........FROM STRANGE RELIGIOUS STATUES

TO BEAUTIFUL ITALIAN MUSIC & SINGERS.......

********** WELCOME TO **********

******** FESTA ITALIANA!!! *********


I look forward to this Italian Festival every year; it's become the highlight of our musical summer. There are 10 stages of music (and lots of other activities and displays too) all going on continuously through the day and evening, for 4 days. This year it was July 19 - 22. We attended both Saturday and Sunday, and first off, we saw GIADA VALENTI, a talented singer who sings in a similar voice and style of the late Edith Pilaf. Giada also sang a French song that was famous by that great singer, and the audience loved it! Our friends from New Jersey drove all the way (19 hours) to meet us here, and this was the first singer they wanted to see, as they had seen her concerts out East. They travel all over to see their favorite singers ( especially Michael Amante, whom they have seen in concert over 80 times!!) Lucky them! But I was still surprised they would drive this far to Milwaukee to see our Festa. They did so because they had heard how wonderful it was, and said they were not disappointed!
Anyway, Giada Valenti has a very warm and rich voice, with a marvelous vibrato, and is strictly a pop singer. I don't recall her singing any operatic arias.

We saw many singers, including about half of a concert by JULIUS LA ROSA (because my friend SAM had asked me to check him out!) and I was amazed at how good his voice was still after all these years! It was strong and clear (with no wobble at all) with a nice vibrato too. I'm glad we saw him, but I can't remember much of what he sang, since I'm writing this a month later. I do know that Settimio also agreed that he was a very good singer, especially impressive for his age. I'm often disappointed with singers when they get that far up in years, but no matter what, we always give them credit for having such a love and passion for singing and sharing it with their audience through so many years .

All the pictures we took are here. What I'm really sorry about is that we didn't take any photos of some other impressive things, (Just too much rushing around!) like the GORGEOUS STAINLESS STEEL STATUE OF THE MADONNA, STANDING 33 FEET HIGH!! Or the also tall Statue of David, who depending on which year you come, is sometimes naked and sometimes wearing shorts patterned after the American Flag. Festa Italiana also had a really cool Italian village set up some years (but not this year) which I could post if our scanner was working! I bought a new printer/scanner/copier in March to be able for the first time to upload old photos, but it got corrupted recently, and I haven't been able to even install the whole printer again! Anyway, I hope you all enjoy what photos there are, (CLICK ON THE PHOTOS IF YOU WANT TO SEE MORE DETAIL - MAKES EVERYTHING ALMOST LIFE-SIZE!) and try to make it to this great Festival some year soon yourselves!!
P.S. - I FORGOT TO PUT THE REST OF MY FESTA ITALIANA COMMENTS IN *BOLD* PRINT, WHICH WOULD HAVE MADE THEM EASIER TO READ, SO LATER ON, I'LL GO BACK AND DO THAT - (AS I HAVE ELSEWHERE ON THIS BLOG) - EVERY TIME I COME BACK TO IT, I ALWAYS SEE LOTS OF THINGS THAT NEED IMPROVEMENT, AND I'M STILL LEARNING!!

......... It was fun to meet all these great singers, like Giada Valenti, who again, is a particular favorite of my friend from New Jersey. She introduced me to Giada and also to another good singer, Christina Luna, at Festa, both of whom she really admires. They both met with my approval, because I love great voices, especially sweet ones, be they sopranos, baritones or tenors! Giada was really busy signing autographs on CDs and pictures, but she had time to pose with both of us below.

......This is how we found Damon, busily greeting Mario Lanza fans, and doing his best to answer all their eager questions. I bet everyone of them was wondering why it took so many years for Mario to be promoted at Festa Italiana, since he is THE tenor they remember most fondly, not only from all his recordings, but also his films. What a surprise his glorious voice must have been for them, coming from the Golden Age of Opera Tent! As you can see, the table is almost empty since they told me they had sold EVERYTHING! (and were taking orders for more). (There was also a table on the other side). Bob Dolfi also posted that since arriving back home, he is being flooded with good wishes and newspaper articles from people who remember when Mario sang in Milwaukee in 1947. I gave Bob one of those articles too. I'm sorry I didn't get any photos of the outside of the tent, but it was big and there were lots of other tents around it, all with different displays. They were also performances of operatic singers and choruses in this Opera Tent at various times throughout the day, as well as a production of "Madama Butterfly."

