Opera librettists and composers are all for travel and immigration Or at least they like writing operas about characters traveling from one country to another you’ve got L’italiana in Algeri (the Italian woman in Algiers) and Il turco in Italia (the Turkish man in Italy) as well as the much lesser known Ciro in Babilonia and Mosè in Egitto And I started writing this open thread as I listened to Medea in Corinto by Johann Simon Mayr For Rossini’s L’italiana in Algeri, I turn to the Met for a plot summary of the first few arias complains that her husband no longer loves her; her attendants reply there is nothing she can do Asserting he will not let women get the better of him Mustafà says he has tired of his wife and will give her to Lindoro to provide an Italian woman for himself-someone more interesting than the girls in his harem insisting she posses[s]es every virtue that Lindoro in his attempt to escape Mustafà's connubial trap at least for a wealthy man who quickly bores of one woman or even a whole harem Petersburg Opera Company put on a production of L’italiana that is very modernistic and a touch surreal compared to the orientalist 1988 Stuttgart production from which I drew the image at the top of this article You can watch either of those productions on YouTube Il turco in Italia has a plot that feels somewhat similar. This time I take the plot summary for the beginning from the Glyndebourne and just can’t seem to find the right material But when he stumbles on a gypsy camp down by the harbour What better way to start his play than with a colourful Gypsy scene At that moment his old friend Geronio appears keen to find a fortune teller to read his palm But clever gypsy Zaida quickly sees through the foolish old man and mocks him as a cuckold Prosdocimo discovers that she was forced to flee from Prince Selim’s harem after a jealous rival accused her of infidelity Geronio’s flirtatious young wife Fiorilla sings of the delights of ever-changing lovers who in turn feels an instant attraction to the handsome stranger much to the horror of both her husband and her lover Narciso Discovering that the Turk is none other than Zaida’s Prince Selim Prosdocimo realises that he has unwittingly assembled the perfect cast for his comedy I’m also going to put in a 2023 production I think Leroy Anderson would approve of this production I wanted to include Antonio Salieri’s Cesare in Farmacusa but it seems that only the overture has ever been recorded He was born in Italy and went to Vienna as a young man living there permanently for the rest of his life Some of his greatest successes were as a guest composer in France The open thread question: what other operas can you think of involving a character going to another place and does the plot present a favorable or unfavorable view of travel or immigration Not signed up for Daily Kos yet? 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SearchBrowseServicesOpen researchInstitution LoginSearchMenu links with its well-structured production systems constituted a dynamic sphere of activity that stretched across Unified Italy This activity was rarely acknowledged by the representatives of so-called ‘high culture’ even as it stimulated the growth of the social structures that would later give rise to cinema and other forms of mass entertainment Though in recent years scholars have focused on the foreign influences on light music theatre in Italy in the years following Italian unification little attention has been bestowed on Italian operetta This article concentrates on the origins of this genre offering a detailed analysis of the dialect theatre tradition from which the first French-style operetta productions in Italy emerged I examine the urban contexts of Milan and above all Rome a city of crucial importance in the diffusion of operetta in dialect whose highly local (even parochial) connotations would exert a significant influence on the formal social and cultural evolution of operetta right up to the turn of the century where the success of operetta in the years following Italian unification was disruptive enough to give a powerful boost to secondary theatres But there was an important difference: in France a dialogue between the official theatres and fringe establishments was central to the cultural life of the country allowing operetta to maintain a prominent position in the French theatrical panorama; but in Italy operetta established itself and proliferated within an area that remained opaque and indecipherable in the eyes of ‘official’ culture at least until the early twentieth century when workers in the operetta sector sought more and more to institutionalise their profession by (for instance) forming trade unions the progress of operetta might best be seen as an important undercurrent that – sometimes acknowledged sometimes shunned by institutional culture – dragged into its orbit an increasingly large swathe of the public Given Italian operetta’s eventual centrality to the entertainment industry it is essential to analyse the genre if we are to bring into focus both the cultural needs and the collective imaginary of Italians then and now Attention must be paid not only to the often obscure minor theatres but also to more ephemeral locations such as cafés all the places where various forms of communal leisure took place which especially in the years following Unification played a leading role in the formation of a collective identity that linked different social spheres one that would encompass unusual spaces such