Experience Sicily

Tag: music

  • Palermo Rising

    This article: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/12/world/europe/palermo-opera-teatro-massimo.html published in yesterday’s New York Times, brought tears to my eyes. It really demonstrates what is going on in Palermo, Italy’s Capital of Culture for 2018. I can’t express enough the wonder and excitement taking place in this vibrant city that has been rising from dark times for the past two and…

  • Friscalettu Duo

    Agrigento’s annual Sagra del Mandorlo in Fiore going on this week attracts groups from all over the globe, who display their traditional costumes along with exhibiting their culture’s beloved traditional music through performances and processions through town. Photographed in 2016 at the Festival by my cousin Filippo Buttitta, these two young men are playing the…

  • A World of Women’s Voices

    This painting by Ettore De Maria Bergler, hangs in Palermo’s Palazzo dei Normanni, the house of the Sicilian Parliament. Titled, “The Ruins of the Temple of Jupiter in Syracuse,” or “I Ruderi del Tempio di Giove di Siracusa,” it was painted in 1891.  Please join me in Middletown, Connecticut this Saturday, June 10 as part…

  • Revel in Music in Sicily this Summer

    Music is everywhere in Sicily. Pictured here are Angelo Salvatore Daddelli (guitar and vocals) and Marco Macaluso (accordion) (Sorry! I don’t know the bass player’s name.) performing for the crowds in Palermo’s Piazza Verdi. You too can make music, perform, and rub elbows with musicians in Sicily–What a great way to experience a new culture…

  • 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…

  • 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.…

  • 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…

  • Join Us in NYC this Tuesday 

    For those of you in the New York City area, please join us for Experience Sicily with Villa Palagonia, Tues., Aug. 30 at 6:30 PM at the Italian American Museum, 155 Mulberry St, New York, NY 10013, $10 Donation. Reservations are encouraged, as space is limited. RSVP, ItalianAmericanMuseum@gmail.com.  Multifaceted guitarist Joe Ravo and multi-instrumentalist and singer…

  • Theater to the Maximum: Teatro Massimo

    After Paris and Vienna, Teatro Massimo is the third largest opera house in Europe (in terms of surface area), and the largest in Italy. Construction of the Giovanni Battista Basile neoclassical design started in 1875 and was completed in 1897 by his son Ernesto. When inside, it feels intimate and elegant. The acoustics are said…