Articles by: Natasha Lardera

“A for effort.” It is a saying, right? A way to acknowledge someone for having tried to do something, even if it was not successful. It is used quite often to give a positive spin to something that was a bit iffy, as is the case with this story.

“The story revolves around two characters, Antonietta and Gabriele, neighbors in the same apartment complex, but strangers until they meet accidentally on May 8, 1938, the day when Hitler visited Rome to meet premier Mussolini. She is an overworked housewife, mother of six children, and married to a dedicated fascist party official who takes her for granted. Although she has a devotion to Mussolini, Antonietta elects to stay home in order to catch up on her chores. Gabriele is a former radio broadcaster who was fired by the regime when it was discovered he was a homosexual. They are worlds apart but get to know each other during the course of the day when the rest of the building’s residents are at the rally. She doesn’t know about his sexuality and assumes that he is pursuing her. He, on the other hand, is simply waiting for the inevitable; a knock on the door from the Italian police who will take him to the confino or internal exile—the fate of those opposed to the regime or an embarrassment to it. Despite some incomprehension a close friendship and an understanding develops between them.

The story is a private drama played out against the backdrop of a great public event that marked a high point of fascist propaganda. It was a day in which Rome was adorned with swastikas and fasces and thousands of Romans turned out to witness the parade of military and party organizations. For one day at least, it appeared as if all of Rome was united behind its Duce in greeting the visitor from Germany.” (Dr. Paul Baxa)

The film is Una Giornata Particolare, A Special Day, by Italian director Ettore Scola. It starred Sophia Loren in the role of Antonietta and Marcello Mastroianni in that of Gabriele. The film, released in 1977, won a Golden Globe as Best Foreign Language Film, was nominated to two Academy Awards (Best Actor in a Leading Role and Best Foreign Language Film), in Italy it won 3 Nastro D'Argento for Best Actress, Music and Script and 2 Davide di Donatello for Best Actress and Best Director and in France it was nominated for the Golden Palm at the 1977 Cannes Film Festival. Is this enough recognition to prove that the film was a masterpiece?

So as it often happens to masterpieces they are revisited, reworked, told in a different key, and A Special Day is no exception. A Mexican theater company Por Piedad Teatro, in collaboration with the American The Play Company presented Working on A Special Day, a theatrical adaptation of the film that has had a pretty successful run at 59E59 Theaters. The adaptation was completed by Gigliola Fantoni.

Working on A Special Day was first developed and adapted for the stage in Spanish by two of Mexico’s most prominent theater artists, Laura Almela and Daniel Giménez Cacho, then The Play Company/Por Piedad Teatro developed the actual English language production, directed and performed by Ana Graham and Antonio Vega.

“If you haven't seen the movie,” the play's stars said in a public statement “we suggest you add it to your Netflix queue. We think you'll like it. We did, to the point of wanting to do an English-language version here in New York. A Mexican/American collaboration on an Italian story might seem a bit odd if not for the fact that theater is all about imagination. Let's pretend we are Italians and that we're speaking Italian. Let's pretend 59E59 Theaters is an apartment building in Rome. Let's pretend it's May 8, 1938; Mussolini is in power and Hitler is visiting Rome today. Let's pretend we are happy about it. And then let us put some questions into your mind: is fascism over? Is it a political regime or a state of mind?”

With the house lights still on, the two actors, a man and a woman begin to undress and trade their regular clothes for costumes. They are surrounded by black walls and barely any furniture. So they go about creating a world for themselves. They pull props from a shopping cart and start to draw on the walls with chalk: they create windows, a bird cage, a portrait, a hanging lamp. The empty space becomes a Roman apartment in 1938. Yes, you have to use your imagination which is a rule of theater but sometimes the process becomes a bit too cartoonish (Gabriele smokes by the window so the actor draws smoke on the blackboard) which seems a bit out of tune with the tone of Antonietta and Gabriele's story.

“Watching the play, with its fast pace, crack timing and almost whimsical inventiveness, you’re more likely to think of farce than of fascism. I’d love to see what Mr. Vega and Ms. Graham could do with a comedy,” Rachel Salts writes in her review for the New York Times. Not just the drawing alone, but other elements as well tend to translate the dramatic story of Antonietta and Gabriele into a comedy. The forced Italian accent, already stained by a thick Mexican one, is at times painful as is the expected presence of the usual Italian stereotypes. These might have worked in a different type of story, while they tend to ridicule this one. This is a story set during the heyday of the fascist regime, and while Mussolini attempted to create a totalitarian society, alternative private worlds continued to exist and were effected by the regime.

