Cartolina 11 May

Ron Birch tells of his Italian holiday off the beaten track, in Pisciotta, 

a lovely seaside village where sunsets come with lovely food and songs.

Cartolina 13 and 18 April, and 27 April and 2 May

In these two programmes we present the music of Paolo Conte, the wonderful Italian jazz singer and pianist. We play many of his famous songs, and we read the lyrics in Italian and English verse by verse – a good exercise for language students!

Cartolina 2 and 16 February

Real Italians, with Riccardo Diaferia, Francesco Sarti, Giacomo Paganotti and Tiziana Cristini. They are all postgraduate students from the Milan Polytechnic, in Christchurch for several months to carry out their studies in structural engineering (for which the town obligingly provided a first-rate earthquake…).  The boys were also involved in the soccer matches where the ‘Real Italians’ team shone. In these two programs they talk at length about their impressions of the life in New Zealand and compare them with their life in Italy. We play songs of their choices.

Cartolina 19 & 24 January

Gianmaria Testa, an Italian songwriter presented by Edith Bingenheimer. Inspired by Fabrizio de André’s music, Testa developed his peculiar style of finding beautiful poetic words for “protest songs” to describe contemporary issues, and enwrapping them lovingly in wonderful music. The compilation that Edith introduces is called “Da questa parte del mare” (2006), and has received the TARGA TENCO as best Italian album of the year 2007. 


The songs are wholly focused on a single topic; they are like a poetic meditation, unbiased and non-demagogic reflections, on recent years’ mass migrations.

Cartolina 5 and 10 January

We dedicate this program to La Befana, with poems and children’s songs, from a disc called L’arca di Noè -Noah’s ark . It was specially made in 1972 for children with songs written by Vinicius de Moraes, the composer of the famous bossa nova brasiliana The Girl from Ipanema. The songs are of course about animals, and are sung by Vinicius de Moraes, Sergio Endrigo, Marisa Sannia, Ricchi e Poveri, and the Plagues.

Cartolina 22 & 27 December

Alison Ryde, a Christchurch painter who calls Montefalco in Umbria home. Alison tells us of her life and work in Montefalco, where also her children and grandchildren live, and how she’s been requested to paint the City banner, paraded during the summer festival.

If you want to know more on Alison and her Italian life, check the website: www.ryde.it If you are interested in what Alison’s children and their Italian families are doing, visit www.montefalcomob.com

We play Christmas songs, sung by Italian tenor Giuseppe di Stefano.