as a crowded tram carriage in Turin at the end of the nineteenth century: but we are a long way from a comprehensive understanding of the genre which is mostly centred on dialect operetta – the first type to appear on the Italian scene the strongly ‘parochial’ connotations of operetta written in Italy’s many regional languages exerted a significant impact on formal social and cultural developments in this genre in the years following Italian unification given the continuing vitality of the comic tradition in Neapolitan dialect at a local and national level which in the aftermath of Unification found itself almost completely without dialect theatre Stimulus came from the enormous success of Offenbach’s operettas in numerous Italian theatres, from north to south, starting in 1866 with the arrival of the Grégoire brothers in Italy.Footnote 15 Les Soirées Parisiennes was the name of the wooden theatre that the company installed in various squares across the country in the process constructing one of the first spaces for mass entertainment in Unified Italy The title alone was intended to evoke glamorous evenings Parisians spent in the capital’s boulevard theatres: Les Soirées Parisiennes brought a slice of Parisian life to Italy a space generally dedicated to popular types of spectacular entertainment but to which the Grégoire family was able to give the appearance of exclusivity and extravagance The social frenzy that the Grégoires’ operetta aroused was the object of satire in both the press and the theatrical world Particularly interesting in this respect is the revue 1868 sguardo politico-artistico-sociale written by the Neapolitan playwright Antonio De Lerma set to music by Michele Ruta and staged in January 1869 at the Teatro del Fondo in Naples set in a Neapolitan square in which the four façades of the city’s main theatres are visible we find various allegorical characters amongst whom are the Critic Discussing the spectacular failure of Errico Petrella’s Jone at the Teatro San Carlo at the favourable reception of the Grégoires’ ‘circus’ by the Neapolitan public: Vecchio Giuseppe: Godo che il mio amico sia diventato Impresario ma bisogna convenire che la vera musica è questa (mostra il baraccone) … infatti se questo Teatro è sempre affollato bisogna convenire che la prima musica dell’universo è questa e quel Baraccone il Teatro più importante di Napoli ne vous arrétez pas aux bagatelles de la porte et aux affiches si vous voulez vraiment rire et gouter de la gaie musique […] poi il Vecchio Giuseppe: Viva la Bella Helena (critica ride) Poeta: È vero che la Francia in tutto oggi si mischia Critica: Produzioni francesi dovunque! In nome della lega pacifica,Footnote 16 protesto contro tutto ciò che sa di francese e dà braccio): Solo io ò potuto ottenere questo biglietto con la folla che vi è Critica: (fra se) Se tutto il pubblico è formato da tali tipi le mie forbici serviranno poco Donna: Ninno! … (con sostenutezza) (si ode la campana de’ Gregoire) Su via giovanotti, il tempio sacrato alla buona società dischiude le sue porte. Questo baraccone ci ricorda i boulevards, i boulevards Parigi, è Parigi il centro di quanto vi è più di elegante.Footnote 17 [Old Giuseppe: I’m pleased that my friend has become an Impresario but we must agree that this is real music (gestures to the circus) we must agree that the best music in the universe is this and that this Circus is the most important theatre in Naples ne vous arrêtez pas aux bagatelles de la porte et aux affiches then Old Giuseppe: Long live la Belle Hélène (the critic laughs) Poet: It’s true that France intrudes into everything today I protest against everything that smacks of French while la Bella Elena … […] 1868: My dearest poet Either the music is beautiful or the audience is stupid Woman enters followed by her husband and two young men (extras) Old Giuseppe (he comes to meet her and gives her his arm): I alone was able to get this ticket Critic (aside): If the entire audience is made up of such people … (coldly) (the Grégoire bell is heard) Come now the temple of good society is opening its doors Paris is the centre of everything elegant.] another aspect seems relevant: the need for more popular forms of entertainment which although stigmatised by the critics are endorsed by ‘old’ Giuseppe Verdi In addition to having been a regular visitor to the Parisian boulevard theatres Italy’s greatest living composer can be understood here as a guarantor of public morality; if he goes to that theatre Verdi never explicitly expressed any sympathy for operetta nor do we know of him having attended the Grégoire brothers’ performances but the use of the composer in this revue is explained by the desire for recognition that Italian popular theatre had for so long been seeking Arrighi saw dangers in the process of levelling up and the attendant loss of local identity: Even expanding the repertoire to include non-Italian theatrical genres was understood by Arrighi as a gesture of resistance against these powerful homogenising pressures: Other kinds of criticism came from outside The Florentine newspaper La nazione wrote about our theatre as follows: ‘All the dramas and comedies of the Teatro Milanese belong to the French school and have nothing that distinguishes them from modern theatre What does it mean to not understand and want to warble in someone else’s milieu […] there must be a complete lack of understanding if one doesn’t see in Milanese comedies clear evidence of the particularities of Milanese life Our pompier is