“It is always great to see that international theater groups are interested in Italian theatrical texts. And this specific one is simply amazing,” Laura Caparrotti, founder and artistic director of KIT, Kairos Italy Theater said. “The only thing that perplexes me every single time is that the English translation always seems a bit too superficial. It should not be hard in this moment of globalization. Falling into stereotypes is something worth trying to avoid. Our company, and others just like us, always try to escape that but by watching things out there unfortunately we see that stereotypes abound and they even are pretty popular.”

This explains the “A for effort;” great story, good acting and an admirable attempt to tell an Italian story that may have gotten a bit lost in translation.

Along with their suitcases, immigrants in the 1900's brought to America a passion for Opera, and this helped them adjust in a new country but also to introduce this special art form in a foreign place.

This is the premise of Little Opera, a charming documentary by French director Louis Wallecan produced by Bel Air Media and France Television. The US premiere of the 55 min. film, held at the Di Menna Performing Arts Center, was followed by a round table discussion featuring conductor and artistic director of New York Grand Opera, Vincent La Selva, editor in chief of Opera News, F. Paul Driscoll, opera director, Thaddeus Stressberger, film director, Louis Wallecan and Midge Woolsey, WQXR midday host. The program included Neapolitan musical interludes by acclaimed tenor Luigi Boccia, who was also featured in the documentary, and pianist Dan Saunders. The juxtaposition of film, conversation, song, and interpretive readings made for an unexpected, considered, and intellectually stimulating evening.

Little Opera “is the tale of the voyage from Sicily to New York of four renowned families for whom opera has always been a source of pride and an essential component of their cultural heritage. In this documentary the Coppolas, Alagnas, Marianis and Amatos speak of the way opera intertwined with their journey, giving a fascinating account of the story of many Italians in New York throughout the early 20th century. This film's subject has three universal themes: family, immigration and the power of music.

“I grew up in France,” the film's director said at the screening, “and I was surrounded by Italian music and the influence of Italian culture was pretty strong. At first I was really interested in Giuseppe Verdi, the subject of my first film, and then I wanted to work on something that portrayed the influence of music and Italy on people's lives. In this film I show how culture helped immigrants build their own identity in a foreign country, a country where they could somehow feel at home if they brought back something from home with them.”

“Opera has always been a source of pride for Italians living abroad,” tenor Luigi Boccia said to i-Italy, “Many always have considered Opera the most complex art form because of the combination of music, history, language, singing, acting, dancing, scenes, costumes etc. It always has been refreshing for immigrants of the first migratory wave, often labeled as simple and uneducated, to refer to Opera as a manifestation of what their native country has been able to produce over the centuries in the artistic field.

Furthermore, especially at the turn of the 20th century, Opera had a much broader popular appeal, and the audience was much larger than it is these days. The fact the most of the best singers in the world were Italian or had to sing in Italian was again another 'little moral revenge' for millions of immigrants making their way up the ladder in foreign countries. Artists like Enrico Caruso, who reached a level of world-wide fame and success that has been equaled in modern days only by a fellow Italian, Luciano Pavarotti, were considered national heroes. I recall a conversation with Maestro Coppola where he recounted his trips to the MET with his uncle Mario, a barber from Brooklyn. Sometimes - Coppola recalls - people would make discriminatory comments about Italians or Italian-Americans, and they would hear a reply to their comments: "We have Caruso, who do you have?" I always thought that this punchline summarizes better than 10 books how much Opera meant and means to Italians and Italians abroad and how this art form is engrained in our flesh, blood and way of living our lives. In my personal opinion, there is no art form that has shaped more decisively the cultural identity of Italian communities abroad than Opera, at least for the first half of the 21st century.” Tenor Luigi Boccia hails from Serino, Italy, and began his vocal studies with legendary tenor Gianni Raimondi. He recently completed his artist-in-residence at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. The recepient of several prestigious awards, Luigi as a versatile recitalist at home in repertoire ranging from florid Handel arias to the romantic outpourings of Italian and Neapolitan songs.

