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Giacomo Puccini January 2010 Events in Lucca

Giacomo Puccini January 2010 Events in Lucca

TUTTI I LUNEDI’, MARTEDI’ E MERCOLEDI’ DEL MESE /EVERY MONDAY, TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY OF THE MONTH
SPECIAL CONCERTS
“PUCCINI AND MOZART”
(always with different performers and programmes)

TUTTI I VENERDI’ DEL MESE – EVERY FRIDAY OF THE MONTH

MOZART & PUCCINI
Arie e duetti da/arias and duets from LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, COSI’ FAN TUTTE, DON GIOVANNI, MADAMA BUTTERFLY, LA BOHEME, TOSCA

TUTTI I SABATO DEL MESE – EVERY SATURDAY OF THE MONTH

UNA NOTTE ALL’OPERA/A NIGHT AT THE OPERA
Arie e duetti dal repertorio lirico di Puccini, Verdi, Leoncavallo, Donietti, Mascagni ed altri/arias and duets from the Italian operatic repertoire

TUTTE LE DOMENICHE DEL MESE – EVERY SUNDAY OF THE MONTH

PUCCINI E LA CANZONE TRADIZIONALE NAPOLETANA – PUCCINI & THE NEAPOLITAN TRADITIONAL SONGS

and
Mercoledì/Wednesday 27th JANUARY 2009, AT 21.15 – BASILICA DI SAN GIOVANNI
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMADEUS!”
special gala performance with
arias, duets and trios from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s masterworks
on Mozart’s 254th birthday

Tuscany – Christmas in Florence

If you decide to spend your Christmas in Florence, you can lose in the atmosphere of the city, with squares, avenues, side streets and shop windows are bathed in the special atmosphere of lights, colours and Christmas cheer.
Here tourists and visitors can find useful information on the Christmas period.
For example you might start your visit with the nostalgia of the German Christmas market in Piazza Santa Croce until December 20 or you could choose from the wide choice of markets in the Province of Florence. You can admire traditional, mechanised or live Nativity scenes , fascinating for adults and children, in churches, institutes or in the open air. Who is interested in cultural actvities can find the opening times of museums and churches for Christmas and the first week of the New Year. Can choose guided tours as well as a list of activities to do with children are also available.
For a general calender of variety of events, from gospel choirs to charity fairs, from exhibitions to shows and venues for Saint Silvester Night .
For the first time this year it is possible to celebrate the new Year’s Eve together with Bologna: the two cities are now much closer thank to the high speed train that allows passengers to get from Florence to Bologna and back in only 37 minutes.
In cooperation with the municipality of Bologna and Trenitalia there are concerts and special events with artists performing in both cities .
Lastly, there is a wide selection of proposals for your Christmas and New Year parties and dinners, listing restaurants where you can have dinner, but also cafès, pubs and discos , or villas, castles and palaces in or outside Florence.

You can find all informations on : www.firenzeturismo.it

Tuscany – The Viareggio GAMC

In spite of sensational posters for the Futuristi centenary Exhibitions in Milan, Rome and other italian cities during the first part of this year i was too lazy to get on a train and actually check them out. Of course i had bumped into the occasional striking painting in galleries abroad, and the flashing, whiriling colours set in the chaos of urban modernity did call for attention. But male glorification of machinery, the exaltation of the large, fast and powerful, the triumph of technology over nature surely something to be taken in small doses?
The 1909 Manifesto of the movement’s founder Marinetti encompassed virulent rejection of tradition, both political and artistic, comprehensible in a young man in a new century.
“We wont no part of it, the past, we the young and strong Futurists” but he also ranted about the cleansing power of war (igiene del mondo) and indeed Futurismi s often linked with Fascism.
However, stunning full page plates of Umberto Boccioni or Giacomo Balla contained in cofee table tomes with stressful titles such as 100 Paintings to See Before you Die sagge away at me, and i have to admit the aesthetics were powerful. I really wanted to know more. What a stroke of luck then that Viareggio should come to the rescue with a genuinely small dose in the shape of the exhibition Il Futurismo a Viareggio e in Versilia.
A stroll along the promenade, some designer window shopping and an hour in the GAMC (Galleria di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea) wouldn’t take much effort.

GAMC “Lorenzo Viani” Palazzo delle Muse, Piazza Mazzini, Viareggio.
Tel. 0584 581118
Open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 10.00-13.00 and 15.30-19.00
Entrance euro 3,00
More informations on www.gamc.it/

Tuscany – 5th annual Thanksgiving dinner!

Again i want to remind everyone that there isa a free lending library in Lucca!
Yes i know you can’t believe it but it’s true, and it’s been there since 2005. I’d like to invite everyone who is interested to use the “melograno Lending Library” part of the local circoscrizione library situated in San leonardo in Treponzio which ha san extensive section dedicated to books in English started in february 2005.
The books at the library are all donations and there are almost 1400, mostly fiction and biographies as well as dvd’s and VHS in english and many italian books. It works as a regular library does. Borrowing books is free and they can be kept for up to a month. Many of us expats are using its services but we would like to see an increase. Feel free to bring in any books you would like to donate.
See bottom of article for opening hours and address! Activities are occasionally organized at the library in english, thanksgiving dinners, wine tasting etc.
Again for the fith year we’ll be celebrating Thanksgiving thursday November 26th with all the traditional trimings at the restaurant L a Cantina di Alfredo in Colognora di Compito.

Desco in Lucca

Il “DESCO” in italian it’s a rather elegant, literaty way of saying “table”.
Not table as in four-legged piece of furniture, but rather table as in “the pleasures of the table”. Or put another way, “enogastronomia” and try saying that without salivating.
For the seriously food and wine-addicted, Lucca’s annual celebration of the table returns to the Real Collegio on 14th novembre and then runs every weekend into december. This year we are promised guided tastings, cookery workshops, special guests, musical entertainment, and the active participation of Lucca’s restaurants, (look out for a new guide “I Pellegrini del Gusto”) as well as the usual full range of local produce from arond the region.
Not be missed. More on what to expert in the estende solida weekend programme for 5-8 december in next month’s Grapevine (featuring “Lucca Slow” devoted to the Slow Food campaign and also the now annual invasion of the Scots) but here are some highlights to look out for in november.

14/15 november
Tasting of Colline Lucchesi and Montecarlo red wines; children’s coockery workshop making “i biscotti della Befana”, cookery demonstration by restaurant Gli Orti di Via Elisa; quick course in wine-tasting;
AML and Frog ballet present Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring”.

21/22 november
Tasting of Colline Lucchesi and Montecarlo red wines; i “tordelli lucchesi” presentation by the International Academy of Italian Cuisine in Lucca; cookery demonstration by the Resaturant L a Tenuta di San Pietro; introducing the organic wines;
Special guest: Azienda Agricola Matteucci, tasting a new olive oil www.aziendaagricolamatteucci.com
Dance spectacular by Fuoricentro Danza

28/29 november

French wine tasting featuring fine wines from Burgundy; olive oil and bread/olive oil and fish presentations by the International Academy of Italian Cuisine in Lucca; cookery demonstration by restaurant Il Botton d’Oro of San Lorenzo a Vaccoli; and everything you ever wanted to know about cocktails!
Concert by the Scuola di Musica of Borgo a Mozzano; etno/pop/jazz concert by the band 5 km a Sud.

Entrance is free, for the detailed programme in full, see the site: www.ildesco.eu