Italy abroad: July Agenda

Each month around the world, dozens of events are organized by the Italian Cultural institutes abroad and the ICE (Italian Trade Agency). The following is a list of those planned for July: 12 places that describe an Italy of culture, art and business.

Tokyo: shoes Made in Italy at the Belle Salle Shibuya Garden

From 4 to 6 July 2017, the ICE-Agency is organizing the 61st edition of the autonomous Shoes from Italy exhibition at the Belle Salle Shibuya Garden in Tokyo. The event, dedicated to the presentation of the Spring-Summer 2018 collections, aims to support the Italian shoe industry in maintaining its leading role held in the medium-high bracket on the Japanese market and consolidate awareness of the Made in Italy product of quality and lengthy tradition. The event will be held in conjunction with "Moda Italia", a key event for the clothing and leather industries.

Quebec: Pulcinella at the International Festival of Puppetry Arts

The Italian puppet maker Gianluca Di Matteo, internationally renowned master of the Italian traditional interpretation, will take part in the free, externalprogrammingplanned by FIAMS, the International Festival of Puppetry Arts due to take place on 25 July at the Parc de la rivière aux sablesin Jonquiere, Quebec. The Italian Cultural Institute in Montreal is organizing the event. His show Le Guarattelle di Pulcinella, take us to the traditional Neapolitan puppet shows, based on antique Canovaccios dating from the 1600s, where Pulcinella meets and clashes with typical popular theatrical figures (the overbearing person, the wild dog, the hangman and death). Having trained at the Neapolitan school of puppet theater, Di Matteo works with the Italian Cultural Institute and holds theoretical and practical laboratories on the art of puppetry and shadow theater.

New York: Italian businesses at the “MRket Trade Show

Italian businesses on show at the MRket Trade Show in New York. The ICE plans to organize an Italian collective participation at the summer edition of the famous fashion fair in the Big Apple to present the Spring 2018 men's fashion collections. The event will take place in New York from 16 to 18 July 2017. Mrket, exclusively for men's fashion, is organized by UBM, organizer of numerous fairs in the USA and around the world. The event is held twice a year in New York. Its visitors include some of the most important retailers from 47 US states as well as Canada and Australia. The initiative aims to support Italian export in the industry on a strategic market not only from an economic point of view, but above all for its role as fashion trend setter at international level.

Beirut: workshop on restoration, Italians studying the cultural heritage

The ICE-Agency, in collaboration with Assorestauro, is organizing a Workshop in Lebanon due to take place in Beirut from 17 to 21 July 2017 and will be organized as follows: a technical seminar, B2B meetings with Lebanese representatives, visits to museums, archaeological sites and work on site. Lebanon offers significant opportunities to Italian companies in virtue of its historical-cultural heritage: it boast 5 UNESCO sites and is rich in exhibits, sites and monuments dating back to the Iron Age. Taking part in the initiative is an opportunity for Italian companies to get a better idea of the market and meet potential partners involved in the main restoration projects; it will also be possible to hold demonstrations during visits to the sites in order to illustrate the effectiveness of their products and technology.

Paris: Italian immigration, the "Ritals" land at the Cultural Institute

The "Ritals" Italian immigrants in France as they were referred to in 'jargon', land at the Italian Culture Institute in Paris. For the Italian week organized by the 13th arrondissement, up until the 4 July, the Institute is planning events around the topic of Italian immigration in France in the after war years. Fabio Gambaro, director of the Italian Cultural Institute will be speaking with Sophie Chiarello and Tonino Benacquista, creators of the documentary 'Ritals' which recalls the integration of their parents into French society at that time. Ritals is an autobiographical documentary that follows the story of Maria and Vincenzo, the director's parents, and their family which, towards the end of the 1950s emigrated from Salento to the Paris suburbs.

Amsterdam: Italian summer at the cinema with Rai

From 14 July onwards, a festival of the best films by internationally renowned directors recently produced for Rai Cinema will be aired at the Italian Cultural Institute in Amsterdam. The showing of "Qualcosa di nuovo" (2016) by Cristina Comencini, with Paola Cortellesi, Michaela Ramazzotti,and Eduardo Valdarini will open the event. Wednesday 19 July will, on the other hand, be the turn of “Mister Felicità” (2017) by Alessandro Siani. Friday 21 the festival will continue with "Tommaso" by Kim Rossi Stuart with Cristiana Capotondi, while Wednesday 26 will be the turn of "Smetto quando voglio - Masterclass" (2017) by Sydney Sibilia. Friday 28 July will be the turn of “Questi giorni” (2016) by Giuseppe Piccioni with Margherita Buy and Friday 4 August “Al posto tuo” by Max Croci. The initiative will continue with "La verità sta in cielo" (2016) by Roberto Faenza, "Un paese quasi perfetto" (2016) by Massimo Gaudioso and "Fiore" by Claudio Giovannesi.