completely different from the French pompière; our Barabba is completely different from the Parisian Gamin; the Parisians don’t have our Spazzabaslott […] Why would we want to limit ourselves to just one genre? The beautiful thing is to show that we are capable of staging and enjoying all genres, including French ones.Footnote 24 in Arrighi’s view demonstrated the potential to find common ground without eroding difference was that preserving the network of singularities that make up Italy was the only possible route to a truly united country Such sentiments clearly shine through the vaudeville-operetta On milanes in mar premiered on 26 September 1871 at the Teatro Milanese With music by Angelo Pettenghi and words by Arrighi the protagonists are a Milanese and a Frenchman who find themselves on a sea voyage to Sardinia accompanied by a group of sailors of various origins The peculiarity of this operetta lies in the linguistic melange: each character expresses himself in his own dialect or language The ‘Tarantella napolitana’, the only number not composed by Pettenghi, was well known in southern Italy under the title of ‘Tarantella di Pompei’, and precisely because it is the most ‘authentic’ and familiar, it takes on paradigmatic importance as the fulcrum around which all the other numbers revolve.Footnote 26 This is evident from the fact that the song despite representing the classic cliché of the poor hungry beggar looking for a plate of macaroni is sung by the Neapolitan sailor in response to the Frenchman’s bravado after singing an aria in pseudo-Neapolitan (‘Io songo mica di chisso convento’) had proclaimed himself the true inventor of Neapolitan song: che codeste cantate napoletane le ho introdotte io per prima volta in Napoli Chillo è lu gallo di Cicirinella.Footnote 27 that I was the first to introduce these Neapolitan songs to Naples Neapolitan: I’m going to sing in true Neapolitan I was born poor / without a house and without a roof / I would sell my trousers / for a plate of macaroni / If you want to be a good soldier / Go well-armed into battle / In case the cannons should fire / Even a single plate of macaroni / I saw a lieutenant / who swapped with a sergeant / his shoulder pads with braids / for a plate of macaroni / Cicirinella had a rooster / he sat on it all day / It was a rooster without a saddle / That is Cicirinella’s rooster.] the operetta delights in juxtaposing identities and claims to authenticity: ‘Songo mica di chisso convento’ an original number for the operetta in fake Neapolitan rubs up against a real Neapolitan song that existed outside the theatre ‘Songo nato povaretto’ (the ‘Tarantella di Pompei’) which nonetheless deals in stereotypes and descends into nonsense by its end ‘E benedetta màmmata!’ by Teodoro Cottrau (1878) From Album della regina: 40 serenate del Golfo (Naples Turin / Su concessione del MiC-Musei Reali directed by Camillo Mastrocinque and starring Totò and Fiorella Mari Emma Ivon and Gaetano Sbodio in On milanes in mar Courtesy of the Biblioteca Italiana delle Donne but rather mocked for its desire to model itself at all costs on the big city His obsession with Milan – which he sees both as a competitor and as a source of emulative inspiration – combined with the fact that he is an evident braggart This theme is also evident in other adaptations of the work such as a version entitled La statua di Paolo Incioda ovvero Gioachino Cacai sindaco de Torselo which circulated in the Veneto from 1877; and a trilogy of works by Luigi Gaibi on the same subject (La statua del Sgner Incioda all set in the fictional town of Scaricalasino (the name of a children’s game) presented at the Teatro del Corso in Bologna in 1876 On 20 September 1870, with the conquest of Rome, Italy completed the Unification process and the country finally had a permanent capital. The acquisition of Rome had represented an idée fixe in Risorgimento thought, the basic premise of which was to build the entire nation: ‘without Rome, the capital of Italy, Italy cannot be built’ argued Camillo Benso di Cavour, one of the main protagonists of Unification.Footnote 34 Its imperial past its geopolitical location (between the North and the South between Europe and the Mediterranean) and its place as a centre of Christianity made the city a powerful vector for forging the character of Italians But the idea of Rome as the capital of a ‘united people’ was not so easy to implement the general impression was of an infrastructure imposed from above one that did little to adapt to the restricted urban social and economic perimeters of a city that had not undergone significant transformation for at least three centuries The Rome of 1870 was in fact a demographically small centre (212,000 inhabitants) that showed evident signs of backwardness compared to other Italian and European major cities This tension emerged in the aftermath of the first performance of Li Maganzesi a Roma a Roman dialect operetta in three acts with music by Giovanni Mascetti and a libretto by Luigi (‘Giggi’) Zanazzo first performed at the Teatro Rossini on 30 September 1882 The decision to use dialect aroused negative reactions from some of the city’s critics among the most negative being Giuseppe Prospero Zuliani In an article in the Gazzetta ufficiale del Regno d’Italia Zuliani explained the reasons why Roman dialect was basically anti-theatrical and he insisted on the importance of the Italian language as a unifying factor: At the Teatro Rossini they decided to give us nothing but a series of new operettas