Articles by: Letizia airos

  • Life & People

    Joseph Coccia. A Vision of Need

    “Our vision was a vision of need…an official entity that children, students, adults, scholars, organizations can call on to assist in furthering our rich Italian heritage…before it fades or is lost to history.”
                                                                                                                                Cav. Joseph Coccia, Jr.

    A broad smile. Piercing eyes. Facial features reminiscent of his homeland even though he was not born there. That vision of Italy is brought into every moment of his life along with the ever-present image of his father.

    He is not only a grandfather to his relatives–he does, in fact, have five children, ten grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren–but to all the young people who are involved with his foundation.

    To see him walking and interacting with students is always exciting. He moves among them, ascends to their level, is able to communicate with the same ease that a man has with his own grandchildren.

    There is a sweetness about him that struck me the first time and continues to amaze me. His manner is firm but warm, with an obvious curiosity about the other person.

    It is often difficult for an Italian to understand what it means to love our country from this side of the ocean, after so many years and when one is so far away. And, it must be said, it is equally difficult to find people who know how to promote their own culture of origin with true objectivity and without self-interest.

    Cav. Joseph Coccia is a rare example, in my opinion, of sincere generosity without any unnecessary grandstanding and with great human concern.

    Of course there will always be criticism whenever a difficult task is at hand such as preserving and promoting culture, and this includes the foundation that Coccia himself started. Missteps are always possible but it must be recognized that the Coccia Foundation, undoubtedly, is the sum total of a cultural mission dedicated to young people, one that is undertaken without rhetoric or artifice.

    Coccia is supported by his entire family in this mission, especially his wife Elda, and his daughter Elisa, who has served as the foundation’s director for a number of years.

    “It’s part of our lives,” Coccia tells me. “The foundation was created for young people to help them integrate and to promote the values ​​that relate to our Italian identity.”

    He tells us about his father using both Italian and English. “This is all dedicated to him and my love for Italy. I spent a lot of time with him and he told me about a lot of Italian things, many of them very simple. Now they are in my blood. I could not do it any other way.” His father came to the U.S. at the beginning of last century when he was only 17 years old to work in Pennsylvania’s coal mines. He then moved to NJ where he started a family and had two children.

    “He worked a lot, from 4:30 in the morning until 10:00 at night. I also worked with him until I was twenty. I learned a lot and I am thankful that he allowed me to attend Catholic school from when I was eight years old.”

    This is one of Joseph Coccia’s many emblematic stories. He was born in Newark to Italian parents who emigrated to the U.S. during the Great Depression. He went to Japan and Korea while serving in the army. He then focused his life on work and family. He married Elda who was born in Lioni (Avellino province) and had arrived in the U.S. when she was 15. They later had five children.

     
    And Joseph worked–he worked very hard first as an insurance salesman then as a furniture salesman and went on to amass a small fortune which he decided to dedicate to preserving his cultural heritage.

    “I started with UNICO and I immediately saw what was missing. I spoke with students–no one was helping them!”

    The Coccia Foundation was founded in 1994 when Cav. Joseph Coccia, Jr. and his wife Elda personally decided to do something significant. Since 2000, Joseph Coccia has devoted much of his time to preserving Italian culture in the U.S. He understands how important it is for universities and institutions of higher education to recognize and incorporate Italian studies into their curricula. In 2003 Joseph and Elda Coccia founded the Coccia Institute for the Italian Experience in America at Montclair State University.

     
    The institute recently acquired the National Italian Association Foundation (NIAF) and the New Jersey Italian and Italian Heritage Commission as its first key partners. The institute participates in Italian heritage month every year in October, holds a yearly symposium, and organizes a summer program. Among its year round initiatives, it offers an Italian theater program for children between the ages of 6 and 12 as well as business lectures and cooking demonstrations. Besides these programs the institute also engages in substantial work as a charitable foundation.

    As it states on the foundation’s website: “Proud of their accomplishments, Joseph and Elda realized that Italian culture is in the hands of today’s children. Because of that, they are working on a cause very near to our hearts: Seeking to establish and encourage Italian student clubs and promote the teaching of Italian language, culture, and heritage in as many universities and colleges as possible.”

    For my part, I encourage readers to visit the site and keep up-to-date on programs and participate in their events and meetings. At the Coccia Foundation that generous Italian spirit that many dream of is still alive today.

    The Coccia Foundation is a non-profit 501 (c) (3) Family Foundation, located in Saddle Brook, NJ.
  • Facts & Stories

    “Polentoni” have Fared no Better than “Terroni”

    ITALIAN VERSION

    His answer is neither a direct response to Pino Aprile, author of the controversial book Terroni, nor is it a northern manifesto against the South. He makes this clear right from the start.

    Without claiming any undue credit, I wrote Maledetti Savoia in 1996 and Indietro Savoia in 1999. This was a dozen years before Pino Aprile who, moreover, quotes me extensively as a bibliographic reference.” Del Boca, author of Polentoni, is referring to the book that is often juxtaposed alongside his: Terroni by Pino Aprile. Both books will be presented and discussed by the authors themselves at an event organized by ILICA. The debate will be moderated by Prof. Anthony J. Tamburri, Dean of the Calandra Institute.

    We asked him to tell us what we can expect, to summarize in a few words his work on Polentoni.

    I have documented how the South has been stripped, robbed, and massacred. At the base of the Tronto River (which marked the northern boundary of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies), there were stationed 60 battalions of riflemen who treated the inhabitants as people to be conquered. The freedom they were supposed to bring about was the ideological screen that was used to make the aggression look expendable in the eyes of Europe. They said that the liberators would help to free their brothers. In reality, freedom brought them face to face with the barrel of a bayonet, and in the end, it “liberated” people who did not want to be freed. It was a shameful page in history but after this massacre and dispossession, no one won anything. At least not the people of the north.

    And why do you maintain that the North has fared the worst?

    The farmers in the Po Valley found themselves in an area devastated by armies that fought each other. First they attacked the Austrians, then the Austrians fought against Piedmont. The “dream” of Savoy that began in 1848 ended (in the north) in 1866 after three wars of independence and a vast number of battles. How many farmers starved to death because their crops were destroyed just as they were about to be harvested?

    The Venetians and the Veneto fought the Austrians. They were the sailors who defeated the Italians at Lissa, but the next day they discovered that they were part of another state. They were paying 11 liras a year to the government in Vienna which was efficient by definition, and then they found themselves paying 32 liras to Turin without the benefit of public works being carried out.

    These facts and figures show that national resources were just wasted away. Have we advanced at all?

    Since then, a number of “initiatives” were taken to help the country’s economy take off, especially in the South which had morphed into “the Southern question.” A ton of money was spent with little to show for it. They paid manufacturers to transfer factories to the South but that did not work. They didn’t produce any jobs but they did produce wages. Alfa Sud, the steel mills of Taranto, companies like Pomigliano d’Arco, Termini Imerese, and various programs such as the “Cassa del Mezzogiorno” [Fund for the South] have proved to be a failure. A very expensive failure.

    You maintain that it created a great sense of disappointment...

    Yes, the unification of Italy, as it occurred, no longer pleased anyone, not even those who brought it about. In 1867, Giuseppe Garibaldi wrote from Caprera: “I do not regret anything, but I can no longer return to the South for fear that I will be stoned because of the pain that I caused there.”

    The same Garibaldini who apparently believed in the Risorgimento were very disappointed. Some – a few – made the best of a bad situation and supported the new state by wearing the uniforms of commanding officers or grabbing a seat in parliament. But for others – the majority – it ended very badly. They were marginalized, shunned, went mad, committed suicide. The most dramatic case was Giovanni Cerutti from Pavia. He woke up before dawn, kissed his wife and daughter who were still in bed, and covered his head with a towel. He then put a nail on his forehead and implanted it in his skull with a hammer. He had just written a line on a piece of paper: “This is not the Italy for which I have risked my life.” A skewed exclamation point was barely covered by a drop of blood.

    The 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy is a good time to rewrite, or better, to finally write the history of our country.

    To learn more and to meet the authors
    Terroni e Polentoni
    Pino Aprile and Lorenzo Del Boca
    Thursday, November 10, 2011
    2:00–7:00 p.m.
    St. John’s University – Manhattan Campus
    101 Murray Street
    Saval Auditorium

  • Ai polentoni non è andata meglio che ai terroni

    ENGLISH VERSION

    La sua non è una risposta a Pino Aprile, autore del controverso libro Terroni, e non è un manifesto “nordista” contro il sud.  Ci tiene a dirlo subito.

    Senza rivendicare inutili paternità, ho scritto “Maledetti Savoia” nel 1996 e “Indietro Savoia” nel 1999. Una dozzina di anni prima di Pino Aprile che, del resto, mi cita abbondantemente come riferimento bibliografico.” Precisa del Boca autore di Polentoni il libro che spesso viene affiancato ad un altro caso editoriale “Terroni' di Pino Aprile. Entrambi verranno presentati, discussi dagli autori in un evento organizzato da Ilica. Il dibattito verrà moderato dal Prof. Anthony J. Tamburri, dean del Calandra Instiute.

    Gli chiedo di anticiparci qualcosa, di riassumere in poche parole il suo lavoro con “Polentoni”.

     

    “Ho documentato come il Sud sia stato spogliato, derubato e massacrato. Sotto il fiume Tronto (che indicava il confine settentrionale del regno delle Due Sicilie) si sono presentati 60 battaglioni di bersaglieri che hanno trattato quelle popolazioni come gente da conquistare. La libertà da portare era lo schermo ideologico per rendere l’aggressione spendibile agli occhi dell’Europa. Dissero che i fratelli liberatori avevano aiutato i fratelli da liberare. In realtà, la libertà la portarono sulla punta delle baionette e, alla fine, “liberarono” gente che non voleva essere liberata. Fu una pagina infame ma il Nord da questo massacro e da questa spogliazione non ci ha guadagnato. Almeno il popolo del Nord.”

