events Calendar at the following link:
http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/calandra/community/commoct.html
UPCOMING EVENTS
- November 14, 2005 — The John D. Calandra Italian American Institute & the Center for Jewish Studies of Queens College/CUNY present The History of a Holocaust Survivor (Walter Wolff) in Germany and Italy, 12:00pm to 3:00pm at Queens College, Benjamin Rosenthal Library, Room 230, 65-30 Kissena Boulevard, Flushing, NY.
- November 14, 2005 — Creative Responses to Race, Violence and Community: A Call for Peace. Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, New York University, 24 West 12th Street, Manhattan. 6 PM. Join us for an evening of readings and performance, featuring writers, rappers, musicians, performers, and community activists who are committed to finding creative and collaborative ways to combat racism. Contact: (212) 998-8730.
- November 15, 2005 — Writers Read Series, Paola Corso reads from her collection of short stories “Giovanna's 86 Circles and Other Stories.” John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, 25 West 43rd St., NYC, 17th Floor. 6:30 PM. Event is free. Pre-registration required at: (212) 642-2094. Photo ID required.
- November 17, 2005 — Coalition of Italian-American Associations monthly dinner meeting will feature The Honorable Richard N. Gardner, Former US Ambassador to Italy and Jennifer AnnMarie Armstrong, Executive Director, Global Consumer Programs, CITIGROUP at 8 East 69th Street, NY. $75 per person. RSVP: (212) 541-1021.
- November 19, 2005 — Symposium: Homage to Giose Rimanelli. Location: Javits Seminar Room, Frank Melville Memorial Library. All are invited. Free and open to the public except for optional lunch ($25 per person). Contact: 631-632-7444 for reservations and additional program information. 9 AM-3 PM.
- November 20, 2005 — Gift of Sight Luncheon at Immaculate Conception Center, Douglaston. 1 PM. Contact: Angelo Ferrara (516) 328-3165 or Nancy Cosma (516) 799-8029.
- November 20, 2005 — Professor Marcello Saija, University of Messina, and representatives from the Regione Sicilia will present a new film on Italian Emigration: Oltreoceano (with English subtitles). Location: Lecture Hall I, Wang Center, Stony Brook University. All are invited. Free and Open to the Public. 2 PM.
- November 20, 2005 — “Oltremare” - A New Film on the Sicilian Emigration Experience (in Italian with English subtitles), 2:00 PM. Stony Brook University, Wang Center, Lecture Hall 1.
- November 21, 2005 — Lecture: Honorable Giovanni Di Stasi will speak on Democracy in Europe. Lecture Hall I, Wang Center, Stony Brook University. 4 PM.
- November 21, 2005 — The Istituto Italiano di Cultura presents Sacrilege and Redemption in Renaissance Florence a book-signing and presentation by authors Connell and Constable. 6 PM, 686 Park Avenue, Manhattan.
- November 22, 2005 — The Abrons Arts Center presents an exhibition of black and white and color photographs by Robert Forlini entitled “La Festa: Italian Festivals in America” at 466 Grand Street in Manhattan. Contact: (212) 598-0040.
- November 29, 2005 — Lecture: Phillip Baldwin, Theatre Arts Department, Stony Brook University. Topic: La Bella Figura: Architecture, Urbanism, and Landscape of Historical Italy. Stony Brook University, Harriman Hall, Room 137. 2:20 PM.
- November 29, 2005 — A lecture by Prof.sa Maria Miscella on Sardinian author Grazia Deledda, Recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, 1926. 7:30 PM. Garden City Public Library. This lecture is being hosted by the Long Island Society for Italian Culture.
- December 4, 2005 — Gino DiNapoli Entertainment. Farmingdale Library.
- December 6, 2005 — Talk: Robert Cess will speak on his hobby and interest: A History of Italian Automobiles: specifically, the Alfa Romeo and Italian Automobiles as an Art Form. Stony Brook University, Harriman Hall, Room 137. 2:20 PM.
- December 18, 2005 — Cristina Fontanelli. Celebrate the Tradition! A vocal journey through Italy’s best loved songs, arias, Neopolitan and Christmas classics with piano, mandolin and guitar accompaniment. Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center, 2:30 PM, 129 W. 67th St., NY. Box office: 212-501-3330. Online: www.kaufman-center.org.
- January 27, 2006 — 13th Annual Winter Charity Ball, Chateau Briand, Carle Place.
Respectfully submitted:
Robert Necci, Chair
Italian Heritage & Culture Committee
2101 Bellmore Avenue
Bellmore, NY 11710-5605
HeritageandCultureReport@nysosia.org |