in Roman dialect; when you have no other purpose than to entertain the public even such fare; but I confess that I don’t understand why Roman dialect should entertain in Rome more than Italian does Among the wealthy classes no one speaks it few understand it; among the common people it is understood it’s hardly known in some neighbourhoods; in all Rome there’s not a single person So where will the Teatro Rossini’s authors go to look for examples of lively dialogue A fine principle for creating a new theatre merely with abundant examples of plebeian foul language And even if the question of the spoken word were resolved favourably For example, the first operetta given, I Maganzesi, is appreciated for Mascetti’s music, which is light, cheerful and rhythmic; it is perhaps formulaic, but with a certain effect, and the musical performance is quite good; as for the dialogue in Roman dialect, the most indulgent scarcely find it amusing.Footnote 36 In the case of Li Maganzesi, as with a good number of the Roman operettas of this period, only the sung parts of the libretto survive, but these offer us numerous clues about the internal structure of the genre.Footnote 37 The operetta is set in the Trastevere district during the first Roman Republic (1798–99) a leading figure in Roman vernacular poetry as well as a connoisseur of local popular traditions was inspired to write the libretto by events that occurred in February 1798 when the population of Trastevere rose up against its French occupiers one always considered a symbol of the city As in the case of Charles Lecocq’s La fille de Madame Angot the clash between republicans and papists (monarchists in the case of Paris) forms the backdrop against which legendary figures with farcical features appear in the most popular places in the city Giorgio Stennarello and Piacchiabbò er Tartaglione characters well known in Rome’s various rioni (districts) deriving from commedia dell’arte and vernacular poetry who move energetically through the squares and taverns of Trastevere Zanazzo designed a mise en scène aimed at legitimising the daily life of a neighbourhood that the tavern in Act I scene 5 and Act II scene 7 takes on a central role in Li Maganzesi as a space for displaying local pride as in so many other taverns in the operatic universe The only difference is that the Maganzesi tavern is a space that extends over the entire operetta There are numerous songs in praise of drinking and beautiful women and the operetta begins and ends with toasts (‘Viva viva sempre la sciampagna’; ‘Evviv’ er vino The exaltation of wine was a constant in Roman operetta one attributable to the vernacular poetry tradition one of the greatest figures of early nineteenth-century Roman dialect poetry dedicated numerous sonnets to wine and to the world of taverns using the common speech of the Roman people Zanazzo does something similar: he records exactly the language of the Trastevere – what Zuliani contemptuously called ‘plebeian foul language’ – and translates it into verse the field of reference here remains that of French operetta An important clue comes from the constant use of onomatopoeia which recalls the Offenbachian syllabic style of which Mascetti had profound knowledge since he had conducted numerous Offenbach works as director of the Teatro Metastasio Nena: Un momento bella mia – t’averebbe da parlà Marietta: Io non posso perde tempo – proprio mò me nò dà annà Nena: Te vojo dì na cosa – che nun me vò annà giù Marietta: Nmbé se non voi scegnie – lassatela stà sù Nena: Colle bone te lo dico – tu me devi stà a sentì Marietta: Già me rodono le mani – fora fora che voi dì Nena: Tu facevi la graziosa – quanno Pietro mio passava Ma lui manco ci abbadava – ma alla fine te capì E sarai contenta adesso – che per tè lui m’hà piantato Ma però non t’hà sposato – chi sà come finirà Noi faremo a tortorate – cara mia non ce sò santi Marietta: Sì lo fanno tutti quanti – oggi è moda questa qua A voi v’ammanca l’arte – che ogni donna cià Che serve incantà l’omini – pe facceli cascà Appena che Pietruccio – a visto stò visetto Jà fatto un certo effetto – che sé attaccato qua Nena: A me me manca l’arte – ciovetta io non so Me chiamo Nena Spizzole – e no Marietta no Sò stati li quattrini – che l’anno innamorato Quer grugno aripezzato – che effetto jà da fà Marietta: Ce fai fatica e dammelo – nun te se vò pijà Nena: Ma tù le corne aspettale – te le farà portà Marietta: Brutto grugnaccio – de pastufato Marietta: I’ve no time to waste – I really must go Nena: I want to tell you something – That’s really bothering me Marietta: If you don’t want to make a scene – Best leave it unsaid Nena: I’ll tell you honestly – you owe it to me to listen Marietta: I’m biting my finger – out with it Nena: You were making yourself pretty – when Pietro passed me by / But he didn’t pay attention – but in the end he understood you / And you will be happy now – that he’s left me for you / But he didn’t marry you – who knows how it will end everyone does it – today this is the fashion / You lack the art – that every woman has / To enchant men – and make them fall down before you / As soon as Pietruccio – saw this little face / It made a certain effect – and he came running to me Nena: I don’t have the art – I don’t know how to be a minx / My name is Nena Spizzola – and not Marietta / It was the money – that made him fall in love / That patched up face – what effect could it have on him Marietta: Do what you can to me – He doesn’t want you anymore he’ll betray you – he will make you