     
    E perché secondo te il Nord avrebbe avuto la peggio?

    I contadini della pianura padana si trovarono i campi devastati da eserciti che si rincorrevano. Ora attaccavano gli austriaci ora gli austriaci si ritiravano davanti ai piemontesi. Il “sogno” del Savoia cominciato nel 1848 terminò (al nord) nel 1866 dopo tre guerre di indipendenza e una quantità sterminata di battaglie. Quanti contadini sono morti di fame perché i raccolti al momento di essere portati in tavola venivano distrutti.

    I veneziani e i veneti combatterono con gli austriaci. Furono loro i marinai che sconfissero gli italiani di Persano a Lissa ma, il giorno dopo, scoprirono che facevano parte di un altro stato. Pagavano 11 lire l’anno al governo di Vienna che era efficiente per definizione e si trovarono a pagarne 32 a Torino senza che le opere pubbliche venissero realizzate.
     

    Cifre alla mano dimostri che le risorse nazionali sono state usate a senso unico. Ci anticipi qualcosa?

    Da allora vennero realizzati una quantità di “piani” per fare decollare l’economia del paese, soprattutto al Sud che era diventato “la questione meridionale”. Soldi ne spesero una quantità di realizzazioni poco o nulla. Pagarono gli industriali per trapiantare al Sud fabbriche che non funzionarono. Non producevano posti di lavoro ma stipendi. L’Alfa Sud, le acciaierie di Taranto, le aziende di Pomigliano d’Arco, Termini Imerese e i vari interventi della “Cassa del Mezzogiorno” si sono rivelate un fallimento. Un costoso fallimento.

    E sostieni che abbia prodotto subito una grande delusione…

    Sì, l’Unità d’Italia, come era stata fatta, non piaceva più a nessuno, nemmeno a quelli che l’avevano fatta,

    Giuseppe Garibaldi, nel 1867, da Caprera, scrisse. “non rimpiango niente ma non posso riprendere la via del Mezzogiorno per timore che mi prendano a sassate a causa dei dolori che ho cagionato laggiù”.

    Gli stessi garibaldini che evidentemente al risorgimento credevano si trovarono delusi. Alcuni – pochi – fecero buon viso a cattivo gioco e si infagottarono nel nuovo stato indossando divise da ufficiali superiori o accaparrandosi un posto in parlamento. Ma gli altri – la maggior parte – fecero una brutta fine: emrginati, disgustati, impazziti, suicidi. Il più clamoroso Giovanni Cerutti, di Pavia, si alzò di mattina che ancora non faceva giorno, baciò la moglie e la figlia che stavano ancora a letto, si coprì la testa con un asciugamano. Poi appoggiò un chiodo sulla fronte e se lo piantò nel cranio con una martellata. Aveva appena scritto una riga sul foglio di carta. “Non è questa l’Italia per la quale ho rischiato la vita. Un punto esclamativo a sghimbescio appena coperto da una macchiolina di sangue.”

    Il simposio dell'11 novembre si prospetta dunque  un’occasione utile per riflettere sul 150° anniversario dell’Unità d’Italia e su quella storia che  secondo alcuni andrebbe riscritta.

    Per saperne di più, conoscerlo
    Terroni e Polentoni
    Pino  Aprile & Lorenzo Del Boca
    Thursday, November 10th, 2011
    2pm-7pm
    St. Johns University – Manhattan Campus
    101 Murray St.
    Saval Auditorium

  • A Casa, with Stefano Albertini

    It is a pleasant recurrence for i-Italy to take a look at NYU Casa Italiana’s programs together with its director, Stefano Albertini.

    The building in the Village, where the institution is situated, was bought 21 years ago by Baroness Mariuccia Zerilli-Marimò and donated to New York University. The mission, grandiosely achieved beyond all expectations, was to give New York a place, a house in this case, for Italian culture.

    I go there frequently and every time I walk through the doorway I can’t stop feeling a sense of deep welcoming, liveliness and warmth: I’m home.

     

     

    Its walls practically speak, because there is usually an exhibition on view that takes one back to Italy along Casa’s corridors. If one arrives during academic hours, students of all nationalities are walking around carrying their books and laptops from one room to another, stopping to study in the library or in the garden, weather permitting. Towards the evening a more mixed group of people fills the auditorium seats.

    And Stefano Albertini, the director, has left his fingerprint on all this. Together with a staff of young Italians and Americans, he is the metteur en scène of a difficult story: the Italian culture for Americans.

    I find him in his office, among books, catalogues, photos and paintings, in front of his Apple on which he contacts his collaborators through Skype. He appreciates communicating with Facebook, knowing that it is easier to reach the younger generations there. While speaking to him, his email alerts ring frequently.

    His doorway has been crossed by well-known Italians and Americans as well as lesser-known young talents who keep American-Italian relations alive.

    We speak of culture with him, politely, but outspokenly.

    Albertini begins by highlighting the recent activity of this 2011-2012 season:

    “By now our programming has achieved a pretty consolidated rhythm. We have a few fixed events such as Open Roads with Antonio Monda and Lincoln Center, our collaboration with the Penn Festival, Fred Plotkin’s series on opera, Grazia D’Annunzio and Eugenia Paulicelli’s on style, fashion and design, just to name a few.

    Then we have a great number of activities that change every year. This fall, for instance, we have the luck to host, over ten days, two of Italy’s most important writers. One represents the extreme North of Italy, the North-Easterner Claudio Magris. He is a great theorist of Mitteleuropa and of the Asburgic importance for a great part of central Europe that extends into Italy. The other is Erri De Luca, a Neapolitan writer of great spiritual inspiration.

    The other aspect that brings together some of this semester’s activities is a sort of journey and exploration in Italian popular music. We had Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino that possibly represents the excellence of Apulian popular musical culture from pizzica onward. We will have a performance of Sicilian popular songs dedicated to the sea with Michela Musolino and a band created just for this occasion. We will be hosting a male choir from Nuoro presenting the great Sardinian musical tradition. We will also be journeying through the Italian choral tradition beginning with pre-Gregorian chant, moving onwards.

    We felt it would be important to rethink Italian popular music, the folklore, in a period of great rebirth due to a series of experimentations, collaborations with rock, pop and even electronic music.

    And Casa is always inhabited by beautiful exhibits…

    During this semester we have two very important exhibits. They aren’t of contemporary artists. The one that just closed was on the fortified villas of northern Italy, with wooden models.

    The next exhibit will be about Hemingway’s presence in Italy, especially in Veneto. It will be a collection of very beautiful black and white photographs that document the Italian lifestyle of one of the greatest American writers of the Twentieth century. It will be like entering his mental landscape, Venice, and the whole of Veneto.

    Next semester we will return to contemporary art. We are working on a large exhibition on Licini together with the Italian Cultural Institute.

    We are also preparing other events regarding cinema and photography. I can anticipate that we will be bringing “Margini d’Italia”, a very beautiful exhibit put together by our colleague David Forgacs, chair of Contemporary Italian Studies. It is about the different aspects of marginality in Italy, from immigrants to the working class, etc… A very different Italy from the one shown on postcards. We feel it is a good idea to show all the different aspects.

    Different aspects… it isn’t always easy to talk about our country.

    I think that in this job there are moments during which one has to take a deep breath with regards to contemporary Italy, and this is one of them. The fact that we are not there helps to move a bit beyond, to explain our country and this is especially clear to a journalist like you who writes for readers across the ocean.

    Any other upcoming events about contemporary Italy?

     

    Apart from the highly awaited conversation with Beppe Severgnini, who dedicated his last book to explaining Berlusconi’s Italy to Americans, we will have an event called “Why Italy Matters to the World”, organized together with a group of Italian professionals in New York.

    It will happen in mid-November. We will work on researching American investors for avant-garde Italian start-ups. I think it is our duty to offer possibilities to young businesses in Italy.

    I say this because, after this crisis, there will surely be a better time on the wave of a younger and braver entrepreneurial class.

    So we try to look beyond the crisis and prepare for possible ways out.

    But the crisis unfortunately is not only financial, in our country…

    We can’t hide the fact that we are in a moment in which it is difficult to talk about Italy. Recently it has been represented in the States as a sort of joke. We are mentioned by stand-up comedians instead of by serious news. All this makes our job more difficult.

    But stirring things around in this solidified cauldron is not a way out. Here at Casa Italiana we have the advantage of living outside of the Italian swamp and can look up.

    Casa Italiana is becoming more and more a place for dialogue about all things Italian in New York. As we said in another interview we made two years ago: a ‘free arena’ open to everyone…

    I can safely say that all political and cultural forms have the possibility of expressing themselves at Casa Italiana. Our gatherings are always open-minded and sincere. I remember when we hosted Letizia Moratti when she was Minister of Education and Scientific Research. She asked to meet Italian researchers and an Italian functionary asked me to only invite people who wouldn’t raise questions. I answered that we don’t choose, that everyone is equally a colleague and that everyone would have the same right to speak. What turned out was a very lively encounter, with strong points of view, expressed with great fair play. I think that this is the key. By not censuring, debate cools off.

    What we can do is offer a platform for democratic debate on which everyone can express his or her own idea. The same thing happened when we hosted Nichi Vendola, president of Apulia, a controversial leader of the Left.

    There have been many “memorable” visits: above all the visit of President Giorgio Napolitano. I will never forget the moved faces of Baroness Zerilli-Marimò and Stefano Albertini.

    “It was a great emotion to have the President here. He asked our students what they were studying, discovering that we had Canadian, Chinese and French students. Everyone was here at NYU to discover Italian culture and literature. We had a fresh and lively discussion with him. It was a terrifically simple meeting with students and professors, with only a few minutes of official statements. The rest was informal.”

