New York - 14 Dicembre 2020 Covid in NYC, What’s Life Like? On Real Estate, Safety, Culture, and Entertainment… The city has suffered tremendously from the lack of entertainment and the need to remain indoors. In a city that thrives on its cultural offerings, the majority of many institutions have remained closed, and the museums that have opened are on very limited scheduling. The Metropolitan Opera is closed until next Fall, movie theatres remain a high-risk factor, and social distancing although mandated, is still not insurance that one will be safe. But I don’t believe that one insurmountable event will ultimately alter the entire course of our lives.
Arts - 1 Ottobre 2020 Vincenzo Pietropaolo: Italian-Canadian Photographer Turns His Lens on Injustice “I wanted to show two things with my camera: the things that had to be appreciated, and the things that had to be corrected. Photography reveals beauty and truth. And truth sometimes is not very pleasant. I learned about the power of the camera when I was trying to take pictures in a garment factory on Spadina Avenue in Toronto. Because the owners were afraid that the camera could witness and record something that wasn’t right—like unsafe working conditions-- they made it almost impossible for me. If I had not become a photographer I would have been a human rights lawyer.”
Arts - 28 Giugno 2020 Museo degli Innocenti: Entrepreneurs Who Donated Beauty Even to the Most Humble The silk makers were well travelled business people, but they were also conscious of their responsibilities and believed that the poor, in this case the abandoned children, had as much right to beauty as others. They entrusted the responsibility for the construction of the institution to Filippo Brunelleschi. It would be as if today the Italian Merchants Association, la Confindustria, entrusted a project for the welcoming of migrants to Renzo Piano.
Arts - 24 Maggio 2020 In NY Covid-19 Drops the Curtain for Theaters but the Show Must Go On in Life I talked about all this with Amy Frances Quint, an American actress, born and raised in Rome until her adolescence and who moved to the States to start her career as an actress, and Austin Pendleton, noted actor, director, and teacher. They both tell us about the challenges and the surprises of performance during the pandemic.
Arts - 11 Maggio 2020 The Show Must Go On… Line! NYC Theaters at the Time of Coronavirus It’s the second month of lockdown here in New York. The State of New York, starting May 15, will reopen low risk activities but only in the upstate regions. NYC will remain locked down, with only essential activities working and everything related to show business suspended. Cinemas, theaters, pubs, arenas, all gathering locations for cultural/entertainment […]
Arts - 27 Ottobre 2019 Reality Fleeing from Itself: “Peeping Tom” at “BAM’s Next Wave Festival 2019” The Peeping Tom group blends dance, acrobatics, acting and singing, and nails all these disciplines in a hyper-realistic aesthetic, stuck into real stage sets, but unsettled or distorted by a perceptive and human instability, which contradicts every rational logic of time and space.
Arts - 16 Ottobre 2019 Commemorating Sculptor Antonio Canova, His Legacy, and Its Place in History In the late 18th century, Neo-Classical sculptor Antonio Canova was proclaimed the new Phidias, the new Praxiteles, and his studio was a “must-see” stop for travelers on the official Grand Tour. His many VIP patrons throughout Europe included Popes Pius VI and VII, as well as Napoleon and the Bonaparte family. Today his artistic legacy is being celebrated with this mega-exhibit in Rome. And to finish the day, you can enjoy tonnarelli cacio e pepe in his studio which is now a bar/restaurant/and museum.
Arts - 23 Settembre 2019 Isadora Duncan Exhibits Herself…with Her Usual Panache Isadora improvised, following precise guidelines, listening to her body…She danced with her joyfully turgid body, barefoot, wrapped in a Hellenistic peplos, and with movement inspired by the undulating motion of sea waves and the flight of birds….enjoying both controversy and success everywhere she danced.
Arts - 8 Settembre 2019 “BVLGARI: the Story, the Dream”, Three Generations of an Iconic Family of Jewelers The decadence of “Hollywood on the Tiber” played a crucial part in transforming the image of Italy from that of a struggling country, into a glamorous industrial power. It also gave Rome new appeal, thanks also to its fashion houses and artisanry, and not least for the contributions of the Bulgari jewelers. Starting in the 1950s the Eternal City returned to being the cradle of art and history, but also the center of glamour—a resource for at least the next forty years.
Arts - 27 Luglio 2019 “The Kabuki” by Maurice Béjart, Still a Hit in the World It is called The Kabuki, but its only reference point to the great bourgeois Japanese classical theater is that it deals with a group of suicidal samurai. More than thirty years after its first performances, it has still ignited the public of Teatro alla Scala, relying on the skill of impeccable interpreters.