Cartolina 2, 16 & 30 July 2014

2 July: Maestro Francesco Pasqualetti is the Italian Conductor for the coming season of La Boheme, and Sharolyn Kimmorley is the Chorus Director. They talk about preparing an opera and about this production. La Boheme is at the CBS Arena on July 15, 16 and 18.

7 July: Maestro Francesco Pasqualetti is the Italian Conductor for the coming season of La Boheme. He talks about his career and about this production.

16 and 21 July: Italian Postcards: Cartolina co-producer Denis Walker, just returned from his Italian winter break, tells about staying in San Lorenzo in Roma, visiting exhibitions, and his discoveries underground.

from the exhibition Terraemota by Ricardo Monachez

30 July: Gianfranco Ugazzi, Secretary General of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in New Zealand, tells about the activities of the ICCNZ, an active link between the business worlds of both Countries.

As usual all programmes are available via internet live or in podcast from http://plainsfm.org.nz

Cartolina producers Wilma Laryn and Denis Walker wish you all: Buon ascolto!

Cartolina 4 & 18 June 2013

4 June: an unsolved murder in a small village of the Italian Alps, and its chronicler. Giulia Depentor, now established in Auck-land, tells the story and her involvement in writing about it. We play a seasonal Autunno, from Vivaldi’s Quattro Stagioni ..

18 June: why study the Italian language? Ivana Bilkova and Lucy Grey are two students from the Christchurch Dante classes. Both have strong feelings about Italy: it’s the places, it’s the language? We listen to their views and their favourite Italian songs. For information on the Dante classes, check www.dante.org.nz/chch

Cartolina 7 & 21 May 2014

Cartolina 7 May and 21 May: Nidi d’Arac is a music group from Salento, the south most part of Apulia. They present century-old folk songs, based on the tradition of the “tarantate”, women bitten by the tarantula, in a modern, almost acoustic style. Their haunting, hypnotic rhythms are unforgettable. The group featured in the last Womad festival.  

Cartolina 9 & 23 April 2013

Cartolina in April:

9 April: we talk with Carolina Izzo and Lucia Dori. Carolina, the head of the restoration project of the beautiful painted dome of the Isaac Theatre Royal, updates us on the current stage of the works, and why the canvas are in a boat yard in Sumner at the moment. Lucia is a renowned restorer from Florence, here to work on the same project. She’s left behind a Botticelli’s tondo, her latest work in Italy.

23 April: Pat Unger, the biographer of New Zealand painter Bill Sutton (who’s worked extensively in Italy), is updating her book for a new edition. She’s come across the name of a goof friend of Sutton’s in Italy, a Dr Padovan from Venice, and wondered if he was still alive. The search for information about Padovan has involved people on both sides of the Equator; this is the story.

Cartolina 26 March 2013 :La cucina sotto l'arco

26 March: the cooking school in the donkey stables are the latest expansion of Gayle Hopkins’ offerings in the Abruzzi village of Vittorito (1000 inhabitants). It’s called La cucina sotto l’arco. Info on  www.viasanrocco34.com

Cartolina 12 March 2014

Christine Evans Millar spent her extended holiday in Italy, based in Bologna (photo from her terrace). She tells us how city life has more nouances than the postcards show.