    In conclusion, Stefano Albertini feels it important to underline the importance of Casa Italiana’s presence on the web.

    “It is fundamental for us to constantly rethink our Internet presence. That is where our future lies together with the future of other organizations like ours. For example, an event on Italian opera with Fred Plotkin seen in our auditorium by 200 people is seen online by just as many and not only in the United States. An average of 44 follow from Germany. It makes you think. The web mission we share with all of you at i-Italy is our future.

    Internet is constantly evolving and we must make it more and more useful for people and researchers who want are interested in all things Italian.

    We leave each other with Albertini’s dream event in New York…

    It is something we have been trying to put together for a long time: the screening of Cabiria (the great silent colossal film, the first in cinema history, premiered in Turing with orchestra and titles by D’Annunzio). I would like a grand screening in a large theater with a great orchestra…

  • A Casa, con Stefano Albertini

    E’ una piacevole consuetudine per i-Italy fare il punto sui programmi della Casa Italiana della NYU con il suo direttore, Stefano Albertini.

     
    La palazzina del village, dove si svolgono le attività dell’Istituto, è stata acquistata ventun’anni fa dalla baronessa Mariuccia Zerilli-Marimò e donata alla NYU. L’intento, raggiunto al di là delle più rosee aspettative, era quello di regalare a New York un posto, appunto una casa, dove far abitare la cultura italiana.
     
    Ci vado molto spesso e tutte le volte che varco il suo portone non posso fare a meno di provare la stessa sensazione di profonda accoglienza, vitalità e calore: sono a casa.
     
    Le sue mura in qualche modo parlano, c’è infatti quasi sempre una mostra che percorrendo i suoi corridoi riporta in Italia. Se si arriva in orario di lezione, studenti di tutte le nazionalità camminano con i loro libri e computer portatili da una stanza all’altra, si fermano a studiare in biblioteca o nel giardino, se fa caldo. Verso sera invece spesso un pubblico etereogeno riempie l’auditorio.

    E Stefano Albertini, il direttore, ha dato la sua inconfondibile impronta a tutto ciò. Insieme ad uno staff di giovanissimi italiani ed americani è il regista di un racconto non sempre facile: quello della cultura italiana agli americani.

     
    Lo trovo nel sul ufficio tra libri, cataloghi, foto e quadri, davanti al suo computer Apple con cui contatta anche i suoi collaboratori usando Skype. Non disdegna comunicare attraverso Facebook dove sa che trova più facilmente giovani. Mentre conversiamo l’allert delle email suonerà spesso.
     

    La sua porta ha visto passare personaggi italiani ed americani molto noti ma anche entrare  giovani talenti meno conosciuti in anni molto vivi per i rapporti  tra Stati Uniti ed Italia. 

    Con lui si parla di cultura e lo si fa con garbo, ma senza peli sulla lingua.

     
    Albertini comincia rissumendo per i-Italy  i punti salienti delleattività appena avviata quest’anno:
     
    “La nostra programmazione ha ormai un ritmo abbastanza consolidato negli anni. Ci sono alcuni appuntamenti fissi come Open Roads insieme ad Antonio Monda ed il Lincoln Center, la collaborazione col Penn Festival, le serie di Fred Plotkin sull'opera, quella di Grazia D'annunzio ed Eugenia Paulicelli su stile, moda e design. Solo per dirne alcuni.
     
    Poi ci sono tutta una serie di attività che cambiano di anno in anno. Quest'autunno, ad esempio, abbiamo la fortuna di avere qui, nel giro di dieci giorni, due tra i più significativi scrittori italiani. Uno rappresenta l'estremo nord, il nord est: Claudio Magris. E’ un grande teorico della Mitteleuropa e dell’importanza asburgica per una grande parte del Europa centrale che si estende anche all'Italia. L’altro è Erri De Luca, scrittore napoletano di grande afflato spirituale. Due autori che rappresentano due realtà geografiche e due modi di sentire, differenti pur avendo molto in comune.
     
    L'altro aspetto che unisce alcune delle attività di questo semestre è una specie di viaggio, di esplorazione nella musica popolare italiana. Abbiamo avuto il Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino che rappresenta forse l'eccellenza della cultura musicale popolare pugliese dalla pizzica in poi. Avremo uno spettacolo di canzoni popolari siciliane dedicate al mare con Michela Musolino e una band creata apposta per noi.  Verrà un coro di soli uomini da Nuoro che presenta la grande tradizione della musica sarda. Assisteremo anche ad un excursus sulla tradizione corale italiana da prima del gregoriano al gregoriano e dopo.
     
    Ci sembrava molto significativo ripensare la musica popolare italiana, la musica folkloristica, in un momento di grande rinascita grazie a una serie di sperimentazioni, di commistioni con la musica rock, pop e addirittura con la musica elettronica.
     
    E poi la Casa è sempre abitata da bellissime mostre…
     
    Questo semestre abbiamo due mostre molto importanti. Non sono d'arte nel senso di artisti contemporanei. Quella in corso, quasi al termine oramai, è sulle ville fortificate del Nord Italia con modelli lignei.
     
    La prossima sarà dedicata alla presenza di Hemingway in Italia e specialmente nel Veneto. Una rassegna di fotografie con immagini in bianco e nero molto belle che documentano questo vivere italiano di uno dei più grandi scrittori americani del 900. Sarà come entrare nel suo paesaggio mentale, a Venezia, in tutto il Veneto.
     
    Nel prossimo semestre riprenderemo a parlare di arte contemporanea. Stiamo lavorando a una grossa mostra dedicata a Licini insieme all'Istituto Italiano di Cultura.
     
    Stiamo definendo anche altre iniziative legate al cinema e la fotografia. Posso anticipare che porteremo “Margini d’Italia”,  una mostra molto bella messa insieme dal nostro collega David Forgacs,  ordinario di Studi Italiani Contemporanei. Racconta diversi aspetti della marginalità in Italia, dagli immigrati alla classe operaia ecc… Un'Italia molto diversa da quella che viene presentata nelle cartoline. Ci sembra giusto dar conto di diverse realtà.
     
    Diverse realtà…. non è sempre facile raccontare il nostro Paese.
     
    Credo che ci siano momenti in cui facendo il nostro lavoro bisogna andare un po' in apnea rispetto alla realtà contemporanea dell'Italia, questo è uno di quei momenti. Il fatto che noi non stiamo li aiuta ad andare un po' al di là. Aiuta a spiegare il nostro Paese e lo sai anche tu bene anche per quanto rigurada il tuo lavoro di giornalista verso lettori americani al di là dell’oceano.
     
    Qualche altra anticipazione su iniziative legate all’attualità italiana?
     
    Oltre all’attesa conversazione con Beppe Severgnini che ha dedicato l'ultimo libro al come spiegare l'Italia di Berlusconi agli americani, avremo un’iniziativa che si chiama "Why Italy matters to the world". La realizziamo insieme a un gruppo di professionisti italiani a New York
     
    Partirà a metà novembre. Si lavorerà sulla ricerca di investitori americani per start up italiane d'avanguardia. Secondo me è nostro dovere offrire possibilità ad imprese giovani che sono in Italia.
     
    Dico questo perchè, passata questa crisi, verrà, sicuramente, un momento migliore sull'onda di una classe imprenditoriale più giovane e intraprendente. 
     
    Quindi cerchiamo di guardare oltre la crisi e preparare possibili vie d'uscita.
     
    Ma la crisi non è purtroppo solo economica nel nostro Paese…
     
    E' inutile nascondersi che siamo in un momento in cui è difficile parlare dell'Italia. Da un pò di tempo è rappresentata negli States come una barzelletta. Siamo sempre ricordati quasi più dagli stand up commendians che non da notizie serie. Tutto ciò rende sicuramente più difficile il nostro lavoro.
     
    Ma non è rimestando in questa situazione di crisi incancrenita che possiamo uscirne. Noi della Casa Italiana abbiamo il vantaggio, in un certo senso, di vivere fuori dalla palude italiana e quindi possiamo, più facilmente di altri, alzare gli occhi. 
     
    La Casa Italiana è sempre di più il luogo per il dialogo su questioni italiane a New York. Come abbiamo detto in un’altra intervista che ti abbiamo fatto anni fa: una ‘free arena” aperta a tutti…
     
    Credo di poter dire che tutte le forme politiche e culturali hanno avuto ed hanno la possibilità di esprimersi nella Casa Italiana. Gli incontri sono sono stati sempre molto franchi e onesti. Ricordo la visita di Letizia Moratti da ministro dell'università e della Ricerca Scientifica. Ci chiese di incontrare ricercatori e ricercatori italiani e un funzionario italiano mi chiese di invitare solo gente che non facesse polemiche. Io risposi che noi non scegliamo, che erano tutti colleghi allo stesso modo e che avrebbero avuto tutti le stesse possibilità di parola. Fu un incontro molto vivace, acceso, con opinioni molto forti ma espresso con grande fair play. Io credo che sia questa la chiave di volta. Se non si censura, la discussione diventa pacata.
     
    Quello che noi possiamo fare e offrire una piattaforma di discussione democratica in cui tutti possano esprimere una propria idea. La stessa cosa e successa quando è venuto Nichi Vendola, presidente della Regione Puglia ma anche politico di sinistra molto discusso.
     
    Ci sono state tante visite “memorabili”. Ricordo una per tutte. Quella del presidente della Repubblica Giorgio Napolitano. Mi è rimasta impressa la commozione sui volti della Baronessa Zerilli Marimò e di Stefano Albertini.
     