......The big meeting with DAMON LANZA, son of Mario Lanza, and what a pleasure it was to finally meet him! We didn't get to spend much time with him as he was very busy, (you can imagine!!) being the only surviving son of Mario there. So I will cherish these photos and glad also that my friend from New Jersey also got in the picture! She and her husband will definitely want a copy of this photo, as she is also a big Mario Lanza fan from way back, as well as a fan, like me, of a few of the current tenors. This was such an exciting 2 days for us! I'm happy that the Lanzalegend crew were invited back to the Opera Tent for any years they choose to come!!

.......We have finally met Bob who owns and runs the Lanzalegend Website. This was our first day (Saturday) at Festa Italiana and I tore him away from greeting Mario Lanza fans to take this picture and talk a bit, although we talked much longer on Sunday. I felt out of place without a Lanza T-shirt on, but I don't own one, or any kind of fan T-shirt. I'm sorry we got no photos of Marlene, who was so busy with the fans, answering questions and selling. It was fun to meet her too, though and say a few words.

..........Settimio took these two pictures of Frank Tenaglia and me near the stage area, but didn't get any of Frank on stage. (I thought he did, but Settimio, who is always in charge of the camera, I remember was having battery problems with the camera at the time. We did see all of Frank's concert on Saturday and part of it on Sunday, and had a nice chat with him afterwards. This time we purchased his original CD with something like 20 songs, which we are enjoying. I won't write a review here, but they are all great!!! So were the concerts, and believe it or not, he sang even better than last year. Settimio thought so too, and we told him so. Many of the songs were the same (not all) and some of his funny jokes we'd already heard last year, but we mostly came for his fantastic singing, and he didn't disappoint! There was even a young, slightly inebriated woman in the front row audience who kept yelling her approval to him on stage (and talking to us about him too). Ahhhh, FANS!! Some were quieter than others, but ALL gave him thunderous applause and a standing ovation! And best of all, Frank is a REALLY NICE GUY!

.......Here we have AARON CARUSO with CHRISTINA LUNA singing their duet from Phantom of the Opera. Aaron sports a white mask on his face. His show at the Miller Lite Oasis was very enjoyable and also varied from last year. (Last year Christina did not appear) and I think this is her first year at this Festa. She said she may be getting her OWN show soon! That's wonderful as she has a very pretty, sweet voice. I am writing these Blog posts almost a whole month after Festa Italiana ended, so I probably can't remember most of the songs Aaron sang this time. But I know he did a Tom Jones song, as well as something completely different - O' Sole Mio. And many other Italian songs too, as well as an original one that was written for his mother. It was very touching. Aaron's singing is getting better and better all the time, and even Frank Tenaglia told us that Aaron has really improved over even last year. Aaron sure knows how to please an audience, and his friendly and enthusiastic personality shines through. It was a pleasure to see and hear him again!!

.......Two photos of AARON CARUSO with his lovely duet partner, Christina, and me after the concert. We bought Aaron's CD after last year's concert, so all we needed to do was pose for pictures and congratulate him on another great concert. I asked him again about portraying Mario Lanza on Broadway, and he said he still has plans or dreams of doing that. I'm sure they will be asking him to come back to Festa Italiana now year after year, so he'd better make time for that. He and his people did say that it was the best and biggest Italian festival they had ever seen or participated in.

........THESE THREE TENORS, comments below....but the photo above them is of :

CORY PASATURO, a young musician and Accordion player, who also plays the clarinet and the Saxophone (you can see these instruments sitting on the stage near him). He is only about 20 years old, and incredibly talented! Our friends really liked him too, so we headed over to the U.S. Cellular Connection Stage to hear him play when we arrived on Sunday morning, July 22.