grow horns ugly face – I want to pick you apart / The legs first – straighten them out Nena: My legs – are straight / Look at them as much as you like – you can envy them Marietta: Ugly face – like pane cotto / You are the spy in the neighbourhood / I’ll finish you – you don’t believe it / but at my feet – I’ll have you fall Nena: I can’t stand it anymore – you’re asking for it Marietta – I’ll give it to you / And when – I’ve straightened you out here the level of conflict is decidedly more excited: a fast-paced dialogue that seems to recall aspects of the poetic contests that took place in certain taverns in Rome Zanazzo offers us testimony of how this type of performance took place in his Usi costumi e pregiudizi del popolo di Roma (1908): [The poetic challenges] mostly took place every Sunday in the evening or in a few cafés in the Monti and Trastevere districts About twenty or thirty acquaintances would gather and standing there they would challenge each other to see who could improvise better poems [in ottava rima] Sometimes these challenges lasted for two or three days in a row without ever resting even during the night Sometimes women were involved; I would hear laundresses who, if you understood them, would leave you speechless!Footnote 40 Given the ambivalent role that these performers had as both (transgressive) creators and muses greater importance was attributed to the corporeal aspects of their performance – their status as muses understood as sensual inspiration Roman operetta thus tends to textualise the improvisational practices of vernacular poetry Confirmation of this comes above all in the character of Pippetto one of the protagonists of Er testamento and of other successful productions performed in those years such as Pippetto sposa e Tarantola fa da testimone (1887) Pippetto ner crin (1887) and Pippetto e Pippone (1888) played for several years by the actor–singer Oreste Raffaelli at a certain point in the performance improvised poetry on pressingly current themes: A great fire broke out in the palazzo Odescalchi on the evening of the Befana one that all the newspapers in Italy talked about; and on that occasion it was demonstrated how without the municipal pumps being able to function; something similar to how the machine guns performed in Dogali Che sopra tutte le altre ha il bel trovato [Now to put out this fire / We also have a steam engine / Which has the advantage over all the others / That it arrives when the fire has already burned out.] Imagine the applause from the audience; they reached delirium: encore Pompe e pompieri stieno sul loco.Footnote 42 [Since the last fire came to pass / Another edict has been published: / That an hour before the fire starts / Pumps and firefighters should already be on site.] The event is narrated here by the theatre critic Pier Luigi Gelmi in an article that appeared in the March 1888 issue of the Milanese periodical Cronaca rossa The same article reports other episodes in which Pippetto launched into improvisations about news or political events that had impacted on public opinion His invective was so famous that he became a key character in Roman operetta Gelmi defines him as ‘a popular type like Don Felice Sosciamocca Raffaelli’s Pippetto drew inspiration from Giovanni Giraud’s Pippetto a character in Donizetti’s L’ajo nell’imbarazzo caught between ostentatious Christian virtue and explosive sexual curiosity was well placed to become a popular character in the poorer localities hard done-by and noble – that is a Harlequin a Pulcinella and a Cassandrino – somehow reflected the various inhabitants of the Trastevere neighbourhood in which Papal nobility and the common people coexisted Donizetti’s L’ajo also contributed to the popularity of the character: this opera continued to circulate in minor Italian theatres and often found a place on the billboards of the Teatro Metastasio a temple of operetta and a favourite destination for the Trastevere public Pippetto’s return to the Roman stages once again demonstrates the city’s attachment to antiquity as a factor in shaping collective identity. But there is more: Pippetto, with his dual clerical and revolutionary nature, ultimately reflected one of the typical attitudes of the districts, namely the struggle to maintain the status quo.Footnote 43 This emerges most clearly in the operetta Er marchese der Grillo a production which had unusually lasting success on the Roman and Italian stages Performed for the first time at the Teatro Metastasio on 23 November 1889 in three acts with a libretto by Domenico Berardi Er marchese der Grillo brought to the stage one of the most popular legends of the districts destined to become the legend of an entire country thanks to the film of the same name directed by Mario Monicelli (1981) The famous comic actor Alberto Sordi played the Marchese on screen and presented a version of the character so irreverent that it remains imprinted on the collective memory of Italians to this day whose real existence has been questioned (but never resolved) by several local scholars These stories were collected for the first time in 1887 by Raffaello Giovagnoli in the volume Leggende romane: Il marchese del Grillo So who was the Marchese del Grillo? Zanazzo describes him as ‘a great gentleman so rich that money came out of his ears. And, to kill time, he had as much fun as much as he could, telling jokes, making pranks, teasing and so on.’Footnote 44 Richer in detail is Giovagnoli’s portrait: was a Roman gentleman; he was born c.1730–1740 