Articles by: I. I.

  • Facts & Stories

    La Scuola d’Italia Trustees Elect four Distinguished Leaders to Board

    The Board of Trustees of La Scuola d’Italia has elected four distinguished leaders to join the governing Board of the 300 student Pre-K through 12 bi-lingual Prep School in Manhattan, during its meeting February 26th 2015.

    La Scuola, now in its 38th year as an independent, private school, is the only all grades Italian and English language school of its type outside Italy. Its Board of Trustees consists of 14 Italian and Italian American community leaders.

    By unanimous vote the Board elected the following four individuals:

    Hon. William J. Martini, Judge, United States District Court , fmr U.S. Congressman, served  a Senior United States district court judge of the District of New Jersey, from November 19, 2002 to February 10, 2015.  His highest profile cases to date include the corruption trial for former Newark Mayor Sharpe James and a case involving NYPD surveillance of Muslims. Judge Martini represented New Jersey's 8th congressional district in the U S House of Representatives, from January 3, 1995 – January 3, 1997. Judge Martini graduated from Passaic High School, Villanova University, and received his law degree from Rutgers School of Law in 1972. In 1999, the Governor of New Jersey Christine Todd Whitman named Martini to the Board of Commissioners of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, a post in which he served for three years.

    On January 23, 2002, Martini was nominated for a judgeship in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey by President George W. Bush. .

    Judge Martini serves as Vice Chairman of the John Cabot University of Rome and Trustee of the Nicholas Martini Foundation, Inc.

    Dr. Bette Talvacchia PhD is Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor and Professor Emerita of Art History at the University of Connecticut. She has been a Fellow at Villa I Tatti; The Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton; The Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery in Washington; and at the Metropolitan Museum. Dr Talvacchia was also Robert Lehman Visiting Professor at Villa I Tatti, and was Visiting Professor at the Institute at Palazzo Rucellai in Florence. Her publications include a range of topics in 16th- century Italian art and culture, and the books Taking Positions: On the Erotic in Renaissance Culture (Princeton University Press, 1999) and Raphael (Phaidon Press, 2007), widely considered the most definitive of recent works on the artist and his work. She holds her BA from Bryn Mawr College and her

    PhD from Stanford University.

    Giancarlo Bruno serves as Senior Director at the World Economic Forum in New York – the international institution for public-private cooperation. He heads the Financial Services Industries overseeing the Banking, Insurance and Asset Management sectors. He also serves as member of the Management Committee.

    Before joining the World Economic Forum, Giancarlo spent several years in the banking sector in Vienna, London, Luxembourg and Geneva with international banking groups. His professional experience in the public/multilaterals sector includes the United Nations, the European Parliament and Istat, the Italian Institute of Statistics.

    In 1993 Giancarlo earned a MS with honors in Economics and Business Management from Università Commerciale L. Bocconi, Milan, with a dissertation in Public Policy on the European Structural Funds for regional economic development. In 1995 he received a Master’s degree in International Management from the Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, the University of Economics of Vienna, and in 2010 he was awarded the Global Master of Arts from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, with a thesis advised by Prof. Romano Prodi on the political and legal aspects of the European enlargement process, a comparative analysis of the case of Poland and Turkey. In 2006-2008 he served as a Senior Fellow at the Mossavar Rahmani Center for Business and Government of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, focusing on social mobility issues in Europe. Executive education programmes at Insead, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and Said Business School at the University of Oxford.

    He is member of the Bretton Woods Committee, the International Advisory Group of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, the University Club of New York and of the advisory board of the Global Shapers Hub of Milan; he is an Honorary Fellow of the Foreign Policy Association. He was a founding member of the steering board of the association Italia Futura and the association iMille for political reform in Italy. Giancarlo is fluent in ive languages and has taught Italian literature and culture at the Université du Canton de Genève, Geneva.

    Luigi Rosabianca is the Co-Founder of WIRE Consulting, a global real estate consultancy and the Principal Broker for the firm’s international brokerage division, WIRE International Realty.

    WIRE International Realty is a New York City–based luxury real estate brokerage. The New York office’s portfolio features new developments, sales and rentals throughout Manhattan, The Metropolitan Area and The Hamptons. Hailing from all over the world, WIRE’s Clients have access to a seasoned and multilingual sales and marketing team, and more importantly, to exceptional customer service through each part of the deal process. As a member of the WIRE Network, the WIRE Team prides itself on its international connections, but also its boutique approach.

    Mr. Rosabianca specializes in all facets of commercial and residential real property matters.  He serves on numerous condominium and cooperative boards throughout New York City and the outer boroughs and is frequently asked to speak at field-related conferences and academic settings.  Mr. Rosabianca devotes much of his time to an array of charities, including the American-Italian Cancer Foundation as well as The Boys' Towns of Italy. He is also the Vice President of the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce and serves on their Board of Directors.

    A graduate of Brooklyn Law School, Mr. Rosabianca also received his B.A. in government and politics, with a concentration in architecture, from St. John's University.

    A native New Yorker, Mr. Rosabianca has strong ties to his family and Italian heritage, which he believes are the cornerstones of his firm's mission. He enjoys traveling, sports, and the company of good friends and family.

    The four join a Board that includes: Chairman Stefano Acunto, Vice Chairman Piera Palazzolo, Secretary Dr. Pascal J. de Caprariis, MD, FAAFP, Dr. Francesca Verga, MD, Hon Justice Dominic Massaro, Carlo Mantica, Baronessa Mariuccia Zerilli-Marimo, Thomas Pecora, and Dr. Richard Marrotta PhD.