......Later in the evening, toward 9:00 PM, we saw THESE THREE TENORS perform at the Palermo's Pizza Stage, (in fact we saw them both nights) but didn't enjoy them as much as some of the other acts. They put on a good show, but a couple of their voices were a bit past their prime and wobbled at times. They all had very powerful voices and sang well, but the sound at least for us, wasn't a "pretty" one, and a bit harsh on the ears at times, especially when they all sang together. Also, the tenor on the left was really much more of a BASS (not even a baritone) than a tenor. We all compared their voices to our favorite tenors, and we all agreed that we MUCH prefer the graceful and lovely, smooth and fresher sound of "our" tenors! Here "These Three Tenors" are donning jackets and doing a Frank Sinatra bit. They also came out in masks doing Phantom of the Opera, but again even as solos, their voices just weren't right for this delicate, operetta music, in our humble opinions.. This Trio has been around for at least 10 years, but this is their first time performing at Milwaukee's Festa Italiana. We may still see them again next year, but for this year my curiosity about them was satisfied!

......THE PROCESSION PARADE in the morning of our second day here, after the Mass, which we didn't have time to attend. There were other sights I wanted photos of but this didn't impress Settimio at all, who had seen much bigger religious displays than this in Italy, so he declined to take more photos of the Procession. This was the first time we had seen this one though, since in the past we always arrived at the Festa only in the afternoon. It was a beautiful day again with not a hint of rain anywhere in sight!


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......You can see on the left of this photo the little "cable cars" that take passengers from one end of Festa Italiana to the other end. I guess you can get a great view of it and Lake Michigan too from up there....but we've never taken the ride. The Miller Lite Oasis stage in the photo is where Aaron Caruso sang, and where Frank Tenaglia sang last year, but they moved Frank to the Carmax stage this year.

......I'm not Catholic, - Settimio here is - but I know these religious statues are telling history in their own way. This was a huge and beautiful tent very near the Opera Tent which was filled with ornate statues, and I wanted to take pictures of them all, but there were too many of them. We did spend about half an hour inside this tent, but had to skip seeing most of the vintage photographs on the some of the walls, but they sure looked interesting!

.......I like this gorgeous shrine the best..This is the only photo I have of all 4 of us together, which includes also the men, since they didn't seem to want to be in most of the photos. But this is the couple in the middle who drove all the way from New Jersey to Milwaukee (about 20 hours drive) to be at Festa Italiana with us. They are friends who may not want to be identified on a public Blog, so I won't use their names. They were taking lots of photos too, actually FAR MORE than we did, but I haven't seen any of them yet. That's OK, as the ones we took are enough for us, and a great way to remember our 2 days here with them.

......At the Shrine again, and this time I got reprimanded for resting my hand on the tablecloth! I completely had forgotten in that moment that most of these delicate and pretty lacy things were probably very old and needed to be protected. I was so embarrassed!

........This tent was full of beautiful religious statues displayed all around, but this is all the photos we had time for, before we rushed on to the next concert! A few of the statues were even odd, of lovely female figures holding the severed heads of men in their arms (I guess men incurred the wrath of women in those days too!) This lady in pink is holding only the skull, but it's hard to see unless you click on the photo to enlargen it.

......The Mario Lanza photos displayed on one wall of the Golden Age of Opera Tent throughout the Festival, though I think they added a few more for 2007. You'll notice that both Luciano Pavarotti and Andrea Bocelli share this same section of the wall, probably to indicate that they all were extremely popular tenors of their day.

.....CORY PESATURO and me, in the Opera Tent where we happened to run into Cory, the Accordion Player. We were so impressed with his playing, not only of the Accordion but also the Saxophone and Clarinet, that we wanted a photo to remember him. This young man has a long and bright career ahead of him!

......The guys on stage, from left to right, (??Don't know the first one), but second is a veteran of the Opera Tent named Dominic, then Damon Lanza, Bob Dolfi, and Aaron Caruso. Saturday was the only day we were able to watch the wonderful "Round-Table" discussion they gave, but I heard they presented it at least 3 of the 4 days. On Saturday they talked a bit about the video, "The American Caruso", "Victor Lanza" and their efforts to stop frauds and false information, and other Mario related facts. The audience also listened to about 6 arias and songs (one of the songs was "Santa Lucia"), where afterwards, Mario's singing was compared to Enrico Caruso's on the same arias. They concluded with "Nessun Dorma" sung by both Mario Lanza and Franco Corelli, and then compared their versions & voices, getting the audience reactions too.

