Sicily Guide

“The glory Sicily had with the Greek colonies of two thousand five hundred years ago was the high point of Sicilian history,” said the museum display in the “Paolo Orsi” Museum in Syracuse, Sicily. “Modern Sicily is a shadow of the greatness it had under the Greeks.” This fact written by persons who were not Greek totally astonished me during the 2005 Arba Sicula (Sicilian dawn) Tour. It continued to mesmerize me during my return visit in the 2008 Arba Sicula tour.

The “Paolo Orsi” Regional Archaeological Museum of Syracuse, Sicily is one of the foremost institutions in Europe. It was built in the park of the Villa Landolina. It is dedicated to Paolo Orsi, an archaeologist and expert in Hellenic and pre-Hellenic civilizations. The building is nine thousand square meters of exhibition space on two floors. Eighteen thousand archaeological finds are displayed from the city of Syracuse and eastern regions of Sicily.

Read more at HellenicNews.com

The Greek Theater in Syracuse (Sicily), UNESCO World Heritage Site, will stage the classic productions of The Oresteia by Aeschylus Euripides from May 8 through June 22, 2008. Thanks to the Instituto Italiano per il Dramma Antico (INDA), this spectacular setting has been turning into a real ancient action every other year for 44 years now.

If you are in Sicily during that time of the year, I strongly suggest a stop in Syracuse. Even if the performances are going to be in Italian, it does not really matter: the enjoyment of taking being part of such an old tradition will make the visit worthwhile. Tickets start at € 24 (currency converter).

General information:

Archeological Site of Syracuse (Unesco World Heritage Site)
Address: Via Rizzo/Via Paradiso, Syracuse

Tel.: (0931) 662 06

To buy tickets
INDA di Palazzo Greco
Corso Matteotti 29, Siracusa
Phone: (+39) 0931 - 48 72 48
Fax: (+39) 0931 - 48 72 49
http://www.indafondazione.org/

One of my favorite books is The Viceroys by Federico De Roberto. Ironically, I never had the opportunity to read it in school and I read it in a couple of weeks in my subway commute to work. In a few words, I would describe it as a deeper and more accurate novel than The Leopard.

Here is what Archibald Colquhoun writes for the London Magazine: “I vicerè is about the Risorgimento betrayed. Until recent years the aims and results of that movement have been blurred by official rhetoric and a process of falsification which began in the north of Italy and was partly due to the rôle of Piedmont and its dynasty. The piazzas of Italy are still cluttered with some of the less harmful results, those bewhiskered and gesticulating statues of the first King of United Italy, Victor Emmanuel of Savoy. Amid the confusion of motives, idealism, dynastic aggrandisement, social aspiration, it was the south that came off worst. Seen from there the posturing and rhetoric looked suspiciously like cover for failed promises; in time this even became linked with Mussolini’s rodomontades about ‘eight million bayonets’, and the age-old distrust of rulers throughout the south spread next to ‘those in Rome’. Resulting waves of immigration from the depressed areas of Sicily and Calabria took with them the Mafia and Camorra to spread all over the Americas; and, less obvious but perhaps more damaging, the diffusion from Soho throughout the world of that most inadequate and adhesive of national images, the Italian organ-grinder with a monkey on a stick.”

Read more at the London Magazine

Buy The Viceroys - By Federico De Roberto - First American Hardcover Edition

An international group of professional actors will be led in a workshop exploring tales from Ovid’s Metamorphoses in the English translation by renowned poet Ted Hughes. The workshop will be conducted on the Island of Stromboli, as close as we can get to Ovid’s original setting.

Daily classes will include advanced Linklater voice work along with “Movement and Text Technique” created by Alessandro Fabrizi. Michael Chekhov work will begin during the second week. The workshop process will culminate in a series of site-specific performances at different locations on the island of Stromboli and a final public presentation at the Anfiteatro Eos in Stromboli, an outdoor amphitheatre whose backdrop is the Mediterranean Sea.

Alessandro Fabrizi is a theater director and actor, and teaches Voice at the “Accademia Nazionale di Arte Drammatica Silvio D’Amico” in Rome and is Faculty Member of the Actors’ Center of New York.

For more information and cost, please visit http://www.ragnarfreidank.com/Stromboli2008.htm

Some of Giorgio De Chirico’s artoworks will be exhibited at the Civica Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Palermo through March 30. The title of the exhibition is “Metafisica continua” and includes “Ettore e Andromaca” and “Oreste e Pilade”. Girgio De Chirico’s father was Palermitan.

Read more about Giorgio De Chirico

Sergio Cardarella gives a detailed insight of the history of the Jews in Sicily.

The saga of Jewish history has no simple chapters, and the chapter on Sicilian Jews is certainly no exception. While the histories of Galician, Indian, and Japanese Jews have been studied extensively, one of the oldest communities of the Diaspora has been generally neglected. The biggest island of the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily, has been for millennia one of the most important crossroads of the early civilizations.

Read more at The Philadelphia Jewish Voice

Thanks to my friend Alex, I was introduced to photographer Pamela Parlapiano the other day. Pamela is third generation Italian-American. Her father’s family came from nearby Napoli, while her mother’s family was from Sicily. Pamela has been traveling the world as photographer and visited 33 countries since 1978. Soon, she is going to be in India once again. Just from talking to her, I got extremely fascinated by the personality of this woman. We shared opinions about Italy where she has been countless times and she talked to me about her heritage. She has recently been involved with Mothers to Mothers Foundation.