    About La Scuola d'Italia:

    La Scuola d’Italia “Guglielmo Marconi” was founded in 1977 by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to meet the academic needs of Italians living in the New York City area.  Thanks to an ever-increasing interest on the part of American families, La Scuola has grown into a unique, independent bilingual English/Italian educational institution, from the Pre-school through through grade 12), reflecting and building on the best features of the Italian and American educational systems.

    In addition to being recognized by the Italian Ministry of Education, the school is also chartered by the Regents of the University of the State of New York. Therefore our students graduate with a high school diploma that is officially recognized both in the United States and Italy. La Scuola is accredited by the New York State Association of Independent Schools.

    With a curriculum that is global and interdisciplinary and a student body from all regions of the world, La Scuola d’Italia is a truly international school. For more information, please visit www.lascuoladitalia.org,
  • Dining in & out: Articles & Reviews

    An Odd Couple in a "Wine Mill"

    When people come back to the city after they have been away, whether to Italy or the beach or even Brooklyn Heights, they come looking for a new experience, to find out what sprang up in New York while they were away. The same happened to me a few months ago.

    I learned about a restaurant called Mulino a Vino (an odd expression that translates as ‘Wine 
    Mill’).

    The new chef, Davide Scabin, comes from Piedmont, in the northwest of Italy, and I understand he is doing things here that are different even in the great world of Italian cuisine.

    Indeed, as soon as it opened, the place caused a stir. So I had to go find out why. 


    Which comes first, food or wine? 

    Davide, is it true that the concept of your restaurant is to start with the wine and then work your way to the food? 
    This was Paolo Meregalli’s idea. He’s the owner of Mulino a Vino and he came up with the idea of choosing the wine first and then getting to the food.

    Paolo is a wine importer in the US, so he has access to a wide choice of wines. Mulino a Vino is special, in that we already have 50 labels available to drink by the glass made from grapes that aren’t commonly used in Italy.

    For example, Schiava, is not a typical Italian wine… But we also serve important and well known Italian wines like Barolo, Tignanello, the must-haves. 
     

    Did you first pick the wines and then tailor the menu accordingly? 
    Let’s say that the two things influence each other. Sometimes I started off by designing dishes that eventually didn’t turn out the way I expected, so they weren’t included in the menu… and we tried to match the wines meant to be paired with those dishes with other recipes or else just discontinued them. The idea took shape like this, without necessarily assigning priorities. We had basic concepts for both wine and food and then, as in any marriage, there was a trial stage.
     

    So it’s a bit like opera: the wine is the music, and the food is the words, or vice versa... Would you say that you can either combine one wine with many dishes or match a different glass of wine for every recipe?
    We have a great peculiarity in our restaurant: All wines served by the glass have been poured using the Coravin to ensure the exact same quality that you’d get from a bottle that’s just been uncorked. Then we offer the option of small portions so that customers can make their own “tailor-made” choice. This way you can try many different dishes without spending a fortune, and you can have the right wine for each one!
     

    Cooking: Art or Science?


    Speaking about opera made me think of the relationship between cooking and art… What do you think?
    Art is an important component in cooking, but the bottom line is that we are still talking about chemistry and physics—with, let’s say, an artistic touch. So there is some science here… I know many food lovers are afraid of this word because they think the dishes are scientific rather than ‘cooked up’ by the chef…
     

    I tend to be scientific, but I also make sure I can express the soul of the dish. The chef’s job is to turn the dish into something less scientific. For me every recipe is a project to first put down on paper. There is an initial idea that needs to take shape, and then there are tests to be done to get exactly what you had in mind.

    This codification is in itself a scientific process. It’s what a “nonna” does, except she does it automatically. She has learned it over the years, she has memorized it, she has been raised doing it. These days we can’t afford it anymore, and we also need to replicate exactly the same dish for many people. A nonna has the love needed to perform the ritual of cooking. And following a ritual also means following a scientific method, because you always repeat the steps.
     

    Do chefs follow a ritual too?
    The chef needs to follow a ritual in order to always produce the same food. Unless there is a codified model your food project becomes … a performance…which may or may not turn out well.
     

    Speaking of ingredients and measurements, that’s also a mix of science and art isn’t it?
    Absolutely. Take this powder, for example. This is pesto, though you wouldn’t say so at a first glance. It is actually a pesto powder that I produced on the occasion of the space mission of Luca Parmitano, the Italian astronaut who went on the ISS. I had the honor to prepare five meals for him to take into space as personal anti-stress equipment. All you have here is the six—not seven—official ingredients for the world champion of pesto.
     

    Is the missing ingredient oil?
    No, it’s salt. Everything else is there. It’s the original recipe. And bear in mind that this product was made a year and a half ago. Now, with the exact rehydration dose of water (all it needs is water, nothing else) I can bring it to life. By stirring it you create a sort of emulsion, because the oil is there, even the color changes, it shines again. Smell it. Taste it. Don’t worry, nothing bad will happen to you. What do you think?
     

    Unbelievable! I would only add more garlic—if I go to space, who am I going to kiss? It doesn’t matter, so I would like more garlic.
     

    How Italian should it be?

    Wrapping things up: what is your view of Italian authenticity? Is everything you make absolutely authentic?
    I’ll be honest. Some plates I studied to give an Italian flavor that also catches the eye of Americans and New Yorkers. Take this ravioli. You’d call it a “plin piemontese.” Outside there’s the crunchy skin of chicken, but this mozzarella cream looks like mac & cheese, if you will. Here we used fried chicken but it’s shaped like a plin. So, is it Italian? The dish doesn’t exist in Italy. Not in Piedmont, anyway. But it’s made with chicken! So I made it for New Yorkers. With an Italian flavor. 
     

