New committee and new meeting venue

The new committee elected at the AGM is:

Denis Walker (President)
Jan Tedesco (Secretary)
Philippa McLaughlin (Treasurer)

Committee members: Valerie Mayer, Wilma Laryn, Maria Fresia, Fiorenzo Peloso, John Pryor, Louise Easter, and new members Francesco D'Alo' and Glen Mosna.

The meeting venue for 2013 will be St. Ninian's Church in Puriri Street with the first monthly meeting in February.

AGM - 14 November

The Annual General Meeting of the Società Dante Alighieri will be held on Wednesday 14th November at 7.30pm at St Ninian's Presbyterian Church, 9 Puriri Street, Riccarton.  Business will include annual reports by the President,the Secretary and the Treasurer and the Election of Officers for 2013. We will relaunch the Society in 2013 with new vigour and new programmes of meetings, films and classes.

Cartolina 21 novembre

Italian journalist and language tutor Barbara Pezzotti, on the phone from Wellington, talks about her just published book: The Importance of Place in Contemporary Italian Crime Fiction - A Bloody Journey. We play Fred Buscaglione’s song Eri piccola cosi` (You were this small), of gangster’s love, betrayal and, as you’ll hear, murder.

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Cartolina 7 novembre

The Rocket Espresso has been defined as the world’s sexiest coffee machine! It’s at the top end of the home espresso machines, and the dream of many a coffee aficionados. We talk, on the phone from Milan, with Andrew Meo, a Wellingtonian now living there, who bought the business years ago. We play Domenico Modugno’s song O ccaffè.

Cartolina 24 ottobre

The President of the Christchurch Dante Alighieri and Cartolina co-producer,
Dr Denis Walker, talks about Genova, the ancient port-city that he visited
recently. Food and stories, with the songs of Genova-born singer-song writer
Fabrizio de Andrè.

Monteverdi Concert 6 October

The Jubilate Singers will join Wellington’s Baroque Voices and Burnside High School’s Bel Canto and Aurora Voices choirs in one of the best-loved compositions of the choral repertoire and Monteverdi’s largest work, his Vespro della Beata Vergine. Part of a larger 1610 Venice publication, the Vespers comprises large psalm settings, smaller-scale motets, a lavishly scored sacred concerto, and a setting of the Magnificat. The Vespers is courtly and majestic in places, touchingly intimate in others. A pinnacle of Renaissance music, it contains elements that look forward to the Baroque style to come, and spectacular vocal and instrumental effects that are still capable of thrilling audiences four centuries later.
The concert is on Saturday 6 October 2012 at St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, Manchester St, Christchurch at 7.30 pm and will be directed by Grant Hutchinson. Tickets are $25/$20 (concession) and school students are admitted free of charge.

Cartolina 10 Ottobre

Festival Director Tony Lambert gives us an insight of the present edition of this much-loved appointment with Italian film. There are more titles than the previous years, and, as usual, there is something for everybody!

Invitation to participate in a PhD study

Agnes Szabo, a PhD student at the Centre for Applied Cross-Cultural Research, School of Psychology at Victoria University of Wellington invites members of the Society to participate in a research study.  

Agnes writes:

Dear Members of the Dante Alighieri Group in Christchurch,

I am writing to you, because I would like to invite the Dante Alighieri Group in Christchurch to participate in my study that is designed to help us gain a better understanding of how immigrants deal with challenges related to their settlement into New Zealand society. It is a completely anonymous online survey that takes approximately 20 minutes of the participants’ time.
I consider it very important to cover a wide range of acculturating groups with different cultural and ethnic background in order to get a comprehensive picture about the adjustment of immigrants in New Zealand. That is why I would like the Italian community to be represented in my sample.

To participate in this research, just click on the following link:
http://vuw.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_6FHCF1GTJRh3Zgp

Thank you so much for your help!

