Category: Music
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Catania’s Teatro Massimo Bellini
Named for Sicily’s favorite musical son, the opera composer Vincenzo Bellini, Catania’s Teatro Massimo Bellini hosts everything from orchestral concerts and opera to folk concerts and performances by pop legends. For example, Sicily’s other favorite musical son, Franco Battiato, will be showcasing here on May 30. The house seats 1200, and since its opening in…
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Inhale the Countryside
You could spend your summer vacation with us in this splendid countryside of Sicily, where we’ll be staying for both our Music & Revelry in Sicily tour (July 13-20) and part of our Stirring Sicily cooking experience (September 7-14). Learn about of the details at http://experiencesicily.com. Let’s talk!
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Teatro Massimo’s Gilded Echo Chamber
Teatro Massimo, Palermo’s opera house that opened in 1897, is a master work of Greek and Roman inspired architecture designed by Giovan Battista Filippo Basile (1825-1891). The interior frescoes of the theater were painted by artists Rocco Lentini, Ettore De Maria Bergler, Michele Cortegiani, and Luigi Di Giovanni, who likely brushed this detail I photographed…
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How You Play The Drum
This is Alfio Antico’s drum. Close up. He made it and carved it himself. In person, it is sturdy and heavy, so much so that only someone of his strength could play it. When we visited with him in the hills near where he grew up in Sicily, he talked about the Great Mother: Earth.…
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Experience Sicily Through Music
As a musician, I always look for ways to connect with other musicians while in Sicily. During our Savoring Sicily tour last September, we enjoyed a private concert by these gifted young men from Favara. They were all first- and second-year college students studying different fields, and so talented! We had such fun with them.…
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Meet Alessandro
Meet Alessandro Castro, a master accordion player and singer who calls himself “Il Carrettiere di Erice,” or the Cart Driver of Erice. Alessandro specializes in performing Sicilian and Neopolitan songs. You can find him in front of the Castello di Venere at the top of Mount San Giuliano in Erice. I was fortunate enough to…
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Dancing in the Hall of Mirrors
Tarantella anyone? Villa Palagonia, a band featuring guitarist Joe Ravo, bassist Greg Maker, percussionist Dave Mancuso, and me, Allison Scola, on vocals, clarinet, guitar, and frame drums, will be performing this coming Wednesday, Nov. 2 at 7PM in New York City at Rockwood Music Hall, Stage 3 (185 Orchard Street). We invite you to come…
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Savoring Sicily, Day 8: Friends Make Me Rich
I promised our guests that they’d meet friends along the way, and today, Day 8 of Savoring Sicily, we certainly did! My heart is so full after a day meeting old friends and new who hosted us in the most wonderful ways… Through song, food, and wine! I want to gush and gush! I’ll try…
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Fields of Gold
When I met the music duo Fratelli Mancuso in Sutera, their hometown, they told me that when they were boys, they played on this hillside.