Our speaker, Joseph Colagiovanni, will present Current Events and Developments in Italy.  Mr. Colagiovanni, vice-consul for the Italian Government in St. Louis, is a partner with Bryan, Cave, LLP, as well as adjunct professor at Washington University Law School where he teaches Development and Construction Law.  Mr. Colagiovanni holds a B.A. from Brown University and a Juris Doctorate from Boston University School of Law.

ITALIAN HERITAGE AWARD

During the June meeting, the 1999 Italian Heritage Award will be presented posthumously to Mr. Ersil Rolfi for his outstanding service to the community. 
Etta Rolfi will accept the award on behalf of her late husband.

The sights Henry Shaw saw in Italy, particularly the Roman Forum and the Arch of Titus, influenced the many archways that were placed in the park.  Mock ruins made from remnants of the Lindell Hotel were located in the park after Shaw's visit to Pompeii.  The lions situated at Grand Avenue are copies of the Lions of Pope Clement XIII at Villa de Medici.  The pedestrian entrance to the park was influenced by the gardens of Villa Borghese. Numerous other Italian gardens, such as the gardens of Pompeii, Villa Pia, Boboli, Tivoli, and Villa Adriana gave Shaw many ideas for the gardens he created. 

John Karel will lead a Tour of Tower Grove Park for members and friends of the Italian Club on Sunday, June 27.  The tour will begin at 3:00 PM and will be approximately two hours long.  It will emphasize sites with Italian influence, such as the Palm House and the false ruins.  We will meet at the Director's residence at 4274 Magnolia, at Magnolia and Tower Grove Avenues, directly across from the Baptist Church parking lot.  Light refreshments (wine, cheese, fruit, etc.) will be served at the end of the tour.

In the context of the grave political crisis following World War I, from which Italy had emerged victorious but economically ruined, the country underwent a series of political and social unrest that the weak government of the period was unable to control.  One remnant of the war was however resolved with the Treaty of Rapallo (1920) by which Dalmatia went to the new State of Yugoslavia (formed from the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) and Italy's possession of Istria was confirmed.  Fiume was also declared a free town but was annexed by Italy only three years later with a specific agreement between Italy and Yugoslavia.

In this period were founded a number of political parties:  Partito Popolare (1919), by Luigi Sturzo, as a continuation of the Democrazia Cristiana; Partito Comunista d'Italia (1921, at Leghorn), from a split with the Partito Socialista, led by Antonio Gramsci; and, finally, the Fasci di Combattimento of Benito Mussolini, previously a socialist leader and an ardent interventionist.  This latter movement, after having obtained 35 deputies in the 1921 election, transformed itself into the Partito Nazionale Fascista equipped with a revolutionary program that, after the episode of the Marcia su Roma of 28 October 1922, brought Mussolini to the head of a government. 
After obtaining a parliamentary majority in the 1924 election and passing a law increasing the powers of the head of government the following year, the Fascist dictatorship formally began in 1926 with the abolition of all other political parties.  By such means Mussolini, both on the national and international level, was able to expand without any further formal hindrance.  In 1929, following the Concordato with the Catholic Church, he also managed to gain the support (or at least not the hostility) of the Church itself and through this the Catholic masses, which were equivalent to the majority of Italians.  Such consensus increased also because of an undoubted improvement in the country's economic condition and a policy of social reform involving the poorest classes.

The continuation of land reclamation, already begun in the previous century even before the unification, increased the amount of land under cultivation with a satisfactory level of basic provisions.  Examples of these initiatives can be found in the battaglia del grano (grain battle) and the draining of the agro pontino, which produced an entirely new piece of agricultural territory.  At the same time, industry was being brought up to date and developed, especially after the world economic crisis of 1929. 

The Istituto Mobiliare Italiano was created in 1931 to provide credit for industry and the Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale (1933) began the era of public intervention in large-scale industrial reform.

In its external policy the Fascist regime especially sought prestige by further colonial expansion, as that into Ethiopia (1935-36) or participation in the Spanish Civil War on the side of Franco's forces.  Gradually, Italy's good relations with France, Britain and the Soviet Union (whose revolutionary government Italy was the first country to recognize) deteriorated, while her links with Hitler's Germany increased (Rome-Berlin Axis, 1936).  In 1939 the Pact of Steel with Germany, after an initially non-belligerent phase, inevitably dragged Italy, in 1940, into the tragic events of the Second World War (1939-45).