Pretoria: Filippo Adami performs "La Traviata"

The Italian tenor Filippo Adami will play Alfredo in the new production of La Traviata being shown in Pretoria, at the Brooklyn Theatre (C/o Thomas Edison and 13th Streets, Menlo Park) from 26 July to 6 August 2017. The show, presented by Brooklyn Theatre in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute in Pretoria, is the complete work of Giuseppe Verdi with English subtitles, with the Brooklyn Theatre Salon Ensemble conducted by Schalk van der Merwe. The other South African singers include soprano Ilze Coetzee (Violetta) and the baritone Douwe Bijkersma (Germont).

Madrid: Italy at the Festival Internacional de Teatro de Almagro

Italy will take part in the Festival Internacional de Teatro Clasico de Almagro 2017, the international cultural event held each year in Madrid in the month of July and dedicated to classic theater. The Italian Cultural Institute in Madrid will take part in the Festival by presenting Erminia and Julius Caesar, due to take place on 28 and 29 July. Erminia is a work based on the fragments of ‘Jerusalem Delivered' by Torquato Tasso directed by Lucía Vilanova_and Víctor Velasco. The Institute will also put on Shakespeare's Julius Caesar directed by András Visku and Silviu Purcărete.

Prague: Don Giovanni by Lorenzo Dal Ponte at the Clarinet Days

Prague's Clarinet Days and the Italian Cultural Institute in Prague will present the project DON G by Mozart and Lorenzo dal Ponte on the 3 July. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Lorenzo da Ponte ingrained a completely new aspect of Don Giovanni on the collective imagination. While spending a few months as a guest of friends, Mr and Mrs Dušek, at the Villa Bertramka, Mozart composed an opera which gained instant international recognition and which even today is still referred to as the "opera of operas". It was first performed 230 years ago (1787) at the Nostitz Theater (current day Stati Theater) in Prague and from that moment onwards, the leading figure has always been linked to Prague.
The modern leaning of the famous opera with the use of clarinets with different timbres and tones, offers the audience a pleasant and unusual musical experience.

Tirana: Italian Jazz in Albania, concert of the ‘To Bird with Love’ quintet

The Italian Cultural Institute in Tirana together with the CIDIM will take part in the VI edition of the International Festival JAZZinAlbania with two concerts by the quintet To Bird with Love: Italo D’Amato (baritone sax), Jorge Ro (trumpet and flugelhorn), Raffaele Pallozzi (piano), Paolo Trivellone (double bass), Roberto Desiderio (drums). The event is scheduled for 20 July at the Hotel Rogner, in Tirana, and 21 July at Pedonale, Scutari. The "To Bird with Love" quintet is the brainchild of Italo D'Amato devised in 2014 during a training course and master class attended together with Jorge Ro at Columbia College in Chicago. The basic idea is to reassess a repertoire, an almost overrated tempo, but which nowadays modern day Jazz musicians appear to only touch on for training purposes or during jam-sessions: Charlie "Bird" Parker's repertoire, both his original compositions as well as pieces composed by other writers but which the Genius of Kansas City often played.

Lisbon: Pippo's 'Gospel' at the 34th Theater Festival in Almada

Saturday 15 July in Lisbon, as part of the 34th Theater Festival in Almada and with the support of the Italian Cultural Institute in Lisbon, Pippo Delbono's "Gospel" performance will take to the stage. Iconoclasm, satire and parody to scream denial of freedom, focus on evaluation errors, irrationality, closure and rules that exclude and prohibit and which stem more from the church than from the gospel itself. Delbono stages the human arm, desperate yet unbeatable. Love that goes beyond death. The sense of belonging which overcomes the constraints of place and time through fondness and passion. It moves forward making the most of the mechanism of fears, examining social and cultural conditionings. The show is in Italian and Croatian, with subtitles in Portuguese featuring Gianluca Ballarè, Bobò, Margherita Clemente, Pippo Delbono, Ilaria Distante, Simone Goggiano, Mario Intruglio, Nelson Lariccia, Gianni Parenti, Alma Prica, Pepe Robledo, Grazia Spinella, Nina Violić, Safi Zakria, Mirta Zečević, and with the appearance in the film of refugees from the PIAM refugee center in Asti.

London: the beauty of Italy through the eyes of foreign correspondents

The beauty of Italy and Italy's talent through the eyes of foreign correspondents. The initiative comes thanks to the Italian Cultural Institute in London which will present the books by Maarten van Aalderen “Il bello dell’Italia” and “Talenti d’Italia” on 12 July. Maarten van Aalderen, correspondent in Rome for the Dutch daily newspaper De Telegraaf, has gathered together the impressions of some of his colleagues, foreign correspondents in Rome, on their experiences of daily and professional life in Italy. In his new book Talenti d’Italia he tells 21 stories of artists, businessmen, inventors, scientists, researchers and sports champions who offer their point of view on the Bel paese, amidst great motivation and international recognition. The author will be discussing his book with Philip Willan, president of the Foreign Press Association in Italy.