    “E’ stata una grande emozione vedere il Presidente della Repubblica qui. Chiedeva ai nostri studenti e dottorandi di cosa si occupavano per scoprire che abbiamo da noi studenti canadesi, cinesi, francesi. Tutti ad NYU per conoscere la cultura e la letteratura italiana. Con lui si è svolto un dialogo fresco e vivace. E’ stato un incontro con studenti e professori di una semplicità esemplare, i discorsi ufficiali sono durati pochi minuti. Il resto è stato informale. “
     
    Concludendo la nostra conversazione Stefano Albertini ci tiene molto a ricordare quanto è importante la presenza della Casa Italiana sul web.
     
    “E’ fondamentale per noi ripensare in continuazione la nostra presenza su Internet. E lì che si trova il nostro futuro e il futuro delle organizzazioni come la nostra. Faccio un esempio. Un incontro sull’opera italiana con Fred Plotkin visto in sala da circa 200 persone quando viene messo in rete viene rivisto integralmente da quasi lo stesso numero di persone e non solo dagli Stati Uniti. Per esempio 44 persone erano in Germania. E’ un dato che fa molto pensare. La missione sul web che condividiamo con voi di i-Italy è il nostro futuro.
     
    Internet è un mezzo che si evolve continuamente. dobbiamo renderlo sempre più utile per le persone e gli studiosi che si interessano di cose italiane.
     
    E mi lascia con il racconto dell’evento che proprio vorrebbe a New York…
     
    E’ qualcosa che stiamo cercando di realizzare da molto tempo. La proiezione di Cabiria, (il grande kolossal del film muto, il primo del cinema mondiale che venne eseguito per la prima volta a Torino con l'accompagnamento di un'orchestra e dei testi di D'Annunzio). Vorrei un grande screening in un grande teatro e con una grande orchestra...
     
     
     
  • Facts & Stories

    Gian Antonio Stella: Madly in Love with Italy and Italy Screws Me Over

    ITALIAN VERSION

    I speak for few minutes with the explosive Gian Antonio Stella, well-known writer and journalist for Corriere della Sera. He is in the United States to present his latest book and show dedicated to emigration. It is a true tour de force that travels from one theater to another, from one university to another.

    The conversation took place shortly after the performance at the Scuola d’Italia Guglielmo Marconi. I wait and then accompany him to the station; he is headed to Philadelphia for another event. I’m still haunted, so to speak, by the magic of The Horde (L’Orda): Stories, Songs, and Images of Italian Immigrants presented by La Compagnia della Acque and directed by Gualtiero Bertelli.

    In front of an audience of very young students, we saw images, words, and songs of emigrants unfold, people and events that have marked the history of Italy and America. It includes faces of both known and unknown people. A rich story that sums up the commitment, work, and successes but also the profound failures, discrimination, and renunciation of Italian immigration to the United States, as well as forced integration, lynchings, unworthy representations of the media, and racism.

    And within Stella’s story, perfectly integrated into the multimedia presentation with fascinating photographs and songs, there is a common thread that is evident from the start.

    Those words, those faces of people leaving on ships and arriving, between hope and despair, between dreams and delusions, are the same people who are now landing on the shores of the Mediterranean.

    The various presentations of the show, in both New York and New Jersey, were conceived and realized thanks to Prof. Teresa Fiore, Theresa and Lawrence Inserra chair of Italian and Italian American Studies.

    Fiore told us that with perseverance she overcame several difficulties, including the translation necessary to make the show comprehensible to Americans and the younger generations of Italian-Americans who do not speak the language. She was then able to involve institutions, universities, and schools.

    The show we just saw was realized in a school gym through the efforts of another teacher, Headmistress Anna Fiore who told us how they worked as a group to make the show possible – not only the teaching staff but also students, parents, and relatives.

    The Consulate General in New York was also dedicated to providing educational direction to this great collaborative effort.

    At the Scuola d’Italia we saw Stella perform in almost fatherly tones, attentive and conscious of being in front of an audience of young people. In addition to students from the Marconi School there were also students from other American schools where the Italian language is studied with the coordination of the IACE.

    You presented a show in New York with a similar theme a few years ago entitled, Odysseus: Italians on the Road to Dream and Pain. What has changed since then?

    The economic crisis has worsened the situation. As long as you are in a state of wealth and well-being the arrival of immigrants is tolerated. Even by the most xenophobic. Because it some ways they are useful. There was an ambiguity in those who support and vote for the Northern League. Especially entrepreneurs. Why to stop immigration? They need labor and all the studies say that immigration is absolutely necessary in Italy.

    Now with the crisis, immigrants are only seen as the ones who have caused the damage. They take away jobs, they take away the housing. They have too many children and the right to decent housing has been taken away from the Italian people.

    This is a difficult problem and the political left, in my opinion, was never confrontational. The opposition should have been much more active. History tells us that countries that do not welcome immigrants are those that are worse off economically.

    France and Germany are taking in the most immigrants today. Germany is fine. The countries that have been more closed are worse off. Among the richest, Japan is the most closed off of all. They do not want immigrants. Last month, a Japanese minister had to resign because he had received legitimate, clean, open, visible, and transparent funds from an organization of Korean immigrants. This is the way Japan is.

    And, so to speak, Gian Antonio Stella blames it all on the economy...

    I’ll give you an example; I remember the data because I’ve written it so many times. Today, in Italy there are about 1.3 million dependent people. The old, the elderly. So we have about 1.3 million caretakers. If one day, they all went away we would have 1.3 million beds in shelters and old age homes.

    One bed translates into land acquisition, design, construction, furniture, nursing services…one bed costs 150 thousand euros. Then you have to hire about 710, 000 people, approximately. Then something like this comes to cost a disproportionate amount. Italy absolutely can no longer afford it. If tomorrow morning all of the caretakers went away, so to speak, Italy would have to invest 150 million euros in five years, which is unthinkable.

    The Horde: When We Were the Albanians from 2003 was a very important book for Italian publishing. It’s still unique to its genre. To understand it in depth, one must consider all of Stella’s other work, his continuous investigation of many other issues that vex our country.

    We mention a few of his books; the titles speak for themselves: The Waste. Italy: How to Throw Away Two Billion, 1998, Tribù; Group Photo with Knight, 2001; Adrift: Why Italy is in Danger of Sinking (with Sergio Rizzo), 2008; Blacks, Gays, Jews, and Company: The Eternal War Against the Other, 2009; and the last which was recently presented at the Italian Cultural Institute, Vandals: The Assault on the Beauty of Italy (with Sergio Rizzo), 2011.

    We ask him to explain the common thread that joins together various subjects that at times seem very different.

    I am madly in love with Italy and Italy screws me over. Every day. They ask me, “Why do you write books that speak negatively about Italy?” I don’t speak negatively about Italy. I get angry with Italy because I love her. If you have a woman who doesn’t interest you, you don’t care if she cheats on you; it doesn’t bother you if she betrays you. You don’t care at all. I suffer, I feel it, and I’m furious because I love her.

    And your “angry” journalism is therefore an ongoing attempt to win her back?

    I think I’m engaging in civil journalism. Without claiming anything more than a few reports on civilization. Ordinary things. In modern countries it works that way. What bothers me is that I’m accused of indifference. I’m a thousand light years away from that.

    They say that in attacking some facets of the political world I want to hit politics as a whole. It’s not so. I am ready to take a gun to defend democracy. I weigh my words. I defend democracy in every way. But one must not confuse democracy with the fact that the president of the province of Bolzano earns 350,000 euros per year. More than Obama...this is unacceptable. It has nothing to do with democracy. That is privilege.

    It should be said that there is a pensioner in Sicily, his name is Felice Crosta and he makes 500,000 euros per year in retirement. That’s 229,000 more than Barack Obama. It’s unacceptable. It has nothing to do with democracy. So it’s a battle of civilizations. I would just rather be in a country that does things normally. If you steal, you go to jail.

    But it’s possible that the son of Umberto Bossi, Renzo (nick named il Trota) earns more than the governors of Arkansas, Colorado, and Maine combined. How is this possible? They say, “You put democracy on trial.” No, I indict all of you who are ruining democracy.
     
    So back to immigration, the so-called Italian caste system, what is the situation like for our cultural heritage?

    My message is a global message. If you’re so selfish that you only think in terms of money…then let’s only think about money. You send away all of the caretakers…150 billion euros in four years. You want to send away the workers? Great, send them all away. Then the immigrants in Italy are now 7% of the population and produce 11. 2% of the GDP. You want to send them all away? Very good. Then it’s clear that you’re in the shit. Then it’s clear that there’s no one left to pays pensions because the immigrants are the ones who keep paying the contributions to the INPS and we don’t know how long pensions will continue. Let’s put it in economic terms…if immigrants go away, we lose. Period. If you understand it, great. Otherwise, get used to it.

    And does the same apply to culture? Our artistic and monumental heritage?

    In recent years, there has been a very individualistic approach that’s also pretty selfish. Everyone did as they like. It was also devastating for culture.

    But now I ask, “Don’t you care enough to save Pompeii, Selinunte…? Don’t you understand the value?” Let’s put it in terms of money. It’s absurd to throw away an immense cultural heritage that could be profitable. Italy has no oil, no gas, no expanses of wheat fields like Canada, no wide open spaces like the United States, no rare earths, but it does have this vast, unearned wealth that is the culture. Throwing it away is absurd; it’s a massive waste. We must change the language of politics to rebuild our civic consciousness that has been lost. Otherwise it’s a losing battle.

    And how has your American tour gone?

    Well, very well. I have worked very well with a very enjoyable company. I have been very well received by all.

    And the audience?

    Very interested. Although with some differences compared to Italy, where for example, a couple of times they complained during the song about Sacco and Vanzetti that there is the Statue of Liberty with a skull….