“Played on gramophones throughout the urban working-class areas of the City, the melodies of La Traviata, I Pagliacci, Cavalleria Rusticana and the legendary voice of Enrico Caruso carried the fragrance of Italy into their homes of Italian-American immigrants. In a country where Italian was forbidden in school, Opera was the art form that brought this displaced community together, through its stories, imagery, and melodies, allowing Italy's glorious past to be celebrated and dreamed through its song.”

“When I was nine years old, I heard for the first time Vesti la Giubba from I Pagliacci,” Tony Amato, founder and artistic director of Amato Opera Theater said in the documentary, “that's when I realized I wanted Opera to be in my life.” Anthony Amato was born in 1920 in Minori, Campania, immigrated to the US when he was a small child and met his future wife, Sally Amato, while performing in a musical comedy production at the Papermill Playhouse in New Jersey. Together, in 1948, they opened the Amato Opera Theater “with two goals in mind: to perform entertaining opera at a reasonable price; and to give promising singers experience with full-length productions. From artistic director, to conductor, to performing in their own productions, through the years Tony and Sally wore numerous hats to keep the show on the road, or at least in the theater.” (www.pbs.org)

“When I was about nine,” Maestro Anton Coppola said in the documentary, “I heard Faust and that's when I knew I wanted to be involved with Opera.” A celebrated conductor and composer, Maestro Coppola, among other things, has composed Sacco and Vanzetti, an opera in both Italian and English about immigrants Sacco and Vanzetti, has worked as the musical director of six Broadway musicals and conducted two film scores, 1992's The Godfather Part III and 1992's Dracula (Francis Ford Coppola is a member of the family). He appeared in the former, shown conducting Cavalleria Rusticana in the Teatro Massimo of Palermo.

“I was born on Mott Street,” Lorenzo Mariani, then artistic director of the Teatro Massimo of Palermo, “and I was the typical Italian-American kid growing up. I lived above a restaurant and Franco Corelli and other singers would stop there and sing for hours... every night. That's when I decided music was going to be in my life.”

Tenor Roberto Alagna's love story with Opera started at a really young age too, not in the States directly for him but for his family. “Influenced primarily by the films of Mario Lanza, but also from recordings of many historic tenors, he then switched to opera, but remained largely self-taught.” In recent years Alagna has been an advocate of restoring to prominence neglected French operas. Alagna is portrayed giving a really touching interpretation of Vesti La Giubba in Little Opera, that touched the audience viscerally. Vesti La Giubba is the conclusion of the opera's first act, when Canio discovers his wife's infidelity, but must nevertheless prepare for his performance as clown because the show must go on. “I really relate to the character,” Alagna says, “because when you do this job, no matter how you feel, no matter what has just happened to you, you must walk on that stage and perform.”

Everyone in the audience, including Maestro Anton Coppola himself, felt privileged to be part of such an exclusive event. “On Jan. 30th at the Di Menna Center, except for Amato's absence who died a few years ago,” Luigi Boccia concludes, “if felt like a reunion of friends who worked with passion and enthusiasm on a project that turned out to be very fruitful for the Italian-American Community and for Italian Opera lovers.”

And there could be a Little Opera follow up, as some reputable cultural institutions have expressed interest last night in repeating the same format at different venues in NY and other places in the U.S.

Among the several promotional events on Torino that have taken place in New York during the month of December, the Italian Trade Commission hosted a seminar called Why Invest in Torino Piemonte, the intelligent location for your business.


Aniello Musella, the Director of the Italian Trade Commission, welcomed Natalia Quintavalle, the Consul General of Italy in New York, Massimo Giordano, Councillor for Economic Development, Research and Innovation, Giuliana Tedesco, Deputy Mayor for Trade and Economic development, Federico Zardi, Project Manager at Piemonte Agency for Investments, Export and Tourism and Marina Meliga, Managing Director at Avago Technologies, a foreign company that has opened a branch in Piemonte.


“Italy has a strong presence on the American market,” Mr. Musella remarked, “but it must work hard to become more attractive for American investments on Italian territory. Piemonte has been able to establish and maintain close commercial and trade links with neighboring countries and with others further away. It continues to be one of the Italian regions with the highest rate of internationalization of its economy, with exports accounting for about 28% of the regional GDP.”


