Italian Ambassador to Manila Marco Clemente (PNA file photo by Yancy Lim)
MANILA – Italy is bringing a Giacomo Puccini piece this coming March in a Tondo covered court -- a unique venue for an opera performance -- as a way to further bridge the two countries culturally and make access to the Italian art form easier for Filipinos, especially the youth.
The Manila Symphony Orchestra (MSO) will perform the Italian composer’s Gianni Schicchi, a one-act comic opera based on a passage of Dante’s Inferno.
The free performance for Tondo residents will be part of the multi-month-long Italian culture festival in the Manila district, which also includes an Italian language class and an Italian drama workshop for the youth.
In a press conference on Thursday, Italian Ambassador to Manila Marco Clemente said the embassy wants to expose the youth to this form of theatre and at the same time feature Filipino talents hence the MSO.
“Imagine, a hundred artists will move to Tondo doing something which is not easy to do— performing an opera in (this unique venue),” he said.
“I want to promote your artists as a contribution to the future of musical culture in this country. I want to give your opera singers the opportunity to perform,” he added.
The envoy also hopes this initiative would expand beyond the Italian festival and inspire more Filipinos to take an interest in opera.
“I want to expose young people to this and I am confident that they will love it,” he said.
The performance will be held on March 24 at the San Pablo Apostol New Land Parish covered court in Tondo, Manila.
‘Italian language’
In the same presser, Clemente and the Canossa-Tondo Children's Foundation inaugurated a six-month Italian language course for the Tondo youth.
Italy has had a decades-old link to Tondo through the Canossa-Tondo Children's Foundation headed by Fr. Giovanni Gentilin.
For years, the Italian foundation has provided cultural activities and scholarships to about a thousand youth from the district, some of whom were already sent to Italy.
Gentelin said this new language initiative with the embassy would not only broaden opportunities for the initial 29 beneficiaries but also “enrich” their understanding of another culture.
“To learn one language is to enrich ourself, to learn another culture, and to open one's self to the world,” the Italian priest, who himself has learned Filipino language and uses it when delivering his homilies.
Dan Vincent Losabia, an education student at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, said he looks forward to learning Italian and understanding more about the place where his benefactor came from.
The Italian Embassy has been holding various cultural events in the country after the two states celebrated 75 years of diplomatic relations in 2022, the most recent of which was an Italian street food festival also in Tondo. (PNA)
