THE REDENTORE FESTIVAL IN VENICE

The Redentore festival is close to the hearts of Venetians, and is celebrated on the third Sunday of July, with a grandiose fireworks show on Saturday night as the main attraction. The Venetians take in the spectacle of the fireworks right from their boats which are usually decorated with balloons, festoons and lights. Starting before sunset, the boats make their way to the Saint’s Mark basin and to the Giudecca Canal. The waters sparkle with the reflection of boats and lights. On the boats, among song, dance and typical food, people wait for the fireworks that begin at 11.30pm and go on for almost an hour. Along the banks thousand of people also wait for the fireworks at long tables set up for the occasion.

The origins of the festival dates back to the horrible plague that devastated Venice between 1575 and 1577. In (more…)

THE HISTORICAL REGATTA

A city on water

The first description of the inhabitants on the lagoon comes from the 6th century AD and was written by the Roman Cassiodoro:

It appears as though you slide across fields with your boats because from afar you cannot discern the canals from the sandbanks… and whilst in other cities you tether animals to the front of the house, you, with your houses of wicker and reed, tether your boats.

Even in those days, the city’s relationship with water was clear. It is a relationship that has distinguished Venice and her inhabitants ever since.

Since the beginning of its history, Venice has lived alongside water and transformed it into its major sources of income: salt extraction, fishing and river and maritime commercial traffic.

Over the centuries the city gradually extended its control of the seas and the ensuing commerce. In fact, the Adriatic was known as the Gulf of Venice.
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EAT AND DRINK IN VENICE APERITIF

      

  SPRITZ

The typical aperitif in Venice is the spritz, made of carbonated water, white wine, lemon peel or olive and as you prefer, bitter Campari, Cynar or Aperol. This beverage is very common also in Hungary, (frocs), Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia and also in Romania, all the territories of ex-Austro-Hungarian kingdom (1867-1918). The story tells us that the Austrians used to drink the venetian wine with water, because it was too strong for them, so the Venetians, added a bit of liquor to give to this drink a new taste. The Austrians called it“spritz” that means injection. The aperitif-time is from 5 p.m., but someone drink spritz in the morning before lunch. Spritz is a very strong beverage, so you take care when you drink it.

 

CHURCH OF THE MADONNA DELL’ORTO IN CANNAREGIO AREA

Church of the Madonna dell’Orto

The Church of the Madonna dell’Orto in Venice was built around the middle of the 15th century by Fra’ Tiberio da Parma and took the name of Madonna dell’Orto due to the ancient picture of the Virgin that was found in a garden nearby and which was then taken to the church. Building on the church lasted for about one century and the result was extremely worthy of note: the façade is still the best example today of Venetian Gothic architecture from the 15th century. The row of niches that were originally galleries that ran down the wings of the building, now hold the statues of the twelve Apostles. Inside there is a nave with no transept and side aisles with chapels that are separated by two rows of Greek marble columns. The picture of the (more…)

FESTA DELLA “SENSA” IN VENICE

This came about principally due to the diplomatic involvement of Doge Sebastiano Ziani.
Pope Alessandro III, as a mark of his gratitude to the city, gave the Doge a blessed ring, pronouncing “Ricevilo in pegno della Sovranità che Voi e i successori Vostri avrete perpetuamente sul Mare” (Receive this ring as a token of sovereignty over the sea that you and your successors will be everlasting). He then imposed the wedding between Venice and the Sea “Lo sposasse lo Mar sì come l´omo sposa la dona per essere so signor” (Marry the sea as a man marries a woman and thus be her Lord).

From this moment, the simple ceremony of the Sensa (N.o.E.) became a major – and very popular – representation of the myth of the Serenissima, “Queen of the Seas”.
Once each year, the Doge would “marry” the Sea, and throw the Blessed Ring into the lagoon as a sign of eternal fidelity.
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VENETIAN MASKS

 

Professional troupes were formed, with regard to the contemporary needs, under protection of northitalian courts in Modena, Mantov, Parma, where the ancestry of Geste, Gonzaga-Nevers, Farnese were traditionally suporting theater.And, above all, in the free atmospere of Venice. The new form of the theater gradually expelled other Italian comedy genres. Even editing a big quantity of bookish comedies did not changed this reality.The novelty of the comedy dell’arte consisted in a profesional organisation, in an accession of women – actresses and, above all, in the way of performing. Meeting of Lombardic troupes with fair performers in vivacious and noisy Neapol had a big influence on this.In the 17th century, the comedy dell’arte was a center not just a theater life, but also a social life.

Stable-base, fixed types (tipi fisis) are one of the specific components of the comedy dell’arte. In the expert terminology, they are called masks (maschere), even if a personage does not use a face mask. Grotesque types show, in caricatured exaggeration, a human attribute, psychical or physical or a combination of both. In the theater, there grew up a range of types observed in real life but also those created by an imagination and without a direct connection with life and era. While creating these types, a decisive factor is a class position of an author and a structure of an audience to which the play is dedicated.

Components of the commedia dell’arte

One of the perceptions from the process of acquainting with the comedy dell’arte is the idea that a performance of the comedy dell’arte was mostly a pantomimic or ballet piece. (This perception arose probably in the 19th century in England, France and Denmark when some comedians played a pantomimic performances with the figures of the comedy dell’arte and used their names without a direct connection.) In reality, performances were lively motional and rich in rapid speech, in plays on words and various phrases.The real comedy dell’arte has a few unseparable components that frame a conclusive complex.

Improvisation was a very important and attractive component. However, for it’s volatileness there are just a few co-temporary mentions of it.

Lazzi – the word itself provokes a joyful, comic reaction of an audience. The origin of the word lazzi (a singular in Italian is lazzo) is not clear. In the clear form it means a stage trick, a gag, a short joke, a mim’s scene, sometimes just and idea etc. There are two kinds of lazzi – a spoken one and a played one. Lazzi became an important element of comedy dell’arte, a flash point of a stage performance. Moreover, actors had a chance to make a show of their knowledge of literature. There are preserved compilations of various comic ideas, sentences, aphorisms, long equivoques, and also lyrical professions of love, disillusions or love jag. Actors were reading a lot and picking out quotations for their handbooks for the practices. The collection was accumulating and descended in actor’s families from generation to generation.

Speech was an integral ingredient of a play. From the early stage of the theater there are convincing confirmations of this fact.Venetian masks In the theater dell’arte, dialects are of a big importance. They guaranteed a popularity. Though other components of the comedy were liberating, dialects (in Italy) were remaining and became a continual connecting link with a plebeian environment. Many comic situations rose from using dialects that differ from each other – conversings understand each other badly or not at all.