“Piemonte is one of the most dynamic and innovative regions of Italy,” Hon. Consul Natalia Quintavalle added, “the region has been a hub for major technical innovations from the electric engine in the 19th century, to the MP3 file format, and the common rail for diesel engines.” The region boasts 460,000 companies organized in innovative, flexible and efficient clusters


“Piemonte has an important history and a unique position, right at the center f the system of European development,” Massimo Giordano said, “it is the first Italian region to have established a regional agency dedicated to inward and outward investments and the first to have created a dedicated financial tool for attracting and supporting FDI (Foreign Direct Investment). Over 650 foreign companies (145 of the are American) have chosen to invest in Piemonte which ranks second in Italy in terms of direct investments by foreign companies.”


“In recent decades, Piemonte traditionally the center of the automotive industry, has diversified its own economic structure, directing itself more and more towards sectors tied to the knowledge economy,” Giuliana Tedesco added, “It focuses on R&D activities and invests in strategic sectors such as renewable energy, sustainable mobility, ICT, life sciences, pharmaceutics and healthcare and logistics. In research as in education and training, there are centers and competencies of international standing that underpin the consolidation of an increasingly knowledge-based economy and society. 20% of the entire R&D expenditure of Italian companies is concentrated in Piemonte, fueling innovation and enabling the commercial system to leave its mark on the world market of cutting-edge products.”


Among the major players in the worldwide economy we find companies, all founded in Piemonte, such as Ferrero, Fiat, Giugiaro Design, Iveco, Lavazza, L'Oreal, Loro Piana, Martini & Rossi, Pininfarina, Pirelli, Primaindustrie, Telecom Italia and more. These all are companies known for continuous innovation, efficient research, reliable funding and impeccable timing and Piemonte is working hard to attract more.


“Piemonte is the first and only region in Italy to have created and implemented an innovative tool, the Regional Investment Contract, Zardi added, “that gives foreign companies locating in Piemonte guarantees in terms of financial support and time scheduling for the investment and location project, it aims to encourage the arrival and development in Piemonte of new investments from abroad in industry, services and research, to create synergies with the local fabric, and to favor the growth of opportunities for human resources in terms of employment and increase in knowledge, as well as collaboration in the development of positive externalities in the local areas.”



The Regional Investment Contract is managed by Piemonte Agency and is stipulated between the region and the Company, it provides the drafting and implementation of the Contract, and assists the foreign company through the entire negotiation phase. Piemonte Agency is a one-stop shop for companies that have an investment in Piemonte. It gives the investor guarantees in terms of financial support and time scheduling for the project.


For more information: www.investintorinopiemonte.org

This is the story of three men: “three humble and accomplished master tailors who create masterpieces of elegance and style to clothe the human body,” fashion editor turned documentary director Vicki Vasilopolous writes of her project Men of the Cloth. Their names are Nino Corvato, Checchino Fonticoli and Joe Centofanti and they are survivors in the 21st century, the last representatives of an art from the past.

“Men of the Cloth unravels the complexity of the tailor's artistry and how he crafts a garment

in such a way that it moves and breathes with the person who's wearing it,” the director told i-Italy in an interview. “The film highlights the experiences of these master tailors as immigrant artisans in the U.S. and their challenging roles in the twilight of their career. My goal is to honor the legacy of these master tailors for a younger generation.”

This film is a labor of love that has taken over ten years to make and it contrasts the lives of Nino Corvato in New York and Joe Centofanti in Ardmore, PA, who work as traditional small-scale custom tailors, and Checchino Fonticoli, who spent his entire career at the luxury clothing firm Brioni, based in Abruzzo, Italy.

Nino Corvato is originally from Palermo, and moved to the US searching for a better future when he was 20 years old. “Nino worked for many years as a production manager at Brooks Brothers, and even managed a clothing factory in South Korea. But he never lets go of his dream of having his own label, even turning down a lucrative offer to work for designer Donna Karan after helping her launch her menswear line.” He then opened his own shop in Manhattan and today “artisans from six different countries stitch garments for hours on end. Each suit — which requires three fittings and over 60 hours of labor — is as beautiful inside as it is outside, and is invested with pride, dedication and 250 years of collective work experience.”

Cecchino Fonticoli is originally from Penne, in the province of Pescara. He learned his craft in Rome yet when he was 20 he returned to Penne to join the newly opened Brioni clothing factory founded by his cousin, Nazareno Fonticoli. His creations were worn by famous clients “ Luciano Pavarotti, Nelson Mandela, and Pierce Brosnan, as well as countless kings and heads of state.” Cecchino officially retired several years ago, but he continues to consult for Brioni.