    Whatever you think it is, I’ve got to say, it’s delicious! And it goes well with this Aglianico del Vulture, one of the best red wines in Italy produced in the South, in Basilicata, but it could work with white, something like a Pinot Bianco, from the Northeast. 
     

    Excellent! Congratulations! 
  • Events: Reports

    Monumenti per difetto


    Adachiara Zevi, Monumenti per difetto: dalle Fosse Ardeatine alle pietre d’inciampo, Donzelli, 2014


    The title of this publication announces a short history of monuments “by defect”, but just what sort of defect are we speaking of? The lack of “monumentality”, if we employ this term to speak of specific prerogatives generally attributed to monuments: uniqueness, staticity, hierarchy, persistence, hypertrophic dimension, symmetry, centrality, rhetoric, indifference to place, aulic materials, eloquence and the expropriation of emotions.

     
    This history is partial and non-exhaustive; it is not a survey that numbers and classifies monuments and memorials according to sites, subjects or intended users: since the 1990s the pioneering research of the American historian James Young has been followed by a galaxy of publications of great documentary and scientific value.

     
    This history is not impartial, but sectarian; it does not even consider in the same way all the artistic and architectural creations. It prefers sobriety to redundancy, aphasia to eloquence, subtraction to emphasis, modernity to anachronism, individual responsibility to delegation: to quote Todorov, “exemplary” to “literal form”.

     
    Published on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the massacre of the Fosse Ardeatine, on 24 March 1944, this study seeks to bring attention to the monument commemorating this event, whose merits are so often ignored or underestimated even in Rome. Erected in memory of a brutal mass execution, a symbol of resistance against Nazi and Fascist oppression and the product of the first design competition of democratic Italy held in 1944, the mausoleum represents a new page in the lengthy history of monuments and memorials.
     
    For the first time it offered not an object for contemplation, but a pathway to be travelled, a physical and emotional retracing of the victims’ last moments: the elements which compose the monument, namely the natural caves, the architectural space of the sacrarium and the tortured wrought iron gates by the artist Mirko, are not final destinations, but rather stops along a route.
    This milestone, whose chorus of languages – figurative, abstract, informal, expressionist –revived the artistic and architectural debate interrupted by twenty years of Fascist obscurantism, was followed by three other exemplary cases of monuments “by defect”.

     
    The Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas, Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, designed by Peter Eisenman in the heart of Berlin is the first: it records the decisive transformation of the monument from pathway to city fragment. Its 2,711 columns of differing heights and inclines establish an enormous deformed and slanting grid.

     
    The Roman itinerary, in spite of its significant margins of manoeuvre, is substantially univocal and focuses on linking the monumental episodes of the gates, the caves, the sacrarium and the statue by Francesco Coccia.

     
    n Berlin instead, visitors are free to choose from among 54 routes running north-south and 87 running east-west. Alone, devoid of any indications, privileged directions or perspective fulcrum, visitors are offered an experience that may seem logical and ordered in appearance, but proves destabilizing.

     
    While the monument in Rome is enclosed and complete, the memorial in Berlin is forever open, like the rest of the city; visitors come across it unexpectedly while walking through the city centre and the Tiergarten.

     
    Finally, unlike its Roman predecessor, Eisenman uses a single linguistic element: an abstract, undifferentiated grid extendable to infinity. In this decision to opt for a module and not a form, for temporal repetition rather than spatial composition, lies the uniqueness of the Berlin memorial with respect to other abstract results. It is aphasic, does not display what commemorates, but merely suggests a solitary and silent paths of memory.
    Still, the most radical challenge came with the “counter-monument”, whose disappearance is inherent to its very conception. If the “absolute heart of this modern century” is the invisible, “destruction without ruin”, as Gerard Wajcman reflects, by rendering absence visible the “counter-monument” becomes its literal representation. It is no surprise that the idea originated in Germany, a nation called to commemorate the victims of its own crimes. Hence the oscillation between memory and oblivion, between the monument and its elimination.

     
    The paradigm of “counter-monuments” is the Mahnmal gegen Faschismus (Monument against Fascism, War, Violence–and for Peace and Human Rights) by Jochen Gerz and Esther Shalev, inaugurated in Hamburg in 1986. The signatures or inscriptions (70,000) left by citizens on its ductile surface gradually, over the course of seven years, caused a lead column to disappear into the earth, transforming spectators of a monument to memory into the memory of the monument. Confiscated from the monument, memory becomes the living remembrance of the spectator who, through a signature/testimonial, becomes an accomplice to the artist in the realization/disappearance of the monument.

     
    This solution was too radical to represent a point of arrival. It thus fell on the Stolpersteine, the “stumbling stones” conceived by the German artist Gunter Demnig, to indicate the means of consenting the “counter-monument” to proliferate and spread, to become, precisely, a “ubiquitous” Europe-wide monument: the most clamorous contravention of the unique, central and centripetal monument.

     
    Without distinction, all victims of Nazism and Fascism between 1939 and 1945 are remembered by a small sign, a simple cobblestone that, naming and recounting their tragic destinies in an essential, discrete and succinct manner, serves two fundamental functions: restoring human dignity and offering families and citizens a place to remember all those “destroyed without ruins”, initially reduced to numbers and later to ashes or abandoned in mass graves. Not any place; not an aulic place for memory, but homes from which they were torn; the threshold between a normal life of affection and the abyss.

     
    The Stolpersteine, stumbling stones, personalize history. They translate an abstract incommensurable statistic into millions of individual stories. Discrete and invisible until we “stumble” into them.

     
    Each year on the 24 March official celebrations and commemorations take place in the square in front of the sacrarium of the Fosse Ardeatine hosting the rows of identical sepulchres: the names of the 355 victims are called out.