    That never happens here. They know how it went. They also know that luckily Italy has won the hearts of Americans in so many ways, especially with the movies. Just think about how Frank Capra depicted the American heart with all the love of an “American terror.” And then, of course, there’s food, music, science.... And here they were never given anything. So the spectators were moved and we never heard a complaint. They know how it went.

    The immigrants know that not everyone made a fortune…. Americans brag about difficult beginnings and having made it. The Italians remove that part….

    The show also has a DVD version published in Italian by Rizzoli.

    We hope to see it on sale soon in English, as we hope to see the bestseller in Italy translated as well.

    ---

    “Now the tables set
    With memory short, fallen sleep
    We hurry to start over
    The other side of the fence.”
    “We,” G. Bertelli – I. M. Lame
  • Fatti e Storie

    Gian Antonio Stella: per amore dell'Italia

    ENGLISH VERSION

    Riesco a parlare qualche minuto con il vulcanico Gian Antonio Stella, noto scrittore e giornalista del Corriere della Sera. E’ negli Usa per presentare l’ultimo libro ed il suo spettacolo dedicato all’emigrazione. E" per lui un vero tour de force da un teatro all’altro, da un’università all’altra.

    La conversazione avviene poco dopo la rappresentazione alla Scuola d’Italia Guglielmo Marconi. Mi fermo con lui per poi accompagnarlo alla stazione. Andrà a Filadelfia per un altro incontro. Sono ancora per così dire stregata, dalla magia di "The Horde" (L'Orda). Storie, canti e immagini degli immigrati italiani"  che la Compagnia della Acque, con la regia di Gualtiero Bertelli, ha messo in scena insieme a lui.
     
    Davanti ad un pubblico di giovanissimi abbiamo visto scorrere immagini, parole e canzoni di emigranti, persone ed eventi che hanno segnato la storia italiana e americana. Volti di personalità note e sconosciute. Un racconto denso che riassume l’impegno, il lavoro, i successi ma anche i profondi insuccessi, la discriminazione, le rinunzie dell’emigrazione italiana negli Stati Uniti, l’integrazione forzata, i linciaggi, le rappresentazioni indegne dei media, il razzismo.

    E nel  racconto di Stella, perfettamente integrato nella rappresentazione multimediale con suggestive fotografie e canzoni, un filo rosso è evidente fin dai primi momenti.
     
    Quelle parole, quei volti delle persone in partenza, nelle navi, che arrivano, tra speranza e disperazione, tra sogni e inganni, sono gli stessi di chi oggi sbarca sulle coste del Mediterraneo.

    Le diverse rappresentazioni dello spettacolo,  tra New York e New Jersey,  sono nate  e poi sono state realizzate grazie alla Prof.ssa Teresa Fiore, docente di Studi Italiani e italoamericani presso la cattedra intitolata a Theresa and Lawrence Inserra.

    Fiore ci ha raccontato con che tenacia ha dovuto affrontare diverse difficoltà, non ultima la traduzione indispensabile per rendere comprensibile lo spettacolo agli americani e alle giovani generazioni di italo-americani che non parlano la lingua d'origine.  E' poi riuscita a convolgere istituzioni, università, scuole.

    Lo spettacolo a cui abbiamo assistito è stato realizzato in una palestra scolastica grazie all'impegno di un altra insegnante: la preside Anna Fiore che ci ha raccontato come hanno lavorato in maniera corale per rendere possibile la rappresentaizone non solo il personale docente e gli allievi ma  anche i genitori, i parenti.

    Grande impegno è stato anche quello della direzione didattica del Consolato Generale di New York.
     
    E alla Scuola d'Italia abbiamo visto recitare uno Stella dai toni quasi paterni, attento e consapevole di trovarsi di fronte ad una platea di giovanissimi. Oltre agli studenti della Scuola Marconi c’erano anche quelli di scuole americane dove si studia la lingua italiana con il coordinamento dello IACE.
     
    Hai già rappresentato a New York uno spettacolo con un tema simile, qualche anno fa, “Odissee. Italiani sulle rotte del sogno e del dolore”. Cosa è cambiato da allora?
     
    La crisi economica ha peggiorato la situazione. Finchè sei in una condizione di ricchezza e benessere l’arrivo di immigrati  viene tollerato. Anche dai più xenofobi. Perché in qualche modo è utile. C’era un’ambiguità in chi vota Lega. Soprattutto per gli imprenditori. Perché fermare gli immigrati? Avevano bisogno di forza lavoro e tutti gli studi dicono che è assolutamente indispensabile l'immigrazione in Italia.
     
    Adesso con la crisi gli immigrati vengono visti soltanto come coloro che provocano dei danni.  Portano via lavoro,  portano via le case. Hanno tanti figli ed il diritto ad avere una dimora popolare tolta agli italiani.
     
    Questo è un problema di difficile soluzione e la stessa sinistra, secondo me, non è mai stata combattiva. L’opposizione avrebbe dovuto essere molto più attiva,  la storia ci dice che i paesi che non accolgono sono quelli che economicamente stanno peggio.  
     
    A prendere più immigrati oggi sono proprio la Francia e la Germania. La Germania va benissimo. I paesi che sono stati più chiusi, vanno peggio. Tra quelli più ricchi il Giappone è il più chiuso di tutti. Non vogliono immigrati lì. Il mese scorso un ministro nipponico ha dovuto dimettersi perché aveva ricevuto dei fondi legittimi, puliti, aperti, visibili e trasparenti da una organizzazione di immigrati coreani; Il Giappone è cosi.
     
    E, per così dire, Gian Antonio Stella la butta sull’economia…
     
    Ti faccio un esempio di cui mi ricordo i dati perché li ho scritti tante volte. Oggi, ci sono in Italia circa un 1.3 milioni di persone non autosufficienti. Anziani, vecchi. Quindi abbiamo 1.3 milioni di badanti circa. Se queste domani mattina andassero via tutte dovremmo 1.3 milioni di posti letto in pensionati e case di accoglienza.
     
    Posto letto vuol dire, acquisto del terreno, progettazione, costruzione, arredamento, infermeria... un posto costa 150 mila euro. Poi devi assumere circa 710 mila persone, circa. Allora una cosa come questa viene a costare una cifra spropositata. Spropositata. L’Italia non se lo può assolutamente permettere. Se domani mattina andassero via tutte le badanti, tanto per capirci, l’Italia dovrebbe investire in 5 anni 150 miliardi di euro che è impensabile.
     
     “L'orda. Quando gli albanesi eravamo noi” del 2003 è stato un libro importantissimo per l’editoria italiana.  Ancora unico nel suo genere.  Per capirlo ancora di più occorre però considerare tutto il lavoro di Stella,  la sua continua inchiesta  su molti altri temi che inquinano il nostro Paese.
     
    Ricordiamo solo alcuni titoli di suoi scritti. Parlano da soli:  Lo spreco. Italia: come buttare via due milioni di miliardi, 1998, Tribù. Foto di gruppo con Cavaliere, 2001, La deriva. Perché l'Italia rischia il naufragio (con Sergio Rizzo) – 2008, 2009 - Negri, froci, giudei & Co. - L'eterna guerra contro l'altro –,  fino all’ultimo presentato all'Istituto Italiano di Cultura di recente  - Vandali. L'assalto alle bellezze d'Italia (con Sergio Rizzo) - 2001.
     
    Gli chiediamo quale sia il filo conduttore che allinea tematiche a volte apparentemente differen    ti
     
    Io sono innamorato pazzo dell’Italia e l’Italia mi mette le corna. Tutti i giorni. Mi domandano “Ma perché fai dei libri che parlano male dell’Italia?”. Io non parlo male dell’Italia. Io mi arrabbio con l’Italia perché la amo. Se hai una donna che non ti interessa e ti mette le corna, non ti preoccupa se ti tradisce. Non te ne importa niente. Soffro, me la prendo e sono furibondo perché la amo.
     
    Ed il tuo giornalismo ‘arrabbiato’ è quindi un continuo tentativo di riconquistarla?
     
    Io credo di fare del giornalismo civile. Senza pretendere niente di più che un po’ di civiltà di rapporti. Cose normali. Nei paesi seri funziona così. Quello che mi da fastidio è che vengo accusato di qualunquismo. Ma io sono lontano mille anni luce da questo.

    Dicono che attaccando alcune sfaccettature del mondo politico voglio colpire tutta la politica nel suo insieme. Non è così. Io sono pronto a prendere il fucile per difendere la democrazia. Peso le parole. La democrazia la difendo in tutti i modi. Però non bisogna confondere la democrazia con il fatto che il presidente della provincia di Bolzano guadagna 35 mila euro l'anno. Più di Obama... questo è inaccettabile. Non c'entra niente la democrazia. Quello è privilegio.
     
    Occorre dire che c’è un pensionato della regione Sicilia, si chiama Felice Crosta e prende 500 mila euro l'anno di pensione. 229 più di Barak Obama... E’ inaccettabile. Non c'entra niente con la democrazia. Quindi noi stiamo facendo una battaglia di civiltà. Io vorrei essere semplicemente in un paese che fa  cose normali. Se hai rubato vai in galera.
     
    Ma è possibile che il figlio di Umberto Bossi, Renzo detto il Trota, guadagna al netto più dei governatori dell'Arkansas del Colorado e del Maine messi insieme. Come è possibile? Mi dicono “tu metti sotto accusa tutta la democrazia”. No, io metto sotto accusa voi che state rovinando la democrazia.
     
    Dunque l’emigrazione, come la cosidetta Casta italiana, come la situazione del nostro patrimonio culturale    ...
     
