Buon Natale in Venice

 Christmas in Italy is not only about food but about music -Monteverdi, the Renaissance composer chose San Marco for the recital of his vespers with its acoustics designed that the sounds are really celestial....

link-http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=xiGjF91UcOE&fmt=18

 In contrast,the harsh reality of hard economic times in our era are expressed by the Italian version of Occupy Wallstreet staged by the transport Unions, spilling over the steps of the Venice railway station and dramatically voicing a disturbing erosion of union regulations and job security..

Natale a Venezia

Music for Christmas in Italy...this one 

Caruso-Author unknown, about memory and loss in inimitable Italian style by two greats..

Here, where the sea shines
and the wind howls,
on the old terrace beside the gulf of Sorrento,
a man embraces a girl
he wept after,
then clears his throat and continues the song:

I love you very much,
very, very much, you know;
it is a chain by now
that melts the blood inside the veins, you know...

He saw the lights out on the sea,
thought of the nights there in America, 
but they were only the fishermen's lamps
and the white wash astern.
He felt the pain in the music
and stood up from the piano,
but when he saw the moon emerging from a cloud
death also seemed sweeter to him. 
He looked the girl in the eyes,
those eyes as green as the sea.
Then suddenly a tear fell
and he believed he was drowning.

I love you very much,
very, very much, you know,
it is a chain by now
that melts the blood inside the vein you know...

The power of opera,
where every drama is a hoax;
with a little make-up and with mime
you can become someone else.
But two eyes that look at you,
so close and real,
make you forget the words,
confuse your thoughts,
So everything became small,
also the nights there in America. 
You turn and see your life
through the white wash astern.

But, yes, it is life that ends
and he did not think about it  so much
on the contrary, he already felt happy 
and continued his song:

I love you very much,
very, very much, you know,
it is a chain by now
that melts the blood inside the veins, you know...

Buon Natale from Venezia

Rialto Clock keeps Venetian time while Shylocks ghost...

  This church- San Giacomo ,the oldest in Venice at the Rialto surrounded by  famous fish market  for many centuries is buzzing with the crowds of visitors and Christmas shoppers.In the shadow of this mysterious  time-keeper lies a glorious mask shop, whose work is my favourite in Venice, called  La Bottega dei Mascareri (www.mascarer.com) see below

The recent version of  The Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino splendid, as Shylock-the reviled money lender who, in an attempt to extract his revenge on the contemptuous Christian nobles of Venice, has his scheming come horribly undone by a young lawyer from Padova, who turns out to be  a woman. This convoluted story by the bard had a cruel fate in mind for the merchant.The ethereal foggy  waterscapes around the Rialto provide a  perfect scenographic atmosphere with its  floating world of intrigue ...Venice is most beautiful in the fog as the Nobel prize winner Russian poet Brodsky in Watermark wrote ..