     
    Since 2010, thanks to the “stumbling stones”, some of them have returned to their homes, to their neighbourhoods, to their parishes, to the schools where they served the mission of education. Exactly seventy years separate the monument from those stones: the period in history selected for this short and undoubtedly incomplete itinerary among monuments “by defect”.
    As distant in time and space as the poetics that make them true, they demonstrate that art and architecture are precious tools for the creative, original and irreverent elaboration of history and memory, and an antidote to passivity and addiction.
     
  • Dining in & out: Articles & Reviews

    SD26 Anniversary. A Celebration with a Purpose

    After his two previous successful restaurant ventures, Palio and San Domenico, Tony May, one of America’s most respected restaurateurs, in 2009 opened SD26 with his daughter Marisa May.

    SD26 offers those seeking to taste an authentic piece of Italy a contemporary Italian menu, including Spaghetti alla Chitarra, Caponata or Braised Beef Cheeks “Alla Vaccinara”. Aside from his accomplishments in the Italian culinary world, May is known for philanthropic efforts through his Tony May’s Scholarship for Italian Culinary Studies and for his achievements in educating younger generations in creating authentic Italian cuisine. i-Italy TV is here at SD26 for a fabulous fifth anniversary gala. A gala raising funds for the special Tony May scholarship. Francine Segan speaks with the father-daughter owners, Tony and Marisa May, and their executive chef, Matteo Bergamini, So wonderful to be here with you tonight. Tony, Tell me a little bit about the story of SD26.

    TONY MAY - Well, this is a very long story, of course. It started many years ago when we initiated the Italian cuisine campaign. We started in the 70s and the early 80s, then came Palio followed by San Domenico and then, in 2009, we opened here. We have been here for five years now.

    This is such a gorgeous spot, the architecture is so beautiful, who did it?

    TONY MAY - This was conceived by Massimo Vignelli who has unfortunately passed away; we miss him a lot, but he did a fantastic job. His lines are so distinguished, so clear: the cleaner they are the more powerful they become.

    Marisa, how have the five years been down here?

    MARISA MAY - It’s been a very exciting five years in a neighborhood called Madison Square Park that is totally evolving: it’s becoming a mecca for great restaurants and here we represent a piece of Italy in New York. And it is also a neighborhood very food and wine savvy; they really appreciate what my dad and I are doing. And our executive chef Matteo, who is 34, is doing an incredible job. They truly understand what we’re doing here and we’ve been very blessed to have five years:  we look forward to many more years to come and to continue feeding New York authentic Italian cuisine.

    Tell me a little about this wonderful scholarship.

    MARISA MAY - Well, I’m so proud of my father, Tony May, who has done so much for Italian cuisine in America for many, many years. He has worked so hard to improve the image of Italian food and wine in America. But he has done a lot also with education throughout the years, by sending young chefs from America to Italy to learn about authentic Italian cuisine, and by having American chefs learning about it in our kitchen. This scholarship is named Tony May’s Scholarship for Italian Culinary Studies and it’s given by the James Beard Foundation. We are probably going to use the Italian culinary institute for foreigners in Costigliole d’Asti to send students for a minimum of three months, or for other major scholarship of six months.

    There aren’t many women in restaurants. How are you feeling in this very male- dominated role?

    MARISA MAY - It is challenging but at the same time very exciting:  it’s unique because so few restaurateurs have their daughters with them, usually they work with their sons. So, my dad and I, as a father-daughter team, are very unique and we add something to it that people might not get in other restaurants. Often people don’t even know who the owners are in restaurants anymore, while we are still a family, a father-daughter team, still working together everyday.

    You’re so right. You get that feeling that it is a family.

    MARISA MAY -  Yes it is, even though I’m Italian-American. I was born and raised in New York City, but I spent my summers in Italy,  my grandmother still lives there and my father has taken me to Italy every summer since the day I was born so I could learn about Italian hospitality. Here we bring the best Italian quality. We try to combine all the authentic flavors from Italy: Naples, the North, but we like to do also different recipes from Sicily, Puglia and the rest of Italy.

    Chef Matteo, what delicious food tonight. Tell us about some of the dishes you prepared.

    MATTEO BERGAMINI - Tonight we have organized different food stations. We have a pork station with the porchetta and cassoeula, a peculiar dish from Lombardia. Then we have a pasta station with Genovese sauce, Spaghetti alla Chitarra with tomatoes, and a seafood ragu. All different kinds of food, from all over Italy.

    Wonderful atmosphere, great wine, what a great party at Sd26 Restaurant.

    ---

    Find more pics on our Facebook page
  • Events: Reports

    The World’s Greatest Opera Houses with Fred Ploktin

    Opera is the grandest of art forms. Part of the thrill of attending a performance is to sit in a glorious theater built just for that purpose, knowing that the greatest voices of the past and present have been heard there. The most important of these theaters—in Milan, Vienna, London, Paris, Barcelona, and New York—have a distinctive character and history that has profoundly affected the evolution of opera. 

    Opera expert Fred Plotkin* examines these fabled houses, focusing on what makes each of them unique and significant. Using audio and video recordings and illustrations, he evokes the glamour and fascination that surround them, the cities that built them, and the legendary artists who performed on their stages.

    JAN 22  Teatro alla Scala, Milan

    If any opera house is first among equals, it is the magical La Scala. It is every singer’s dream toappear there and every opera lover’s dream to hear a performance there. Other theaters may be more attractive or more opulent, and today there are other venues where performances of equal quality can be heard. Yet La Scala is far and away the most important theater in Italy, the nation that invented opera. More works that are part of the world’s standard repertory had their premieres here than anywhere else, and the singers, directors, and conductors who have been part of La Scala’s legendary productions are a roster of opera’s greatest.