    Il mio messaggio è un messaggio globale. Se tu sei così egoista che ragioni solo sui soldi... allora ragioniamo solo sui soldi. Vuoi mandare via tutte le badanti... 150 miliardi di Euro in 4 anni. Vuoi mandare via gli operai? Perfetto, mandiamoli via tutti. Allora gli immigrati oggi in Italia sono il 7% e producono l'11,2% del Pil. Vuoi mandare via tutti? Benissimo. Sia chiaro che sei nella merda. Sia chiaro che poi non c’è nessuno che paga le pensioni perché gli immigrati sono loro che tengono su l’INPS pagando i contributi e probabilmente non si sa fino a che punto poi continueranno le pensioni. Mettiamola sul piano economico... se vanno via gli immigrati ci perdiamo. Punto. Se vuoi capirlo bene, altrimenti rassegnati.
     
    E’ lo stesso vale per quanto riguarda la cultura? Il nostro patrimonio artistico e monumentale?
     
    Negli ultimi anni c’è stato un atteggiamento molto individualista anche piuttosto egoistico. Ognuno ha fatto come gli pare. E’ stato devastante anche sulla cultura.
     
    Ma allora io dico: non ti interessa salvare Pompei, Selinunte… non ne capisci il valore? Mettiamola sul piano dei soldi. E’ assurdo buttar via un patrimonio immenso come quello italiano che potrebbe far guadagnare. L’Italia non ha il petrolio, non ha il gas, non ha le distese di campi di grano del Canada, non ha gli spazi degli Stati Uniti, non ha terre rare, ma ha questa immensa perfino immeritata ricchezza che è la cultura. Buttarla via è assurdo, è uno spreco folle. Occorre cambiare il linguaggio della politica per ricostruire quella coscienza civica che è andata persa. Altrimenti è una battaglia persa.
     
    E come è andata questa tournee americana?
    Bene molto bene. Ho lavorato benissimo con una compagnia molto piacevole. Sono stato accolto da tutti benissimo.
     
    Ed il pubblico?
     
    Molto attento. Anche se con qualche differenza rispetto all’Italia dove per esempio un paio di volte si sono lamentati che nel corso della canzone su Sacco e Vanzetti c’è la statua della libertà con un teschio…
     
    Qui non è mai successo. Loro sanno come è andata. E sanno anche che per fortuna l’Italia in America ha conquistato il cuore degli americani in tanti modi. A partire dal cinema. Basti a pensare a come ha raccontato il cuore americano Frank Capra con tutto l’amore di un ‘terrore americano’. E poi abbiamo il cibo, la musica, la scienza… E qui non hanno mai regalato niente. Dunque gli spettatori si sono commossi e non abbiamo mai avuto una contestazione. Loro sanno come è andata.
     
    Gli emigranti lo sanno che non tutti non hanno fatto fortuna… L’americano si vanta delle sue origini difficili e di avercela fatta. L’italiano rimuove…

    Lo spettacolo ha anche una versione in DVD in italiano pubblicata da Rizzoli.
    Ci auguriamo di vedere in vendita presto una in inglese. Come speriamo da anni di veder tradotto anche il libro bestseller in Italia    .

    ---

    "Ora dalle tavole imbandite
    con la memoria corta, addormentata
    abbiamo fretta di ricominciare
    dall'altra parte della barricata"
    Noi, G. Bertelli - I. M. Zoppi
  • Op-Eds

    The Betrothed Between Memory and Imagination

    ITALIAN VERSION

    An important cultural event returns to the U.S. and Canada. The drama based on The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni, directed and starring Massimiliano Finazzer Flory. On stage, chapters one, six, eight, 12, 21, 34, and 38 are highlighted through prominent figures of Italian literature such as Don Abbondio, Don Rodrigo, Fra Cristoforo, Lucia, L’Innominato, and Renzo. The debut will take place on October 11 at the Terrace Theater at the prestigious Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. After that, the show will travel in the U.S. and abroad.

    The performance is in Italian with English supertitles; admission is free. Over the past two years it has been presented in several countries around the world and was conceived to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Italy’s unification.

     

    On stage Maximilian Massimiliano Finazzer Flory will be joined by Gilda Gelati, prima ballerina in the corps de ballet at La Scala and Elsa Martignoni, violinist in the Giuseppe Verdi Orchestra who will perform music by Verdi, Bellini, Paganini, Rota, and Berio. The show’s costumes were made by La Scala Theatre’s designers.

    We spoke with Finazzer by telephone and asked him a few questions.

    We saw your show at NYU a few months ago. You will now go back on tour and even return to New York. Does this confirm audience interest and demonstrate a measure of success?

    I have a great deal of satisfaction because the tour is proof that culture brings together not only the arts but also people. So the show encompasses literature, music, and dance but also brings the collective imagination of Italian Americans closer to a singular desire – fantasy and power, the ability to tell the truth about our dreams. So I’m glad to see the success of this work from 360 degrees.”

    Will it be the same show that we saw last spring in New York?

    This time there will be something new: an additional chapter. An extra 20 minutes. The costumes are also from La Scala and are from 1628. It’s Italian labor, 100 per cent – because even thought is a style. So it’s high quality artistic craftsmanship. I’m not afraid to get close to both circus men and craftsman. The actor is both – the craftsman because he must do his job well and a man of the circus because he must know how to take risks, how to walk on a tight wire without a net.

    In a society that’s completely fake, plastic, calculated, experienced through Photoshop, we are real people. The American public has understood this perfectly – this is the strain and the tension.
     

    There were many young Italians at Casa Italiana. Do they comprise your ideal audience?

    I want to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to Baroness Zerilli-Marimò who supported our show. She is the show’s benefactor and I am very grateful to her as I am grateful to Director Stefano Albertini. They proved themselves to be very supportive and sensitive.

    Yes, there were many students and young people at Casa Italiana. This time we plan to have Scuola d’Italia involved as well as those students who gravitate toward Lincoln Center and attend other universities.

    The generational change is critical, even more so as a driving force between memory and imagination. The adult audiences keep memories alive while young people have imagination; we need both if we want a good story. Memory without imagination is nostalgia; imagination without memory is entertainment. But imagination alone cannot get the job done.

    So then it’s necessary to combine memory and imagination?
    It’s nice to put both of them together. Performance is a genre for young people and the historical novel is an art form, perhaps a more mature or older one. Here we have put together two different generations, those who believe in the historical novel and those who believe in performance. In my opinion, this inter-connectedness is essential.

    Manzoni's novel continues to be very relevant, even today. The fight of the humble against different forms of power, attempted rebellions, etc….

    At the time, it was said that it was an erudite novel for the humble and a humble novel for the erudite. Who are the rebels today? In Manzoni, famine also means starvation of understanding – bread riots for those who want to know more. Soon our children will want to know more. How will they do it? The bread riot is the revolt of knowledge. The marriage that I perform is not only between Renzo and Lucia but also between culture and economy.

    We cannot continue to hold onto culture without economics, but economics without culture is just the will to overpower. We need to find common ground. It cannot be all in the hands of the patron nor can it be in the hands of the welfare state and public funds.

    But does investing in culture remain, especially in Italy, essential to overcoming the economic crisis?
    This time I’m here without so much as a government grant, and so it is in Argentina, France, and Turkey. I am somewhat proud of that. Public and private donors should invest in sponsorship or in your media, for example. Investing means not only putting money into culture but also creating jobs.

    The world of culture and performance is driven by employment. Americans teach us that every dollar you put into a movie will produce many more. This is now true for theater, exhibits, libraries, publishing. The framework is very important.

    Bringinga company often peoplemeanshotels, transportation, photographers, press offices, dinners, taxis. I produced all of this, I have to invest in all of it, and I have to produce a framework for each show. Thismust berecognized by the government and by private interests.

    The government mustrecognize thatI’m producing a framework for New York, Washington, Pittsburgh,and Toronto, not to mentionthe factthat audiences will multiply this wealth in the future.

    But, I repeat, wewanttargeted public investment – not welfare, not funds that are wasted but funds that will bring in a return.

     MORE INFO:  http://www.finazzerflory.it/

    The Betrothedby AlessandroManzoni,directed and starring Massimiliano FinazzerFlory
    Narrated by David Gibbons

    Choreography byGildaGelati, prima ballerina, Corps de Ballet, La Scala Ballet Theatre

    Music byG.Green, P. Mascagni, V. Bellini, N.Paganini, L.Berio, N.Rota

    Performed by ElsaMartignoni, violinist, GiuseppeVerdi Orchestra, Milan
    Costumes by La Scala Theatre

    Performed inItalian withEnglish supertitles

    FREE ADMISSION FOR ALL SHOWS.

    Upcoming 2011 Tour Dates

    October 11, 2011 – Washington, D.C. – Kennedy Center, Terrace Theater

    October 16, 2011 – Pittsburgh, PA – Bellefield Auditorium, University of Pittsburgh

    October 18, 2011 – Toronto, Canada – Green Theatre

    October 20, 2011 – New York, NY – Lincoln Center, Kaplan Penthouse

    2011–2012 Tour Dates

    Argentina

    November 1, 2011 – Buenos Aires – Teatro San Martin

    France

    November 21, 2011 – Paris – Teatrino dell’Ambasciata d’Italia

    Turkey

    December 2, 2011 – Istanbul – Palazzo Venezia

    Monaco

    January 9, 2012 – Monte Carlo – Princess Grace Theatre

    United States and Canada

    March 9–12, 2012 – Miami; Chicago; San Francisco; Houston; Montreal

    Mongolia

    May 8, 2012 – Ulan Bataar – National Theatre of Opera and Ballet
  • Facts & Stories

    Conversing with Natalia Quintavalle

    ITALIAN VERSION

    We meet over coffee and tasty biscuits, in a relaxed atmosphere that allows us to get to know her better. She tells us about herself effectively. She immediately closes the gap that many criticize the representatives of our institutions for creating. But she does so without compromising her authority or poise.

    Natalia Quintavalle, the new Consul General of Italy, has already lived in New York and is very familiar with the city. Like many, she was not immune to its allure.