At this point, my husband, Settimio, asked a question and was asked to come to the microphone near the stage to be better heard. He made a little speech about why he likes Mario Lanza's voice and singing more than either Caruso or Corelli, and also mentioned Giuseppe di Stefano as one of his favorites, along with Mario. He said that Lanza and Di Stefano have the wonderful ability to communicate to the listener, not only what the song is all about but also with great emotion. He also said, as I believe too, that Mario and Di Stefano have much warmer and richer voices than Caruso, and an OPEN sound, (not "closed" like Caruso) giving their voices a more natural sound, and at the same time powerful and warm. I myself would add that for this reason, as well as their beautiful mezza voci and splendid nuances, I think Mario Lanza and Di Stefano are also among the most VERSATILE singers in the world.

ON A HUMOROUS NOTE: During the presentation when Dominic kept referring to Settimio in the audience as "the man from Pisa", afterwards, we kept meeting people at other concert stages at Festa who asked him, "AREN'T YOU THAT MAN FROM PISA??!" It was funny so many of them remembered him, so we all laughed.

.........Here's Bob again with me, right after the presentation on stage, and around the time he met some friends of the singer, Victor, who claims to be the illegitimate son of Mario Lanza, which was also discussed on stage by Bob where he laid out facts to dispprove this. At this point we said goodbye to Bob, Marlene and Damon, as the guys were being asked to do an interview. Again, I'm very sorry I got no photo of Marlene, nor got to talk to her much, but she was constantly busy, busy, busy with all the great Lanza fans and all their questions!! I'm extremely happy for them that their Festa days and promotions of Mario Lanza were so successful!!

........I forgot to show you Lake Michigan - This is how it looks in this area of the Festa. This is the only photo we took of the lake, and unfortunately, it doesn't show the entire lake, just the "bay" part and the sand area where they shoot off the fireworks (which are FANTASTIC!) for the many festivals that take place here every year. But this lake is HUGE, it covers at least 3 states that I know of: part of Illinois (including Chicago), all of Wisconsin and parts of Michigan. The "seagulls" are a daily feature, always hanging around wherever there's water AND food. Sometimes they even fly and dive bomb around people who are just sitting or walking around, and try to get a bite of their food! I found out later that my face really got rather sunburned after 2 days here in the sun - I always burn in Florida too - must be my delicate Irish & German skin!

...........This is MORENO FRUZZETTI, who is a wonderful talent direct from Pisa, Italy and puts on a fun show with lots of "Oldie" Italian pop songs, and his voice is powerful and very pleasing too, even on the more "challenging" songs. He usually always performs solo and brings in huge crowds to see him at Festa, and invites them to sing along at times too. We are glad that we finally got to meet him this year after the show (See Below)....

.......This is Gianni and Livia, our good Italian friends of many years, together with me and Moreno Fruzzetti . (Some other friends are peeking in from behind.) We just happened to meet up with them by accident at his concert, since they like his music too. Moreno actually seemed thrilled to meet Settimio because they are from the SAME town (Pisa) and even the same area of Pisa! We all had a nice conversation with Moreno in Italian about old times in Italy, and old & new singers, and enjoyed meeting him very much. We had seen his show a few times before, but had never introduced ourselves before this day.

BELOW IS ANOTHER GOOD TENOR NAMED MATT MORGAN, WHOSE PBS CONCERT I SAW JUST A FEW DAYS PREVIOUSLY. He has a very good voice and style, and put on a great show. On the picture below he is performing with his wife, a soprano who sings with the N.Y. Metropolitan Opera, he said.

~~~~~~~So ends another year of FESTA ITALIANA! The highlight of this year was definitely meeting the Lanzalegend people along with Damon Lanza and our friends from New Jersey, with whom we spent most of the hours there. I wish I could list all the many acts of singers, comedians, impressionists, etc. (something like 60 of them!) who performed every day (not to mention the dancers, etc.) but you'll just have to come out yourselves to see what I mean! See you there! I would absolutely love to visit some of the Italian festivals around the country too, if we get the chance. We're going to Italy this Fall so more great Italian music can't be far away!!