Italy's increasingly unsuccessful war, fought on many fronts and against better trained and equipped armies, overwhelmed Mussolini in 1943, when he was censured by his own party.  He was replaced as head of government by the Marshall Pietro Badoglio, who immediately signed an armistice with the allied powers (8 September 1943).  The formation of a new government by Mussolini in Northern Italy, the Repubblica Sociale Italiana based at Salò, with the support of Germany and in opposition to the monarchical government (temporarily based at Brindisi) provoked a civil war.  This was brought to an end by the intervention of the allied armies, the formation of the partisans, the abdication of the king, and, ultimately, the death of Mussolini.

After an interlude with several national coalition governments and the provisional rule of Umberto II of Savoy, Alcide De Gasperi of the Democrazia Cristiana became President of the Council.  On 2 June 1946 the results of the institutional referendum brought to an end the monarchy of the House of Savoy (its last king, Umberto II, going into exile) and heralded the republic which was officially proclaimed on 18 June 1946.  Enrico De Nicola was elected as the Republic's first President.  Under the government led by De Gasperi, the first parliamentary assembly to be freely elected by the people began work on the new Constitutional Charter that was to come into force on 1 January 1948. 
 

While growing up in Florence in the 1930s and 1940s, Luca is befriended by a group of haughty English ladies nicknamed scorpioni, for their stinging wit.  When the war breaks out, all stay in Italy thinking that no harm can come to them because Lady Hester (Maggie Smith) once drank tea with Mussolini. 

The film is worth seeing for the magnificent sceneries and cast.

July 21
The Millennium.  Presentation by Rev. Benedict T. Viviano, OP, Ph.D., Professor of Biblical Studies, University of Frieburg, Switzerland.

August 18
A Tour of a Roman Forum.  A slide presentation by Kevin Herbert, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Classics, Washington University.

September 15
Vicenza, città del Palladio.  A slide presentation by Luisa Gabbiani Flynn, MA., editor of La Rondine.

October 20
Italian Opera.  Vito Tamboli, Adjunct Professor, St. Louis University. 

November 17
The Mario Lanza Story.  Gerald Early, Ph.D., Professor of English and African and Afro-American Studies, Department of Arts and Sciences, Washington University.
 

Aventuroso¹ carcere soave,

dove né per furor né per dispetto,

ma per amor e per pietà distretto²

la bella e dolce mia nemica m’have³;

gli altri prigioni⁴ al volger de la chiave

s’attristano, io m’allegro:  ché diletto

e non martir, vita e non morte aspetto

né giudice sever né legge grave,

ma benigne accoglienze, ma complessi⁵

licenziosi, ma parole sciolte

da ogni fren, ma risi, vezzi e giochi;

ma dolci baci, dolcemente impressi

ben mille e mille e mille e mille volte;

e, se potran contarsi, anche fien⁶ pochi.

¹ (Nel senso di “pieno di promesse”).  ² imprigionato.  ³ mi ha (nel senso di mi tiene, mi segrega).  ⁴ prigionieri. ⁵ abbracci.  ⁶ saranno comunque pochi.

Giambattista Tiepolo sposò Cecilia Guardi, sorella dei pittori Francesco e Giannantonio Guardi, e da lei ebbe due figli, Giandomenico e Lorenzo, che l’aiutarono nel dipingere i suoi famosi affreschi.  Dei due il più dotato era Giandomenico (Venezia 1727 - Venezia 1804), anch’egli pittore di grande talento.  Col tempo Giandomenico acquistò il suo stile particolare che si rivelò soprattutto nella scelta dei soggetti.  Infatti mentre il padre dipingeva grandiose scene allegoriche e mitologiche, il figlio preferiva il realismo della vita e dei personaggi di tutti i giorni.  La differenza è molto evidente negli affreschi di Villa Valmarana a Vicenza, dove Giambattista dipinse nella villa principale e Giandomenico nella foresteria. 
 La tela della Crocefissione è stata attribuita dapprima a Giandomenico, poi a Gianbattista, e più recentemente a tutti e due, cioè è il frutto della collaborazione tra padre e figlio e rivela elementi stilistici sia dell’uno che dell’altro.
 
 

 L’opera è cantata in inglese, come è l’usanza di questa compagnia lirica, ma la produzione è straordinaria, con cantanti eccezionali in costumi suntuosi.  Le rappresentazioni continuano durante il mese di giugno. 

  Chiamate 961-0644 per ottenere ulteriori informazioni.