Agnes Szabo

PhD Student, Centre for Applied Cross-Cultural Research, School of Psychology
Te Kura Matai Hinengaro
Victoria University of Wellington
Te Whare Wananga o te Upoko o te Ika a Maui
PO Box 600
Wellington, New Zealand

Cartolina 29 agosto e 3 settembre

Elisa Ramon and Alessio Olivieri are the Duo that call themselves OPERAPERTA. They have recently offered to perform for a fundraising of the Lions Club of Christchurch Host, with profits going to its Charitable Trust Earthquake Relief Fund. President Bill McDonald explains how the concert came to be. Elisa, soprano, and Alessio, guitar, present their repertoire of Spanish, Venetian and Neapolitan songs, collected in their just released CD, available from www.operapertaduo.com and from the major online music stores. We play Federico Garcia Lorca’s Nana de Sevilla and La Tarara, plus a Venetian Boat song: Sento che ‘l cuor me manca.

Cartolina 15 and 20 August

University of Canterbury Professor Chris Jones describes the publishing treasures that the University owns; among others, a 1502 Aldo Manuzio's edition of Dante's Divine Comedy. We discuss the past and the future of printed books: it seems we are presently witnessing a new (digital) revolution, similar in scope to what the press meant for printing. From Angelo Branduardi's Futuro Antico we play Schiarazula Marazula (an ancient song published in Venice in the late 1500s), and  Suite d'Angleterre.

International film festival

The New Zealand International Film Festival starts in Christchurch on 9th August and includes two Italian films:

Reality.  The first film directed by Matteo Garrone since Gomorra (2008).  Winner: Grand Prix, 2012 Cannes Film Festival.  

Caesar must die.  A stripped-back production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. The directors  Paolo & Vittoria Taviani filmed key scenes from the play in the high-security wing of Rome’s Rebibbia jail.

Tickets are now on sale from Hoyts. Further information is available at http://nzff.co.nz/christchurch or contact Cinerama@xtra.co.nz

Cartolina 1 and 6 August

We meet Rachel Priestley, Wellington-based wine and food consultant, and importer of Italian fine wine and food. Rachel spent many years in Italy helping establish cafes and restaurants, so she has much to tell about her experience, both personally and professionally. We play Spunta la luna dal monte, by Bartoli e Tazenda, Dolce Italia by Eugenio Finardi, and Pianoforte e voce by Teresa De Sio.

Cartolina 6 June

Italian structural engineer Stefano Pampanin is a professor at the University of Canterbury. He’s been very involved with the Christchurch earthquakes, as well as following the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake very closely. Now Stefano has been made president of the New Zealand Society for EarthQuake Engineering, in contact with the same institutions present in all the earthquake-prone countries of the world. We talk about sharing expertise, and what this means for the recovery of Christchurch.

Cartolina 23 &28 May

Luca Quaglia, on the phone from Wellington, talks about his researches and his work with building materials, his interest in astronomy, and the little village in the Italian Prealpi where he comes from (via Parigi…)

Cartolina 9 & 14 May

Interview with Paul Elenio, on the phone from Wellington, who talks of the just released revised edition of his book Alla fine del mondo at the end of the world, about Italian immigration to Wellington and the Bay of Islands.

Cartolina 25 & 30 April

Rosemary at San Michele Memorial

Rosemary Mannering talks about her trip in Italy, where she enjoyed small-village adventures, and followed her late father's track during World War 2.

Cartolina 11 & 16 April

Interview with Alan Poletti, about his book "A second life", detailing an episode of World War 2, that happened on the 12th of September 1943, near the village of Villa di Tirano, in the Italian Alps.

Cartolina 28 March & 2 April - Lorenzo Buhne

Lorenzo Buhne and his new CD of New Zealand poetry

Information at www.wildiron.org

Camping Card Sicilia

We have received and circulate the following information about the Camping Card Sicilia.

• Cardholders are offered a special rate of  €17 a night at camping grounds in Sicily.  The offer is for 1-2 people with a campervan or a caravan and car and includes electricity.
  
• Younger travellers (up to 24 years of age) pay €10 a night.
  
• For those who prefer accomodation in a bungalow or mobile home the rate is €50.

More information is available at http://www.faitasicilia.it/offerte/documenti/42.pdf

Cartolina 18 & 23 January - "Tremolandia: whose idea was it?!"

Massimiliano Capocaccia, Federico Tomasetto and Denis Walker have prepared the English version of the children’s story Tremolandia, written in Italy to help Italian children cope with the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake; the English booklet is going to be published as a non profit venture, and distributed to Christchurch schools free of charge.