Year Review : Session 2007/8. September 2007 to July 2008.

We have continued with interest and vigour through our fourth year of activity having met about 40 times. A couple of members have left and we have had two new members this year, thus keeping our numbers to about a dozen.
  1. The system of a programme for the term has been maintained in a flexible way, with handed out texts; fortnightly listening practice; individual presentations on various subjects and films, and discussions with Italian guests. A big progress this year has been the formation of a film and audio book library which helps our development outside the Circle.
  2. Our Italian national friends have supported us with their visits to the Circle and helped us listen to different registers and accents. The ambition of an average of two visitors per term was realized with Simone Tripodi and his friend Milo Scaglioni in a very enjoyable duet evening; Teresa Zucca-Armitage, with her lovely clear voice, opened a window onto the life of an expat; then Marco Brambilla from Milan and working in Manchester kept us interested in his experiences; Marilina Cesario, docente at the University gave us a great evening with much to tell about her beloved Calabria; next came Lorenza Casini, educated at the MMU in architecture, and almost qualified professionally, as Silvana Serra’s daughter she is a long time friend, and finally Rita de Benedetto regaled us with the prehistory of Molise in an excellent evening. We are so grateful to these helpful friends for the stimulus to improve our second language.
  3. An innovation this year was the introduction of a teacher to try to give us feedback to assist our development and progress. Giulio Giusti visited us twice to listen to a discussion and participate and offer us feed back. In general we did not feel that this method was giving us as much as we would have liked and need to review it.
  4. The texts provided have ranged over a wide area of cultural and topical subjects from “Spavento Passeri” to immigration and from Mammoni to Rifiuti a Napoli. From African Athletes at the Olympics to Animali Abbandonati, and the works of Goldoni.
  5. The presentations by members have also been really interesting eye openers at times and have included a theme from Antonio Tabucchi’s “Requiem” linked to a painting by Hieronymus Bosch, then a presentation about the poetry of Giosue Carducci; una “Cucina Futuristica” with recipes from the era of the Futurists; the film “Lo scafandro e la Farfalla” directed by Julian Schnabel was reviewed; and even a presentation on Walt Whitman in Italian with verse translations.
  6. On the questions of grammar and locution there have been offerings of topics on proverbs, of the correct construction of quite difficult sentences, and quizzes bringing in cultural and grammatical problems. We are blessed with several linguists who help us with various explanations and examples to clarify things when possible.
  7. On the cinema aspect there have not been too many Italian films as yet this year but we have been using our film library. During the Manchester University’s “Italian Contemporary Cinema” conference there were showings of films directed by Mimmo Calopresti at the Cornerhouse and Consulate and we saw “L’Abbuffata” and “Preferisco il rumore del Mare” with the presence of the director and the editor adding hugely to the event.
  8. La Società Dante Alighieri continues to help us with its programmes and events locally. Some attended the “Salome” concert performance with the cast from the Teatro Regio of Turin; some attended Roland Antonelli’s wonderful multi media “Romance of the Barrel Piano” and the exhibition “Ancoats: Manchester’s Little Italy” part of Histories Revealed at the MOSI as well as “Aperativo della Dante” at Palmiro’s and Alessandra Pompili’s piano recitals.
  9. All in all we have had a good year thanks to everybody’s contributions and hope to keep up the momentum in 2008/9.
 
FW/03.09.08