For more information, please visit her web site at www.pamelaparlapiano.com.

The Palatine Chapel is the royal chapel of the Norman kings of Sicily situated on the ground floor at the center of the Palazzo Reale in Palermo. The chapel was commissioned by Roger II of Sicily in 1132. It took eight years to build and many more to decorate with mosaics and fine art. The sanctuary, dedicated to Saint Peter, is reminiscent of a domed basilica. It has three apses, as is usual in Byzantine architecture, with six pointed arches (three on each side of the central nave) resting on recycled classical columns.

The Palatine Chapel is going to be closed for restoration and is expected to reopen in April 2008. The cost of restoration is 2,5 millions Euros.

A priceless Caravaggio once attributed to a “follower” of the Italian Baroque master went on public display for the first time on Saturday at a Sicilian museum.

“The Card Sharps,” authenticated as a Caravaggio after British art collector and historian Sir Denis Mahon bought it at a Sotheby’s auction in 2006 for 50,400 pounds, is now thought to be worth up to 50 million pounds (70 million euros, 100 million dollars).

The painting is an early version of a 1594 work by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio now displayed at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.

Read more at AFP.com

Recently I was able to attend a performance of La Spartenza by Tommaso Bordonaro at the Italian Academy at Columbia University. The play was a total surprise. A friend from Palermo suggested me to go to watch it and I followed her advice. La spartenza is the tale in form of autobiography of Tommaso’s Bordonaro’s life, a farmer from Bolognetta (Palermo) emigrated to the USA in 1947. The book won the “Pieve 1900″ award for the best inedited diary and was published by Einaudi.

The show puts together other inedited material collected by Santo Lombino, the scholar who mainly determined the divulgation of Bordonaro’s work): childhood diaries, super 8 films, a video interview with Mr. Bordonaro in Garfield (NJ) in 1995. Nicola Grato also collaborated with Santo Lombino to put La Spartenza on stage. La Spartenza is a simple, but powerful story that shows how each of us has our own story to tell.

Palermo offers La Via dei Tesori to the public: convents, buildings, gardens usually closed will stay open for a month.

Here is the list of the places:

1- Botanico

2- B. Museo Doderlein

3- C. Palazzo Steri

4- D. Cappella S. Giuseppe dei Falegnami

5- E. Museo Gemmellaro

6- F. Museo di Radiologia

7- G. Collezione di Ingegneria

8- H. Cripta delle Repentite

9- I. Convento di S. Antonino

10- J. Aereo G59

11- K. Carcere dei Penitenziati

12- L. Osservatorio Astronomico

13- M. Fossa della Garofala

14- N. Hotel de France

Map
Photo Gallery
Official Site (italian only)

Technorati Tags [ sicily | la via dei tesori | palermo | museo doderlein | botanico | palazzo steri | cappella s. giuseppe | museo gemellaro | museo di radiologia | hotel de france ]

I have seen Marcello Giordani at the Metropolitan Opera in New York a couple of times. I have always liked, but I have to say that he really got all my attention as Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor at the side of the French soprano Natalie Dessay on Friday October 5. He opened the Metropolitan Opera Season 2007-2008 this past September 24 for his second time. The reviews have been tepid, but he is certainly making up for this (read the NYTimes review, September 26).

Marcello is a native Sicilian from Augusta. Hailed as an extraordinarily versatile artist, Giordani’s repertory encompasses a wide and diverse range of roles, a list that spans the gamut from the Bel Canto heroes of Donizetti and Bellini to the more dramatic roles of Verdi and Puccini.

Watch video from Lucia di Lammermoor at the NYTimes.com
Read more about Marcello Giordani

Technorati Tags [ lucia di lammermoor | marcello giordani | sicilian tenor | natalie dessay | metropolitan opera ]

Sicilian film-maker Giuseppe Tornatore is set to try for his second foreign-film Oscar with his latest work, La Sconosciuta (The Unknown Woman).

La Sconosciuta, Tornatore’s first film since 2000’s Malena with Monica Bellucci, is the grim, noir-ish story of a Ukrainian woman forced into prostitution in Italy who tries to rebuild her family.

More at ANSA.it

Technorati Tags [ giuseppe tornatore | sicily | la sconosciuta | oscar | foreign-film oscar nomination ]

Carmen Consoli performed in Central Park in New York, at the Delacorte Theater, on Tuesday September 25. The concert, part of a two-week series organized by the Joe’s Pub in Central Park, also included the performances by Luciana Souza and Morley. Carmen, a talented singer originally from Catania, brought a little bit of Sicily in the heart of the Big Apple and delighted a small crowd with her lyrics.

Here is a streaming video of her singing Maria Catena at the Delacorte Theater.

Introducing the song Masino in English…

Technorati Tags [ carmen consoli | carmen consoli in central park | delacorte theater | sicily | maria catena ]

Tonight, Liza Minnelli will be accompanied by her 26-piece in the Taormina concert entitled “The Best of Liza” and will be performing live all her best hits that have established her as a true living icon the world over.

Tickets to the concert at the Teatro Antico in Taormina are being sold by RPL at €45 each. VIP seats are available at €150 and €250. Tickets to the after-concert dinner are selling at an extra €50.

Watch a video of Liza Minnelli singing New York, New York together with Luciano Pavarotti

Read more at www.lizaminnelli-taormina.com

Technorati Tags [ liza minnelli | sicily | liza minnelli concert | taormina | teatro antico taormina ]