    FEB 12  The Vienna State Opera

    Only the Wiener Staatsoper, as it is called in the Austrian capital, can claim to compete with La Scala’s status. This is because no city in the world is more intensely connected to classical music (and, by extension, opera) than Vienna. Operas by Mozart, Beethoven and Strauss had their premieres in Vienna, and the city has always had a strong Italian presence, making it a musical crossroads between the Italian and German opera worlds. It is a theater full of traditions and superstitions, and one that has had many golden ages, one of the most notable when it was run by the brilliant and formidable Gustav Mahler.

    MAR 19   The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London

    Although it began as a place to present entertainments of all sort, the theater at Covent Garden quickly evolved into a venue for opera in part because of the early-18th-century arrival in London of George Frideric Handel, the greatest opera composer of his time.  During his years of living there, the city took its place with Naples as Europe’s two most important centers of opera. Though the Royal Opera House experienced a rough patch at the end of the last century, many international observers now think that under the dynamic artistic leadership of Antonio Pappano it offers the consistently highest level of opera of any theater, nourishing a generation of British and international talent that is dominating the world’s stages.

    APR 16  The Paris Opera

    The flamboyantly gorgeous Palais Garnier is the theater that inevitably springs to mind when you think of opera in Paris, a city that was the opera capital of the world in the 19th century. Every French composer of the day made his name in Paris and the city, with its theaters and conservatories, was an incubator of native-born talent such as Berlioz, Gounod, and Bizet. This remarkable structure occupies a place of honor on the Right Bank, and is a hub from which grand boulevards radiate. The Opéra Garnier became the most important social gathering place in post-royal Paris, and created the gold standard for stage technology that would not be surpassed until well into the 20th century.

    MAY 21 Gran Teatre Liceu, Barcelona

    Unlike many of the most important opera houses, Barcelona’s is not a building designed to be admired from across a square. Rather, it’s found along Las Ramblas, the Catalan capital’s liveliest thoroughfare, just steps away from the Boqueria, one of the most amazing food markets in the world. Its roots in urban life give remarkable animation and buzz to the experience of attending a performance here. The city is the birthplace of several legendary opera artists, including Victoria de los Angeles, Montserrat Caballé, and Jose Carreras, and the discerning Liceu audience accords a great deal of love to the finest singers who appear at Teatre Liceu. That’s why top stars make a point of appearing at the historic opera house as often as they can.

    JUN 18  The Metropolitan Opera, New York

    America’s leading opera company performs in its best opera house, the legendary Met. In fact, there have been two of them, the 1883 Old Met and the New Met that replaced it in 1966. Everything done there, onstage and off, is fodder for the intensely passionate and opinionated New Yorkers who are its core audience. The Met—old and new—has been a pioneer in technology and outreach, with its worldwide radio broadcasts, live television performances, and since 2006, screenings of productions seen by millions in movie theaters around the globe. What is often overlooked is that the Met is a place of real beauty, with paintings by Marc Chagall, gold ceilings, Austrian crystal chandeliers, and beautiful African rosewood, whose resonance gives this auditorium of nearly 4000 seats perhaps the best acoustics of any major opera house.      

    LOCATION:
    S. Dillon Ripley Center
    1100 Jefferson Drive, SW
    Metro: Smithsonian Mall Exit (Blue/Orange)


    * Fred Plotkin, author of Opera 101: A Complete Guide to Learning and Loving Opera, lectures for the Metropolitan Opera Guild and the New York Philharmonic.

     

     
  • Events: Reports

    Giorno della Memoria in New York - Program


    The 2015 program marks the 60th anniversary of the Center for Contemporary Jewish Documentation in Milan, the second oldest Holocaust research institute. Programs on January 25th and February 9th are held in collaboration with the Jewish Museum of Rome.

    Centro Primo Levi is the recipient of an endowment of the Viterbi Family Foundation in memory of Achille and Maria Viterbi. Programs are made possible through the generous support of the Cahnman Foundation and Claude Ghez.


    Tickets for the Museum of Jewish Heritage can be purchased online from the museum’s website. All other programs are free and open to the public. No reservation is required.


    PROGRAM
    Sunday, January 25 at 2:00 pm

    Museum of Jewish Heritage

    36 Battery Park Place

    Tickets at www.mjhnyc.org

    Film Screening: Oro Macht Frei

    Directed by Jeffrey Bonna. Produced by Jeffrey Bonna and Catherine Campbell. Executive Producer Joel Markel. Original music composed and performed by Yotam Haber.

    Introduction by Alessandra Di Castro, Director of the Jewish Museum of Rome

    After Italy's Armistice with the Allies (Sept 8, 1943), the country was divided: Mussolini’s Italian Social Republic and its German ally, soon to become the occupying force, took over the peninsula the from the Alps to area south of Naples, while the Anglo-American troops occupied Sicily, Puglia, Calabria and part of Campania. The Italian Social Republic issued an order of arrest for all Jews in its territory, carried out by the Germans and partly by the Italian police. Oro Macht Frei tells the story of the nine-month Nazi occupation of Rome through the testimonies of nine Roman Jews, archival footage, family photos with the participation of renowned historians Alexander Stille, Susan Zuccotti, Liliana Picciotto, Frank Coppa and Robert Katz. In addition to individual stories of Jews in hiding and arrest, OMF examines the period of Mussolini's Racial Laws (1938-1945) and the Catholic Church response to the roundup of the Roman Jews. This draws the viewer into personal reflection on the Holocaust in Italy through the experiences of the Roman Jewish community.