     
    “After having lived here, I came back frequently for business. And I always had the feeling of coming home. I came for the General Assembly in September and in December for the end of the fifth commission. The feeling was always one of returning to a familiar environment. Of returning home, in fact.”

    And so our meeting begins with those words. More than an interview, it will become a free exchange of thoughts and ideas. Quintavalle was born in a region of Italy that Americans are very fond of, Tuscany, specifically in Pietrasanta. Her husband is a diplomat who works in Rome and so she brought her daughter with her to New York. As she speaks, her words are full of enthusiasm, but the expression on her face is enough to understand how important this position is to her.

    “The idea of ​​returning to New York, to spend another four years in a role that is so different, but at the same time one that allows me to immerse myself in the life of this city, gives me great joy and satisfaction. It was a decision I made quickly, for various reasons, so I had to address several professional and personal issues promptly. Putting all the pieces in place...it feels great.”

    It’s been a little over a month since your arrival. The consular district assigned to you is complex and vast. From your words we gather a tremendous amount of interest as well as patience and a desire to understand and learn one step at a time, beginning with the most basic consular services.

    “I am still in the process of understanding the many facets of my position. There is a part that let’s say is the “structural” work of the consulate, providing services to the community. That’s very important. There is a structure in place that works well; it’s set up in a way that effectively addresses the needs of Italian nationals. We have excellent staff members in all areas. As for the diplomats, my two colleagues Laura Aghilarre and Lucia Pasqualini have been here for a while and have their fingers on the pulse; my other colleague, Sorrentino, came with me, but he already had significant consular experience.”

    Your professional experience has allowed you to hone many important and diverse skills such as development and cooperation at the UN in addition to those that are more specific to your consular responsibilities such as political affairs, commercial interests, and human rights. It would seem that somehow New York represents a balance, the natural corollary to all of your experience in various sectors.

    “I hope to bring all of this to my work here. I won’t have to start from scratch. Much of the experience I have will certainly help me. But there will be new challenges. We must present the most current, realistic image of our country in the best possible way – fighting stereotypes while promoting what is good, and doing so through modern tools that did not exist a few years ago and making the most of them.”

    Your arrival coincides with a very difficult economic situation as well as important changes within the ICE (Italian Trade Commission) network. We’d like to take this opportunity to discuss these changes. Consulates along with embassies will play a more prominent role in promoting Italian commercial interests.

    “The overseas offices of ICE (Italian Trade Commission), particularly those in New York, are the backbone of Sistema Italia. They have done and continue to do an extraordinary job of promoting the interests of Italian companies, especially small and medium businesses. And at this time, of course, smaller companies are facing the greatest difficulties in foreign markets.

    Very simply, it’s about putting together what ICE does, what the former ICE has always done, with what we do at the Italian Consulate, the Italian Cultural Institute, and other Italian institutions (ENIT, the Chamber of Commerce, etc.) to support and promote the image of Italy.

    The mission for any organization that has benchmarks, whether focused domestically within Italy or involved in the foreign network, is not easy. In Rome there is an ongoing period of adjustment, and we are affected by decisions that are made in Italy. But we’re already working together, sharing our experiences; it will be a year of transition.

    Among other things, the ICE has a tendency toward innovation and using technology that is superior to ours. We have a bureaucratic system that is slightly more cumbersome. In some ways it’s necessary, so I don’t mean to say that it’s a defect. But I am convinced that this collaboration will create the impetus for us to work in a more modern way.”

    The task at hand is demanding for several reasons. There are definitely various aspects that point to increased coordination within Sistema Italia.

    “Undoubtedly there is much work to be done, and coordinating and enhancing all that Italian institutions offer is a big part of it. But other American and international institutions that focus on Italy will also take part in our joint efforts.”

    In this context, how important are universities?

    “Very important. And there are several important ones here in New York. Just think of NYU with Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, Columbia University with the Italian Academy, and CUNY with the Calandra Institute. But apart from these that are strongly characterized as Italian and Italian-American, there are various departments within universities in New York that have a particular focus on our country – its art, culture, and even its economic and commercial interests. We must make the effort to work with those who already have a vocation to focus on Italy as well as those who would like to but cannot find the right channels to do so.

    I think we need to proceed decisively in this direction, together with the Italian Cultural Institute with which we have an excellent relationship. We must take advantage of the proximity between us to launch joint initiatives.

    Then there’s also La Scuola d’Italia Guglielmo Marconi. It’s important to note that what they offer is interesting and innovative, not only for Italians but also for Americans. I've already spoken with Anna Fiore, the head of the school. It’s a perfectly bilingual curriculum that is available to all, not only to the children of Italians who live here.”

    You’ve also reflected on the complexity of the Italian community in New York. It’s an assessment that I’d like you to share since it’s similar to i-Italy’s experience….

    “The very first few days I was here, in my mind there was a bit of a division: the Italian-Americans of an older generation; younger, third and fourth generation Italian-Americans; and those Italians who are arriving today…. But I realized that actually the children of Italian-Americans and their peers who come from Italy are actually very similar.”

    I’ve come to see through my own experience and education that the Italians who come to America today and the grandchildren of Italian immigrants to the U.S. have a similar cultural background…. 

    “Yes. They don’t necessarily have the same priorities but certainly they are similar. I think we are moving towards more inter-connectedness among Italians, Italian-Americans, and Americans. And the work of i-Italy moves in that direction, too. In a sense, it anticipated it. Technology also helps in this. Young people are all on the web, Facebook, Twitter. They talk, discuss, compare. They overcome barriers. We’re on the right track.

    The biggest effort we must make is not to allow Italian culture to become irrelevant in this great melting pot. It’s also important to promote our language. We should all be able to speak English and communicate in English, as well as to say that we have another asset: Italian.
     
    It’s just as important to know how to speak and communicate in Italian. Fortunately there is a very strong interest for many Americans who go to Italy and study Italian to retain the language when they return. There is a great deal of focus at the embassy in Washington; Ambassador Terzi has made this initiative a major part of his work and we all support it. Of course, we are conscious of the fact that, especially in New York, there is strong competition with the Spanish language. Offering courses in Italian might seem excessive, but there is a demand for them and it must be met. The measure of success obviously will be the result of the demand and we must ensure that the demand continues to exist and grow.”

    You are aware of the “upstream” difficulties inherent to teaching Italian…. 

    IACE (Italian American Committee on Education) has given a big boost to the teaching of Italian in American schools. The recovery of the AP exam in Italian is essential – but training those who teach the language is also essential. We diplomats are well aware of it, we are required to learn many languages ​​and we realize that it is not so easy. Knowing the Italian language well does not mean knowing how to teach it. Whoever is going to teach it, especially within the rich context of a foreign language and culture, must have a background in teacher education, not only a good knowledge of the material.

    Let’s talk about the Comites. They are very important. But it’s also necessary for them to work with young people and recently arrived Italians who very often don’t even know about these organizations. 

    “I’ve already met them on different occasions although I have not had direct, official contact. The Comites have played a key role in the past. I’ve followed their path over the years and they are very useful tools. We must now see how they adapt to the changing profile of the community they represent.”

    Again, as with many other traditional Italian-American associations, we have the problem of the near-absence of young people….
     
    “It’s about overcoming the idea that still persists that they represent Italians of an older generation, but I am convinced that the Comites are fully aware of the need for change.”

    Let’s turn to a more controversial topic in the Italian-American community. It involves their representation in the media, specifically about the controversy surrounding the notorious program The Sopranos and in recent months, the reality show Jersey Shore.

    “We must distinguish between a few issues. I am convinced that we are in a free country and therefore everyone has the right to support whatever he or she wants. The Sopranos is a well-made television show from a cinematic point of view which puts forth an image that can offend many sensibilities in this country. When it was released in Italy it did not provoke the same reactions; in fact it was acclaimed early on.”

    It’s true. A few said that Chase’s program demystified the mafia. He inserted Tony Soprano into a daily life that was not exciting. Tony Soprano does not have the charm of the Godfather; he’s rather fragile, sometimes even ridiculous, and always human. He’s the quintessential anti-hero.

     
    “Indeed. But as far as Jersey Show is concerned…it’s just unwatchable. Not only because it presents a distorted image of italianità but because it’s so much like so many other reality shows we see in Italy. It’s rubbish. Trash!

    I don’t know how interesting it is as a television program, but it is a mirror, perhaps a distorted one. It’s a social phenomenon depicting marginalized youth, and therefore it must be discussed.
     
    I have also recently heard about an episode of Law & Order based on the Strauss-Kahn case, but the protagonist was cast as an Italian. Why was this decision made? That’s a question for the writers. I don’t want to read things like: ‘We don’t want to offend the French; we can offend Italians instead without any problems…’ Of course I’m perplexed. There seems to be an image of the consul of Italy with an arrogant air, as if to say, ‘You don’t know who I am.’

    In short, I sincerely hope that my presence can dispel this type of image.”

    The conversation continues in a pleasant manner with little formality.

    Having a woman in charge of a consulate in 2011 should no longer be news. Most of the articles written about you, though, center on the idea that this prestigious institution is now headed by a woman who has two other important leaders “in pink” by her side…. 

    “It’s true; this should no longer be news. But in Italy there are very few women who have a career in diplomacy. Especially at higher levels, there is still a significant gap. With our association of women in diplomacy, we are trying to address this. Progress has been made but for many it still sounds a little strange to have a woman in this position….

    Actually for me it was a pleasant surprise to get here, to find two female colleagues in diplomacy and an administrative staff with a larger percentage of women. I am convinced, having seen it over the years, that women have a better capacity to collaborate and a tenacity that is often higher than that of male colleagues. And they work well with male colleagues. The consulate also needs to pay special attention to the psychological profile of its constituents and I think we can become examples on how to do this.

