Angelica in Paris at the Piccolo Teatro dei Pupi, Syracuse, Italy

Fun, suspense, love and battles, coup de théâtre and everlasting stories. This and much more can be seen at the Opra dei Pupi. The typical Sicilian puppets in medieval armours have various declinations linked to cities and family traditions. 

In Ortigia, a theatrical city within a city, the adventures of the paladins are told and performed by the Sicilian pupi of the  Compagnia di Pupari Vaccaro-Mauceri. 

The plot is developed episode by episode with a thrilling rhythm and a narrative strenght that is a real joy for kids and adults and that, obviously, arouses curiosity on how the episode will continue. 

The story of Angelica in Paris, in which the malicious aims of the belle that bewitches and charms the paladins to put in practice her father's vendetta is unveiled, is a great intellectual pleasure. 

Each family of 'pupari' has something that differentiate their puppets and stories from the ones of the other families. The uniqueness of the Syracuse Sicilian pupi is the unbroken nexus with the masques and suggestions, even stylistic, of the Greek theatre. 

A typical mask of the Greek tragedy is used to personify the souls of the Hades, that are all-accomplished charachters, not ghosts as in the Shakespearean Hamlet, but actual and real presences in the charachter's lives. Nothing to do with spectres tales, it's much more an integral part of a continuous and constant connection between past, present and future, a polyphonic conversation that oversteps the time and body limits to become an essential part of the story and of everyday life.

Ortigia's Sicilian pupi are, moreover, a great example of cultural intersections, and almost all the defining elements of the Mediterranean popular identity are represented and staged with a strong rhythm and a vivaciousness that fully expresses the spirit of Ortigia, probably the oldes city built on the coasts of the Mare Nostrum. 

ABO

ABO in Italian means, oh well I don't know,  the common expression in front of world reknowned contemporary arts masterpieces, and is also the unmistakable acronym of intellectual provocation; one of the most aware and brilliant of the arts world. Initials of  Achille Bonito Oliva, cultures and artistics powers aggregator more than a simple arts critic. Born in a small tiny town of the Southern Italian provincia he could catch some of the most interesting artistic movements of the second part of the XXth century transforming them into trends of thought.

©2010.2021

Mimmo Paladino

A small tiny town in the Southern Italian provincia, Paduli, is the place where one of the most important contemporary artist was born, Mimmo Paladino; with the Transavanguardia and his creativity could bring, after the years of the most extreme conceptualism, painting  back to the art of painting, elaborating works shown in the most influent museums of the world.

©2010.2021

Literary parks

In the provincia it is sometimes possible to create virtuos alchemies to remember and safeguard crucial places for the development of the cultural and civic imagery of Belpaese. Environments and suggestions that inspired words and rythms become literary parks, places to protect, love and tell.

©©2011.2021

Give peace a chance

 

Early '60's, in Rome the olimpic flame lights the souls, while in Trentino Alto-Adige one of the darkest pages of its history is about to be written. A group of young high school students decide to meet for an experiment of peace.

At the beginning of the '60s Italy rediscovered something that had been almost unknown for centuries, economic and social wellness. A wellbeing built with an imaginary that was not even it's, more likely coming from the dreamt, watched in movies,  sometimes listened on the radio, America. And the radio had to be listened carefully, as during fascism foreign words and jazz were forbidden.  Foreign words were so difficult to stand during Mussolini's regime that even a commission to italianize names was set, for instance in Trentino Alto-Adige, where a consistent part of the population doesn't speak Italian as first language. WWII was over while the cold war was moving its first steps. Steps that sometimes had the rythm of the runners, the sweating faces and the perffect bodies of the athletes that in 1960 met in Rome, the capital of that 'BelPaese' (Beautiful Country) that was re-starting to walk with the wind in the bouffant hairstyles and the happy laughter spreadiing from Lambrettas and brand-new Fiat. When the olympic flame crosses the Eternal City, the Open City because unanimously considered too beautiful so that could not be bombed nor damaged,  a shiver, a spine-chill, light electricity to affirm that the darkest moments of those horrible times were over. While in Rome the kaleidoscope of languages that could be listened in the Vatican during the international pilgrimages was multiplied by the olympic teams, in the North, two languages apparently have the intention to become the expression of incomprehensions. In the Bolzano province, a group of youngsters decide to challege the world, to get inspired by that olympic spirit that was in the air and attempt a simple, tiny experiment of peace.  Experiments of peace are never simple, actually, and those youngsters clean-cut as the mountain skyline in a sunny day, decide to gather for afternoon talks about culture, Dolomites, politics and sport. A politics intertwined with culture, best said with cultures, with ideas of a Europe without borders, of something vital to the acutal life of the future of humanity and of the natural wonder of the landscape. The spearhead of the meetings would have become the living icon of ecology and of the so-called intercultural dialogue, Alex Langer, while his region would have left behind one of the darkest pages of its history.

©2010.2020

Politics, also in Italy, is possible

Once upon a time ago, not much time ago, there was a nation, going out of a bad war, a bit damaged but with a great strenght and willing to stand on her legs. In that nation, where the borders where not even so defined, a man, a mountaineer, son of peasants, made his way on what once, not that much time ago, was the Italian Politics. This man had strong ideas and an even stronger soul, he was skilled, really skilled. and as often happens in this odd nation, he had the chance to go on, to become the number one. There was the entire Italy to set on foot and Italians, in hard times, exhibit their best, they can marvel, enchant the world with their extraordinary abilities, with their strenght of soul and thought. to go back to be the 'Italietta' that hides her beauty behind a finger. Alcide De Gasperi.

©2009.2022

A leaning cathedral in the heart of the Flemish Netherland

The distance between Delt and The Hague is covered by a tram ride, a few stops, a handful of minutes and you cross the interval between two different cities, calling it suburbia would be the equivalent of saying that Florence is the suburbia of Rome, for Australian, Chinese or Canadian standards. In Delft there is an entire square, complete with a cathedral that if compared to the Pisa tower the latter looks straight, but you barely notice it, even if royal celebrations are in that church and if the delftware, to be honest that are really nice but compared to the Italian pottery are a bit pale, even if it's true that the Delft blue is world reknowned. Cathedrals are indeed extraordinary, all leaning, wonkysh, one, the Oude Kerk (Old church) on the artificial canal, the other impressive in a typical European Flemish market square, the Nieuwe Kerk (New church, so to speak), that treasures the graves of the Orange-Nassau royal family.

Typical representative of Delft art scene is Vermeer, reknowned for the ante litteram photographic use of light, perspective, focus and colour so to be considered one of the undisputed masters of Flemish school,  famous his painting Girl with a Pearl Earring, better known for the novel and the film inspired by the painting. Even if, probably for the closeness with the world capital of international law, The Hague, also siege of the government and official residence of the Orange-Nassau, probably the name of the town is more easily associated with the name of Hugo Grotius, considered one of the 'creators' of modern international law, having foreseen a law of the sea not far from the one presently implemented worlwide. And how can't we recall, talking about this wonderful little city, also Anthony  Van Leeuwenhoek, self-taught discoverer of the protozoan and of the most celeb spermatozoa, ando of bacteria, but that's another story.

Going back to the small streets, the bridges, the small typically Flemish canaals you get definetely enchated by that delicate concreteness of a market square identical to itself during the centuries where the buildings are lightly leaning but you barely notice it in the maritime country par excellence, where between the seasickness and the earthsickness you don't know if the buildings are moving following the rythm of the waves or if it's us who got the typical sailors step. 

©2011.2021