    Recovered Memory - A special screening of a nine minutes archival film of the Della Seta family will precede the program. The only known video document of Italian Jewish life before the Holocaust, the Della Seta family films were shot in 1923-24 and feature weddings, leisure time and other daily activities. Italian journalist Claudio Della Seta found the films in his family home and never hoped they could be seen again. Recently he discovered that the National Restoration Institute had the capability to restore and digitalize them. After 91 years the films were brought back to life in all their splendor, wit and tenderness. Courtesy Della Seta - CDEC - Csc-Cineteca di Stato

    January 27, from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm

    Consulate General of Italy

    689 Park Avenue at 69th Street

    Ceremony of the reading of the names of the Jews deported from Italy and the Italian territories.

    The list of Jews deported from Italy was compiled over the course of 60 years by the Center for Contemporary Jewish Documentation in Milan and published by Liliana Picciotto: Il Libro della Memoria. Gli ebrei deportati dall’Italia (1943 – 1945), (The Book of Remembrance. Jews deported from Italy 1943 - 1945, Mursia, 1991, 2002)


    Between 1938 and 1945 European Nazi and Fascist regimes, and the people who supported them annihilated millions of Jews and thousands of homosexuals, handicapped, mentally ill and gypsies, labeled as “stranger,” “unwanted” and “subhuman”. Prejudice and racial hatred put a halt to the lives of millions and devastated the societies in which these crimes were perpetrated.

    On January 27, 1945 the Soviet Army entered the extermination camp of Auschwitz, starting the liberation process. In the year 2000, this date was chosen to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust and to promote the fight against racism. Following the efforts of the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, Research and the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust, Italy, Germany, and France established it as a national observance day. They were soon joined by all the countries of the European Union and the United Nations.

    January 29 at 6:00 pm

    John Calandra Italian American Institute at CUNY

    25 W 43rd St 17th floor, NYC
    New Documents on the Deportation of the Jews of Rhodes. The Discovery of the Carabinieri Collection in the Dodecanese State Archive. Marco Clementi, University of Calabria

    In 2011 the police in Rhodes, (Greece) contacted the Dodecanese State Archive concerning the discovery in a basement of a large collection of Italian documents. In November 2013, a team of scholars identified the records as the archive of the Carabinieri’s Central Special Bureau, a political police that, between 1932 and 1945, collected information on individuals, businesses, ethnic groups, spies, important events and political personalities. The records, which were thought to be lost, had remained for 66 years in the room where the Carabinieri had left them in 1945. A high number of these 100,000 files concern the local Jewish community in Rhodes, following the creation of the central governing body of the Italian Jewish communities (UCII) in 1931, to the deportation of July 1944. Their story can now be re-examined under new light based on a much broader evidence of their interactions with the Italian authorities. The documents of the Central Special Bureau are currently been catalogued and digitized by the Greek State Archives and with the support of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

    Marco Clementi (University of Calabria) received a PhD in Contemporary History from the University of St. Petersburg and holds a degree in Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures from the University "La Sapienza" in Rome. His publications include Storia del dissenso sovietico (2007), L'Alleato Stalin (2011), Camicie Nere sull'Acropoli (2013). He is a member of the St. Petersburg Memorial’s scientific council.

    February 4 at 6:00 pm

    Italian Cultural Institute

    686 Park Avenue, NYC

    Sixty Years of Holocaust Research in Italy: The Center for Contemporary Jewish Documentation in Milan

    Opening remarks, Giorgio Sacerdoti (President, CDEC, MIlan) Liliana Picciotto (CDEC, MIlan)

    Starting in the last months of World War II, surviving family members of Jews who had been deported to extermination camps prompted the first attempts to locate their loved ones and gather information about their journeys and fates. Soon after, in 1945, the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities created the Comitato Ricerche Deportati Ebrei, CRDE, (Research Committee on Jewish Deportees). Adolfo Massimo Vitale, a colonel of the Italian army dismissed during the Racial Laws who had long lived abroad, led the Committee. It was Vitale who compiled the first list of the Italian deportees.


    In 1955 the Center for Contemporary Jewish Documentation opened in Venice with the mission to reconstruct Jewish life and preserve the remnants of its past. Vitale’s list became indispensable in tracing the destiny of the Italian deportees and in writing the history of the Shoah in Italy. Without Vitale’s early work, much of would have been lost forever. Following this first phase, the research was advanced under three of CDEC's directors, Roberto Bassi, Guido Valabrega and Eloisa Ravenna. During this time CDEC moved its headquarters from Venice to Milan, where records concerning the deportees were permanently transferred.


    In 1972, CDEC's staff decided to cross-reference Vitale's list in order to follow proper historiographical standards. They initiated new research aimed at collecting every available document in any relevant archive inside and outside of Italy. This phase was entrusted to Giuliana Donati, who was involved with the project until 1974.


    Under Donati's guidance, CDEC acquired a large archive of handwritten documents, containing individual name cards for each victim. The available biographical data for each name was thoroughly checked and new data was added. In 1979, CDEC considered publishing the complete list of all Jews who died in Italy or were deported from Italy in the 1943-1945 period. This project was directed by Liliana Picciotto.


    In the meantime, new documents come to light: the census of 51.000 individuals the fascist government recorded as Jewish in 1938, the registry of Italian jails with the names of Jews who were arrested, the records collected by prosecutors during the trials of Nazi war criminals operating in Italy. Vitale’s original list was vastly expanded through these new documents. In 1986, CDEC received its first computer, a rarity at the time, which transformed research capabilities: the data collected up to that point was merged into an innovative database. In 1991 Liliana Picciotto published Il Libro della Memoria. Gli ebrei deportati dall’Italia (1943 – 1945), (The Book of Remembrance. Jews deported from Italy 1943 - 1945, Mursia, 1991).