    We’ve certainly received a lot of attention from the Ministry; there are people who judge this development positively and Minister Frattini is among them. For him, it’s important to have women in leadership positions abroad.

    I also suspect that within the Ministry there are some people who think, ‘Now let’s see how they’re doing, let’s put them to the test and if they don’t succeed we know we can’t push them in that direction….’”

    From the consul general to the mother of a 15 year old daughter...

    “My daughter is glad to be back in New York; she had already been here. For now, this means a period of separation from her father who is in Rome, but we hope that he will join us soon. It will be good for everyone.

    This conversation is not easy with a fifteen year old who has endured continual uprooting. I will be very busy and she will often be alone. I will try to convince her to come with me from time to time. However her studies are her top priority. She definitely has a strong interest in Italian affairs, literature in particular….”
     

    We leave her in her office, inside the historic townhouse on Park Avenue. We are struck by the sweet expression on her face as she speaks of her daughter and her steadfastness at a time of great responsibility and dedication to serving the community.
  • Arte e Cultura

    Promessi Sposi in tournée tra memoria e immaginazione

    ENGLISH VERSION

    Un importante evento culturale torna negli Stati Uniti ed in Canada: la rappresentazione teatrale - tratta da 'I Promessi Sposi' di Alessandro Manzoni -  diretta e interpretata da Massimiliano Finazzer Flory. In scena i capitoli I, VI, VIII, XII, XXI, XXXIV e XXXVIII. Parlano figure salienti della letteratura italiana come Don Abbondio, Renzo e Lucia, i bravi, Don Rodrigo, Fra Cristoforo, l’Innominato.

    Il debutto questa volta è l'11 di ottobre al Terrace Theater all'interno del prestigioso Kennedy Center di Washington. Ma lo spettacolo poi toccherà diverse altre città.

     La rappresentazione è in italiano con sovratitoli in lingua inglese e rigorosamente a ingresso libero.  Negli ultimi due anni lo spettacolo, nataoin occasione delle celebrazione per i 150 anni dell’Unità d’Italia, è stato presentato in diversi Paesi in giro per il mondo.

    Sul palcoscenico Massimiliano Finazzer Flory sarà affiancato da Gilda Gelati, prima ballerina del corpo di Ballo del Teatro alla Scala, e da Elsa Martignoni, violinista dell’Orchestra Giuseppe Verdi di Milano, che eseguirà musiche di Verdi, Bellini, Paganini, Rota e Berio. I costumi dello spettacolo sono stati realizzati dalla Sartoria del Teatro alla Scala.

    Finazzer risponde ad alcune nostre domande:

     

    Abbiamo visto il suo spettacolo alla Casa Italiana della NYU qualche mese fa. Torna di nuovo in Tournée a New York. E’ la conferma di una domanda e di un successo?

    “La soddisfazione è enorme perchè è la prova che la cultura riunisce le arti ma anche i popoli. Quindi lo spettacolo tiene insieme letteratura, musica e danza ma avvicina anche l’immaginario collettivo di italiani americani verso l’unico desiderio, la fantasia e il potere, la possibilità di dire la verità sui nostri sogni.  Quindi sono contento di vedere la riuscita di questo lavoro.

    Sarà come lo spettacolo che abbiamo visto la scorsa primavera a New York?

    Questa volta ci sarà una novità: un capitolo in più. Altri venti minuti di spettacolo.

    I costumi poi vengono dalla Scala e sono del 1628. E’ un lavoro italiano al cento per cento. Perchè anche il pensiero sia uno stile. Quindi di alto artigianato artistico. Io non ho paura a sentirmi vicino sia all’uomo del circo che all’artigiano. L’attore è sia l’uno che l’altro, l’artigiano perchè deve fare bene il suo mestiere e poi anche uomo del circo. Occorre saper rischiare. Saper camminare sul filo senza rete.

    In una società tutta finta di plastica, registrata, vissuta attraverso photoshop, noi siamo gente vera. Il pubblico americano ci ha capiti perfettamente,  questo è lo sforzo e la tensione. 

    Alla Casa Italiana c’erano molti giovani. Sono loro in fondo i suoi ideali spettatori?

     Approfitto per esporre la mia gratitudine alla baronessa Mariuccia Zerilli-Marimò che ha sostenuto il nostro spettacolo. E’ una benefattrice dello spettacolo, le sono molto grato, come sono grato al direttore Stefano Albertini. Si sono dimostrati molto vicini e molto sensibili.

    Sì alla Casa Italiana c’erano molti studenti, giovani. Questa volta ci aspettiamo anche il coinvolgimento della Scuola d’Italia Guglielmo Marconi, del mondo dei giovani che gravita intorno al Lincoln Center e altre università.

    Il ricambio generazionale è fondamentale, la cinghia di trasmissione tra la memoria e l’immaginazione ancora di più. Il pubblico adulto mantiene la memoria, i giovani sono l’immaginazione, abbiamo bisogno dell’uno e dell’altro, se vogliamo avere una storia. Una memoria senza immaginazione è nostalgia, una immaginazione senza memoria è allegria. Ma la fantasia da sola non riesce a raggiungere il progetto.

    Occorre quindi unire memoria e immaginazione?

    E’ bello poter mettere insieme l’uno e l’altro. La performance è un genere da giovani e il romanzo storico è un’arte, se vuoi adulta o antica. Qui abbiamo messo insieme due generazioni diverse, chi crede nel romanzo storico e chi crede nella performance. Questa contaminazione è secondo me fondamentale.

    Ed il romanzo di Manzoni continua ad essere molto attuale. Anche oggi. La lotta dell’umile contro il potere dalle diverse forme, i tentativi di ribelllione…

    Come si disse all’epoca questo romanzo è un romanzo dotto per gli umili e umile per i dotti.

    In Manzoni, la carestia è anche la carestia della conoscenza, la rivolta del pane è la rivolta di chi vuole sapere. Sapere che cosa fra poco faranno i nostri ragazzi che vogliono avere conoscenza. La rivolta del pane è la rivolta del sapere. Il matrimonio che ‘s’adda fare’ e che reciterò non è soltanto tra Renzo e Lucia ma anche tra la cultura e l’economia.

    Non possiamo continuare a tenere la cultura senza economia, ma del resto un’economia senza cultura è soltanto volontà di potenza. Questo matrimonio s’adda fare. Bisogna trovare un punto di incontro. Non può essere tutto in mano al mecenate, ma non può essere neanche solo assistenzialismo di Stato e con i fondi pubblici.

    Ma investire in Cultura rimane, in Italia soprattutto, fondamentale per cercare di superare anche la crisi econimica?

    Questa volta sono qui senza neanche un contributo pubblico, e sarà così in Argentina, Francia e Turchia. Ne sono anche in parte orgoglioso. Pubblico e privato devono investire su finanziatori o sul vostro media per esempio.

    Investire vuol dire non solo mettere soldi nella cultura ma creare occupazione.

    Perchè il mondo della cultura e anche dello spettacolto è ricchissimo di indotto e di occupazione. Gli americani ci insegnano che ogni dollaro che  si mette nel cinema ne produce tantissimi. E adesso questo avviene anche nel teatro, nelle mostre, nelle biblioteche, nell’editoria. L’indotto è importantissimo.

    Portare una compagnia di dieci persone significa alberghi, trasporti, fotografi, uffici stampa, cene, taxi. Di tutto questo io sono un produttore, su questo devo investire e produco indotto con ogni spettacolo. Questo mi deve essere riconosciuto dalla politica e dal privato. 

    La politica mi deve riconoscere che io sto producendo un indotto per NY, Washington, Pittsburgh e Toronto, per non parlare del fatto  che gli spettaori saranno un moltiplicatore di ricchezza nel futuro.

    Però ripeto, ci vogliono degli investimenti pubblici mirati, non dell’assistenzialismo, non dei soldi a fondo perduto, ma dei soldi a fondo a rendere. 

    Maggiori informazioni su http://www.finazzerflory.it/

     
    ----

    Le tappe della nuova tournée  2011:

    11 ottobre 2011 ‐ Washington ‐ Kennedy Center ‐ Terrace Theater
    16 ottobre 2011 ‐ Pittsburgh ‐ Auditorium Bellefield ‐ University of Pittsburgh
    18 ottobre 2011 ‐ Canada ‐ Toronto ‐ Green Theatre
    20 ottobre 2011 ‐ New York ‐ Lincoln Center – Kaplan Penthouse

     regista e interprete Massimiliano Finazzer Flory

    voce narrante David Gibbons coreografie di Gilda Gelati prima ballerina del Corpo di Ballo del Teatro alla Scala di Milano

    musiche di G. Verdi, P. Mascagni, V. Bellini, N. Paganini, L. Berio, N. Rota con Elsa Martignoni violinista dell’Orchestra Giuseppe Verdi di Milano

    costumi della Sartoria del Teatro alla Scala

    Spettacolo in italiano con sovratitoli in lingua inglese TUTTI GLI SPETTACOLI SONO AD INGRESSO LIBERO

    Le prossime tappe 2011‐2012

    ARGENTINA ‐ 1 novembre 2011 ‐ Buenos Aires ‐ Teatro San Martin FRANCIA ‐ 21 novembre 2011 ‐ Parigi ‐ Teatrino dell’Ambasciata d’Italia TURCHIA ‐ 2 dicembre 2011 ‐ Istanbul ‐ Palazzo Venezia PRINCIPATO DI MONACO ‐ 9 gennaio 2012 ‐ Montecarlo ‐ Teatro Princesse Grace USA ‐ dal 9 al 21 marzo 2012 a Miami; Chicago; San Francisco; Houston; Montreal MONGOLIA ‐ Ulan Bataar ‐ 8 maggio 2012 ‐ Teatro d’Opera e del Balletto dell’Accademia

     

     

     

     

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