Joe Centofanti is a master tailor whose shop is in Ardmore, PA. Joe was always reluctant to retire (he actually sold his business once, but then realized his mistake, and took it back)  because there was no one to take over his craft and clientele. Yet, he took on a young college-educated apprentice, who approached him out of the blue and who learned to make custom suits by hand, thus keeping tradition alive.

Now Vicki is in the final stages of production. She is trying to raise $20,000 for the sound mix, color correction and mastering to HDCAM. To do so she launched a Kickstarter campaign. I-Italy had a chance to ask her a few questions and learn more about the project.

How did you decide to shoot a documentary on this topic and how did you chose the tailors portrayed in it?

I never planned on being a documentary filmmaker. But I always loved movies. I met one of my characters, Checchino Fonticoli, when I traveled to Italy on a reporting trip during my tenure as a fashion editor for DNR, the men’s news magazine that’s now part of Women’s Wear Daily.  Checchino was the head designer and master tailor at Brioni in Penne, Italy – and that sowed the seeds for the idea of the film. About a year later I started doing research and I paid a visit to master tailor Nino Corvato in New York and Joe Centofanti in Ardmore, PA. Both had a reputation as masters of their trade. But the critical aspect for me was their personal background and life story, along with the unwavering passion for their craft. They were also articulate about describing their craft, so people can relate easily to them when they’re on screen. In addition, I saw that there was both contrast (in their career paths and generational outlook) as well as important similarities that I could underscore in the film.

I was intrigued with the challenge of documenting a disappearing craft that is part of the cultural DNA of Italians. 

What compelled you to tell their stories? Do you have any interesting anecdotes you can share?

Men of the Cloth is essentially a human story – it’s about finding your true calling in life -- and that's what makes it universal. As a fashion editor, I saw how our consumer culture promoted so-called “status” clothing. By contrast, my characters embody a tradition that exalts the individual, and values artistry above financial gain.

Making a documentary is full of twists and turns. I thought I was done filming several years ago when I learned that Joe Centofanti had taken on an apprentice. I essentially had to start the film over again: I had to raise more money for production, and making this film turned into a ten-year odyssey. But real life is like that: you have to follow the story where it leads you. And ultimately, I realized that this turn of events would make for a richer, more nuanced film. The lack of apprentices is the central crisis for the perpetuation of this trade, and the reasons for this are complicated, as I explore in the film.

Who is the typical customer of these tailors?

There’s no one type of customer – it could be someone who’s hard to fit anatomically, someone with very discerning taste, someone who loves personalized handmade things – or all of the above. Of course, it’s usually someone with financial means, but it may also be an individual who wants to invest in a suit or jacket that will last him a lifetime and get better with wear.

Do you have an Italian background? What brought you to tell a story with Italian roots?

In my former career as a men’s fashion editor I traveled to Italy on a biannual basis to cover the runway shows in Milan and the Pitti Uomo trade fair in Florence. I fell in love with the culture, which places a premium on an esthetic value system, on artisanship and making things with incredible passion and pride. This soulful approach is compelling, to say the least, and has seduced centuries of travelers to Italy! And, as someone who was born in Greece, and whose father was a craftsman, I discovered a particular affinity that made me feel at home there.

Tell me about the challenges of making this documentary and the decision/need to start a kickstarter campaign.

NIAF provided a few small grants for production in the beginning, but most of the funds have come in the form of small contributions from individuals around the world who love this craft and would like to see these tailors' stories preserved. As a first-time producer/director, it’s been a constant struggle to raise enough funding to properly tell the story and ensure good production values.

On the plus side, I’m thankful for the enormous grass-roots interest in the film that has sustained me and encouraged me to bring this project to fruition.

We spent the last year editing and composing the score, and we now have a completed 96-minute feature film that I’m very proud of. I launched the Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign because we still have to do post-production (the sound mix, color correction and mastering) to get the film ready for film festivals and screening events this spring. It’s an all-or-nothing funding platform, so we have to raise our entire funding goal of $20,000 by December 21st – otherwise we receive none of the pledges made and the campaign will not be funded. We’re offering some special rewards to contributors – DVD’s and posters of the film, VIP invitations to the premiere, and custom-made clothing from our sponsors: http://kck.st/RZGT69