    Three subsequent editions came out as the research continued to expand. In 2013 the database– which in addition to Jews deported from the Italian peninsula included those from Italian controlled Aegean Islands– was finally made available online. CDEC also made available the database of foreign Jews interned in Italy, a work-in-progress curated by Anna Pizzuti and the late Francesca Cappella at the Scuola Normale di Pisa.


    CDEC is preparing to publish the results of a vast research project regarding survival strategies of Jews in Italy, based on the analysis of over 8,000 personal stories. This will be the first comprehensive historical analysis conducted nation-wide on survival and rescue, cross-referencing testimonies, documents and other historiographical records.

    February 9 at 6:00 pm

    NYU Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimò

    24 West 12th Street, NYC

    Unrecovered Memory: The Jewish Communal Library of Rome

    Panel discussion

    Serena Di Nepi, University of Rome La Sapienza, Jewish Museum of Rome, Agnes Peresztegi, Commission for Art Recovery, Alex Karn, Colgate University, Natalia Indrimi, Centro Primo Levi, New York.


    On September 30th and October 1st 1943, two German officers visited the building of the Jewish Community of Rome. They headed to the third floor where the libraries of the rabbinical academy and that of the Jewish community were held. Both collections were invaluable, the latter being one of the most comprehensive pre-modern Jewish libraries in the world. The communal library was created at the beginning of the 20th century gathering the book collections of various pre-unification Jewish institutions. It contained about 5,000 volumes including incunabula and cinquecentine. The only existing catalogue had been compiled in 1934 by Isaia Sonne.


    The officers examined the books. On October 11th they returned to announce that the libraries would be seized. Two days later the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, the German agency in charge of seizing Jewish books and art, sacked the building and took both libraries. The two libraries allegedly were transferred to Germany aboard three trains: two in October and a third one in December.


    In 1946, the Allies located the Rabbinical library near Frankfurt and facilitated its return to Rome in 1950. No trace was ever found of the Jewish communal library of Rome. Although various investigations were conducted, the last as part of the Anselmi Commission on the confiscation of Jewish assets in 1999-2001, its fate remains obscure. Over the years, hypotheses multiplied and at least one volume emerged in a US library. Information and testimonies concerning its departure remain vague, research incomplete and many questions are still open. A panel of experts will analyze the history of the investigations and discuss future efforts to recover this precious library.
  • Events: Reports

    Oro Macht Frei


    The presentation of the film, "Oro Macht Frei", will open the events in New York City for the Giorno della Memoria hosted by the Italian Consulate in New York to honor the memory of the Italian victims of the Holocaust. The event is hosted by the Centro Primo Levi and the Museo Ebraico di Roma.


    Oro Macht Frei (OMF) tells the story of the Roman Jewish experience of the Nazi occupation of Rome (Sept 1943 - June 1944). Weaving testimony from Roman Jews together with historical research by renowned scholars on the subject (including Susan Zuccotti, Alexander Stille, Liliana Picciotto), OMF seeks to bring the viewer into a personal and relatable reflection of the Holocaust in Italy through the eyes of this unique and historic community.


    On September 26, 1943, only two and a half weeks into the German occupation of Rome, the head of the SS, Herbert Kappler, called the two leaders of the Roman Jewish Community into his office and demanded that they produce 50 kilos of gold within 36 hours or he would deport 200 Jewish heads of family. Over a feverish day and a half, this already poor, working class community - whose poverty had only deepened over the five years of Italian Racial Laws, as well as the deprivations of war itself - managed to come together with what little they had to save each other and come up with the 50 kilos of gold. OMF reveals the sad delusion of security that Kappler's gold extortion produced in the minds of the community who, believing they had paid their ransom and would be left alone, did not go into hiding.


          Two and a half weeks after turning over the gold, on October 16th, the Nazis conducted the first and largest round-up of Italian Jews, finding many of them in their homes in the old Jewish ghetto. After being held for two days in a military school, 1,014 Roman Jews were deported to Auschwitz; only 16 from this round-up would return home at the end of the war. Those who escaped arrest managed to hide through the help of non-Jewish friends and neighbors, in their own workshops, or in Church institutions. Until the liberation of Rome on June 4, 1944, arrest and deportations of Roman Jews continued through a systematic manhunt (per Italian police edict) which included a cash reward for offering information that led to the capture and arrest of any Jews throughout occupied central and northern Italy.


          In addition to sharing testimony of hiding and arrest, OMF treats of the controversial stance of the Vatican which did not speak out or stop the deportation of the Roman Jews. However, whether through its aegis or through the initiative of individual convents and monasteries, the Catholic Church in Rome managed to provide hiding for thousands of Jews and other refugees in Church institutions throughout the city.


    What was the Pope's position during the Nazi Occupation and how did his "silence" effect the lives of the Roman Jews in particular?


          To answer these questions, OMF draws on several well-known and diverse voices from the on-going debate over Pope Pius XII's motivations (to save as many Jews as possible vrs. to save the institution of the Church), as well as the personal reflections of the Roman Jews themselves.



     
  • Events: Reports

    VANNI. One Eye to the Past, the Other to the Future


    The goal is not to revive the old traditional bookstore, but to re-imagine it for today.

    The tradition of Italian books in New York begins with Mozart’s librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, who first brought Italian books to NY in 1805. S.F. VANNI, opened the store (at 548 West Broadway)

    at the end of the 19th century; bookseller and publisher Andrea Ragusa, brought it into the 20th century on Bleecker Street and then to its present address.


    Now, CPL EDTIONS– Centro Primo Levi’s e-book and print-on-demand publishing venture—a niche independent publishing initiative dedicated to the history of Italian Jews- will operate out of S.F. VANNI, in 21st century America.


    For decades, thousands of dusty Italian books sat on metal shelves in the two rooms beyond the old-fashioned pale blue curtains of S.F.VANNI’s storefront. Revisited with advice from architect.

     

    Bonnie Roche and designer Jonathan Wajskol, the first room has become a multifunctional space for book presentations, lectures, and film screenings. The second room —with the original books sold and published by S.F. VANNI, many of them rare editions, will be preserved as ‘urban archeology’. Board member Stella Levi imagines it as something between a beit midrash and a salon, a living space where a variety of events will take place. CPL’s director Alessandro

    Cassin envisions it as tribute to a long tradition of Italian and Jewish family-based publishers that strongly impacted the surrounding culture.


    Andrea Ragusa, bookseller and publisher, arrived in the US in 1931, on a mission: to sell the newly compiled Italian Encyclopedia (Enciclopedia Italiana Treccani), and create —through books— a bridge between Italy and the United States. Within a decade his bookstore became the main supplier of Italian books and periodicals, not only to New York City, but also to libraries and universities throughout the United States and Canada.


    Photos and slide shows will highlight S.F. VANNI and the life of Andrea Ragusa, over the course of the store’s century-long history.

     

    CPL thanks Olga Ragusa for her enthusiam, generosity and love for books.

    The CPL @ S.F. VANNI’s initiative is made possible through a generous grant from Peter S. Kalikow and the ongoing support of Jeff Keil, Danielle Pinet and Lice Ghilardi.
  • Events: Reports

    Giuseppe Rossi Coach for a Day!!!




    Hard work, dedication and passion are values that have long been missing in modern day soccer. NYC Giuseppe Rossi's fan club aims to promote the positive attitude which Giuseppe Rossi brings to the sport.  We are speaking about  the only official Giuseppe Rossi fan club than New York, a city internationally recognized for its promotion of multiculturalism and the pursuit of excellence.


    This fan club is not limited to Viola fans, and is made up of Giuseppe Rossi supporters all across the world as well as advocates for the clean brand of soccer that this talented athlete represents.


    The Fan Club Giuseppe Rossi NY is excited to announce a great event with Giuseppe Rossi on December 23, 2014 at Chelsea Piers in New York City!!!


    In collaboration with the friends of the Napoli Fan Club of NYC all the Giuseppe Rossi Fan Club members are invited to play the Fans’ Coppa Italia Final Game, a sort of rematch after the official final game of Coppa Italia 2014 Fiorentina – Napoli.


    The event "Giuseppe Rossi coach for a day" is free and open to the public. However, Fan Club members only have the option to play for the Fan Club team or come to watch the game from a privileged VIP area by the field.


    A big thank you to Ribalta Restaurant and Birra Moretti for sponsoring this exciting event and to Chelsea Piers for providing the venue!!!

    This is the schedule for the event:

    • From 6:00PM to 7:00 PM Giuseppe Rossi will offer an hour of soccer clinics for the youngest members including the children of his Fan Club & Napoli Fan Club members.
    • From 7:00PM to 8:00 PM the match: Fans’ Coppa Italia Final Game
    • From 8:30PM to 9:30PM Private Aperitivo/Cocktail with Giuseppe Rossi at Ribalta Restaurant FOR MEMBERS ONLY where Giuseppe will be available to take pictures and sign autographs.





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    For additional information on how to partecipate please contact us at [email protected]
  • Events: Reports

    Four Cities in Versilia and Michelangelo




    Taking Michelangelo’s experience in the Versilia region as a starting point, the four Cities - – Pietrasanta, Seravezza, Forte dei Marmi and Stazzema –  cast light on the artistic and cultural traditions that share in common, which origin ties up to the centuries-old activity of extraction and manufacture of marble. “Michelangelo and Versilia” proposes the presentation of three original drawings by Michelangelo, loaned by the Casa Buonarroti Museum. The Maestro, once arrived at the Versilia quarries at the beginning of the 16th century, started to extract the marbles to send to Florence for creating his works, having them transported from the mountains of Stazzema and Seravezza until the maritime boarding along the way that he wanted, after which construction originated the town of Forte dei Marmi. In this regard, it is shown a wide panel description on the history of “The Way of Marbles”, which passing through the territories of the four Cities, unify them exalting the respective characteristics.


    As evidence of the prosecution of the artistic manufacture until our days and in consideration of the historical-artistic importance of the Museo dei Bozzetti of Pietrasanta and of the identity value, that it represents for the Versilia territory as well as for its vocation to sculpture, it has been asked to some of the most important sculptors who carried or still carry out their artistic activity in Versilia of participating in this initiative by loaning a maquette and, when possible, the related finished artwork. Its result is here evident with the Sculpture in Suitcase exhibition.


    Emphasis to the theme of manufacture and working of marbles, bronzes, mosaics, and other materials is furthermore given through films and photographs concerning the artisan workshops. In particular, are exhibited the images of Polish photographer Henryk Hetflaisz, which have been already shown in “Homo Faber” in 2013. Present the territory also a film on Seravezza prepared on purpose and a video-documentary on the manufacture in the artisan laboratories.


    The many-centuried tradition of extraction and manufacture of stony materials, which generated excellent skilled workers, whose collaboration is today requested by artists from all over the world for the marble, bronze, and mosaic realizations, is also testified by the works presented by the Artigianart Association and the Cosmave Consortium, here exhibited with a group of selected companies

    .

    The “Michelangelo and Versilia” initiative has been possible thanks to the generous contribution and collaboration of the Banca del Monte di Lucca Foundation, of the Savema Company S.p.A. of Pietrasanta and of the MSC Company of New York, to all of which goes a warm thanks from all of the organizers.


    Grom December 4 2014 to January 4 2015 at the Italian Cultural Institute in New York

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