and died around 1800 […] The Marchese – who was slightly hunchbacked – was gifted with an original He was always eager to carry out the wildest plans: he spared no expense; he was not afraid of rumour and scandal; once he was fixed on an idea he would put it into effect at any cost the Marchese del Grillo was the governing arbiter of old Rome’s three souls before Unification: the aristocratic The irreverent aristocrat conversed both with high ecclesiastical personages and with the oppressed he was the type of multifarious character who embodied the multiple identities of Roman operetta Berardi and Mascetti’s operetta deals with one of the episodes narrated by Giovagnoli We are in the Carnival of 1782: the poor coal burner Giachimone Baciccia falls asleep at night near the fountain in the Piazza di Spagna A group of Grillo’s servants pick him up and take him to the Marchese’s palace Waking up and finding himself dressed in aristocratic clothes Giachimone is led to believe that he is the Marchese For three days the real Marchese has him experience all the advantages of being rich; he then puts him back to sleep with a narcotic and returns him to the square where he was found as well as being a classic hymn to wine in Bellian style also contains references to current events such as the expensive restoration of the Colosseum which weighed on the shoulders of the citizens (‘Ce vò mette ’n ‘antra tassa / Sto governo Fariseo / Perché dice che vo’ mette / Li cristalli ar Coliseo!’; They want to lay on another tax / This Pharisee government / Because they say they want to put / Crystals in the Colosseum!’) If in the first Roman operettas satirical critique was peripheral to dramatic construction This emerges more clearly in the song ‘L’altro jeri er Cracasse ha stampato’ who lived in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century and remained imprinted on the memory of Romans through his biting satires against the ruling classes In Er marchese der Grillo Ghetanaccio maintains a similar tone: Spiaccie nun so!Footnote 48 [The day before yesterday Cracas printed / A very rare and fine Edict / Which everyone will be taught: / That a spy is a good citizen / But look into what great error / This vile populace has sunk … / It thought that to be a spy / Was worse than being a thief / But the Edict opens my eyes … / Spying is a duty of conscience / And it get you / Whoever wants to be respected / Just be a spy / But I don’t agree / That anything goes / Because the Romans / Are not spies!] supported by other inhabitants of the areas in which they lived were harshly repressed by the government and discontent increased dramatically In this hostile climate – with frequent police incursions – Ghetanaccio became the spokesperson for popular Rome: unlike the rulers (who would soon become enmeshed in a scandal at the Banco di Roma) he always maintains his moral integrity (‘Because the Romans are not spies!’) Approximately five years after the first performance of Er marchese der grillo Mascetti’s company sold the rights of the operetta to Ciro Scognamiglio’s group; in 1894 the latter decided to translate it into Italian in order to guarantee wider diffusion both at home and abroad A comparison of the two editions reveals substantial changes that allow us to understand better the developments Italian operetta was undergoing Comparison of the characters and structure of the Roman dialect operetta Er marchese der Grillo (1889) and its Italian adaptation Il marchese del Grillo (1894) Il pizzico è mezzano dell’amore.Footnote 51 pinch / Those tasty curves … / The pinch is the middleman of love.] in addition to a third version of Il marchese del Grillo how the majority of works were geared in both libretto and music towards the Roman context The exceptions are Santarellina and Cavalleria rusticana one (as mentioned above) an adaptation in Roman dialect of Mam’zelle Nitouche But what is even more revealing is the note at the foot of the page which reads: ‘In order to dispel the idea that Roman dialect is not understood outside the capital we can assure the public that the first to appreciate it and enjoy it are precisely those inhabitants of all other Italian cities.’ Repertory poster for the Compagnia romanesca led by Pippo Tamburri (c.1891) This request for legitimation was largely in vain and it highlights how widespread the prejudice expressed by Zuliani was concerning Roman operetta soon found themselves following a circuit even more on the margins than that of Italian operetta more generally: they performed in ephemeral theatres and makeshift constructions installed in the squares and fairgrounds of small towns in the Italian provinces more happy fate befell those companies that decided to diversify their repertoire and include Italian and foreign productions while reducing local ones to just a handful These included the Milanese companies of Scalvini and Ferravilla and the Roman one of Gaetano Tani which thanks to these changes managed to maintain national visibility in addition to influencing the genre in the ways we have seen the Italian public had found in operetta a communal space that increasingly coincided with that of the nation The idea of ‘parochialism’ was a thing of the past: emptied of political meaning operetta was re-purposed as a regrettable lapse in taste to be derided by a country trying to de-provincialise itself 2 As Francesco Izzo has stressed in his Laughter Between Two Revolutions: Opera Buffa in Italy this prejudice is the result of a lack of ‘bottom-up’ analysis of the opera industry and in particular the role of minor theatres While focusing on emblematic works of the period rather than exploring the activity of minor theatres Izzo has usefully indicated future paths for research on the post-Unification period 3 The rigid subdivision of genres that had affected Parisian theatre since 1853 when the repertoire constraints dating back to the Napoleonic period were restored meant that until 1864 operetta remained exclusively in the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens founded by Jacques Offenbach in 1855; see Nicole Wild Dictionnaire des théâtres parisiens au XIXe siècle: Les théâtres et la musique (Paris 4 De Amicis refers here to the pallone col bracciale a very popular sport in post-unification Italy and one to which the author had devoted an entire book some years previously (Gli azzurri e i rossi 6 Among the vast bibliography on the role of De Amicis’s novel in post-Unification Italy in Famiglia e nazione nel lungo Ottocento italiano: Modelli ‘Disciplinamento nazionale e modelli domestici nel lungo Ottocento: Germania e Italia a confronto’ Alberto Maria Banti and Paul Ginsborg (Turin ‘L’umorismo scapigliato e Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia di Costantino Dall’Argine (1868)’ in Gioachino Rossini 1868–2018: La musica e il mondo Emanuele Senici and Benjamin Walton (Pesaro Lambert!” (Parigi 1864) a “Se sa minga” (Milano 1866)’ in Viaggi italo-francesi: Scritti ‘musicali’ per Adriana Guarnieri Marica Bottaro and Francesco Cesari (Lucca ‘Effetto Offenbach: Novità ed adattamenti nel teatro postunitario di e con musica’ ‘the Italy of a hundred cities and a hundred bell towers’; ‘the country of a thousand cities and a thousand bell towers’) first emerged in the years following Italian unification and remains in common use today but it is clearly tied to the concept of ‘parochialism’ (campanilismo): a term that itself became widespread after Unification in place of ‘municipalism’ (municipialismo) emphasising attachment to one’s own city and therefore one’s own prominent bell tower ‘under the new Kingdom of Italy’s strong centralizing political agenda both the federalist aspirations of many intellectuals and the affectations and local peculiarities of regional populations were cast negatively as anti-patriotic and anti-national including through the use of ad hoc expressions such as campanilismo.’ See Massimo Fanfani ‘A proposito di campanilismo e dell’affrontare i dubbi di lingua’ who lamented the position of the South in his Lettere meridionali e altri scritti sulla questione sociale in Italia (1878); and Giustino Fortunato who dedicated various publications to the issue including La questione demaniale nelle province demaniali (1882) and Il mezzogiorno e lo stato italiano (1911) Mezzogiorno e questione meridionale (1860–1980) (Naples La questione italiana: Il Nord e il Sud dal 1860 a oggi (Bari 14 With this term I refer broadly to the world of theatre written or performed in one of Italy’s many regional languages and the associated deployment of features derived from the culture and traditions of individual regions Often this entailed the appearance of characters and tropes specific to regional variants of commedia dell’arte traditions and the insertion of vernacular poetic forms Italian dialect theatre progressively shed its regional peculiarities aligning itself more and more with national and international trends (especially French ones) with respect to formal features and typical subject matter 15 On the presence of the Grégoire company in Italy and on the reception of Parisian operetta constructed by Cletto Arrighi thanks to the modernisation of the Padiglione Cattaneo the theatre featured other companies that performed operetta Cletto Arrighi e il teatro milanese (1869–1876) (Rome which also contains a complete chronology of works staged up to 1876 a statement traditionally attributed to Massimo D’Azeglio one of the emblematic political figures of the Risorgimento Although its authenticity is still in some doubt it became one of the most famous slogans in United Italy The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness (Cambridge 26 The excerpt was part of the celebrated collection of Neapolitan songs assembled by Guglielmo Cottrau and entitled Passatempi musicali which appeared in 1865 from the publisher Teodoro Cottrau (Duettino ad una voce di Ciccio e Ceccia) eseguito dalla Sig.a M in Album della regina: 40 serenate del Golfo (Naples 30 In the satirical periodical La commedia umana we read that ‘Everyone knows that “monumentomania” has become one of the afflictions of our society because everyone has to some extent been the victim of at least a dozen public subscriptions to erect one of these marble memories to those who have in any way been distinguished in their home town’ (‘Non più statue On the phenomenon of monumentomania in the second half of the nineteenth century in Italy L’architettura della memoria in Italia: Cimiteri La parodia dell’opera lirica a Napoli nell’Ottocento (Naples Politics of Culture in Liberal Italy: From Unification to Fascism (New York 34 These words were pronounced by Cavour in a famous speech given on 25 March 1861 during the initial sessions of the lower house of the newly formed Italian parliament 35 The first master plan for the restructuring of Rome dates back to 1873 The works lasted approximately thirty years and led to the demolition of hundreds of houses and other buildings to make room for wider streets Roma moderna: Un secolo di storia urbanistica 1870–1970 (Turin costumi e pregiudizi del popolo di Roma (Turin Cantar ottave: Per una storia culturale dell’intonazione cantata in ottava rima (Lucca Singing Sappho: Improvisation and Authority in Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera (Chicago 43 This tendency is discussed in Massimo Cattaneo ‘L’opposizione popolare al “giacobinismo” a Roma e nello Stato pontificio’ Leggende romane: Il marchese del Grillo (Rome infrastrutture di Roma capitale 1870–1890 (Rome ‘“Les filles mal tournées” dell’offenbachiade’ 53 The first Italian version of Mam’zelle Nitouche with original music by Hervé and entitled Santarella was performed in Naples by the compagnia Scognamiglio at the Teatro Partenope on 14 November 1889 in addition to Eduardo Scarpetta’s comedy Na Santarella (Teatro Sannazaro tradotta dal francese dalla signorina Emilia Persico e ridotta per queste scene dall’artista Eduardo Minichini musica del maestro Crescenzo Buongiorno (Teatro Fenice musica di Domenico Bertaggia (Teatro Mercadante See Ditlev Rindom’s article in this issue for further discussion 54 On the circulation of Italian companies in South America ‘“The Operetta Seasons Considerably Decreased Our Losses”: Art and Business from Italian Ledgers of the Early 1900s’ in Genre Beyond Borders: Reassessing Operetta Elisabeth Honn Hoegberg and Sonja Starkmeth (Abingdon - No HTML tags allowed- Web page URLs will display as text only- Lines and paragraphs break automatically- Attachments Your email address will be used in order to notify you when your comment has been reviewed by the moderator and in case the author(s) of the article or the moderator need to contact you directly 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require a visa to travel to the EU.. The European Union regrets Irakli Kobakhidze's statement on the Georgian Dream's decision not to pursue the opening of EU accession negotiations and rejecting EU financial support until 2028 The EU cooperates with Georgia in the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy and its eastern regional dimension, the Eastern Partnership with the objective to bring Georgia closer to the EU on the understanding that the relevant steps set out in the Commission recommendation of 8 November 2023 are taken Georgia included in the Enlargement Package reports for the first time EU support to Georgia aims at improve the quality of life of Georgian citizens through an annual grant assistance of approximately €85 million EU assistance is based on strict conditionality and is linked to satisfactory progress in reforms and the respect of the rule of law effective democratic mechanisms and human rights The EU also supports Georgia with concrete investments through the Economic and Investment Plan (EIP) in line with the EU’s Global Gateway strategy the EU has leveraged €2.1 billion in public and private investments including for six flagships initiatives 1a        Black Sea Connectivity – Improving data connections with the EU 1b        Black Sea Connectivity – Improving energy connections with the EU 2          Transport across the Black Sea – Improving physical connections between Georgia and the EU through feeder/ferry lines and refurbished ports 3          Economic Recovery – Supporting 80,000 SMEs to reap the full benefits of the DCFTA 4          Digital Connectivity for Citizens – High-speed broadband infrastructure for 1,000 rural communities 5          Improved Air Quality – Helping over 1 million people in Tbilisi breathe cleaner air 6          Energy Efficiency in Public Buildings COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING DECISION of 11.12.2023 on the financing of the annual action plan in favour of Georgia for 2023 Commission Implementing Decision of 21.9.2022 amending several CIDs financing the European Union regional and bilateral cooperation with the Republic of Moldova and Georgia and repealing and replacing CID C(2022)1884 final C(2022) 9730 - COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING DECISION of 16.12.2022 on the financing of the annual action plan in favour of Georgia for 2022 COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING DECISION on the financing of the individual measure in favour of Georgia for 2021 ENI 2020/C(2020)6367/COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING DECISION of 16.9.2020 amending Commission Implementing Decision C(2019) 8383 of 19.11.2019 on the Annual Action Programme 2019 in favour of Georgia ENI 2020/C(2020)4959/Annual Action Programme for Georgia ENI 2019/C(2019)8383/Annual Action Programme for Georgia ENI 2018/C(2018)8064/Annual Action Programme for Georgia ENI 2017/C(2017)8575/Annual Action Programme for Georgia ENI 2016/C(2016)7556/Annual Action Programme for Georgia ENI 2015/C(2015)7148/Annual Action Program for Georgia ENI 2014/C(2014)5020/Annual Action Program for Georgia ENI 2014/C(2014)2988/Special Measure for Georgia and Moldova ENPI 2013/C(2013)5181/Annual Action Programme for Georgia ENPI 2012/C(2012)5939/Annual Action Programme for Georgia ENPI 2011/C(2011)4966/Annual Action Programme for Georgia ENPI 2010/C(2010)3330/Annual Action Programme for Georgia ENPI 2009/C(2009)7814/Annual Action Programme for Georgia ENPI 2009/C(2009)9529/Special Measure for Georgia IDP Action Plan 2009/Part III ENPI 2008/C(2008)7597/Special Measure for Georgia/Support to Georgia IDPs Action Plan 2008/PartI ENPI 2008/C(2008)8563/Special Measure for Georgia/Support to Georgia IDPs Action Plan 2008/PartII ENPI 2008/C(2008)3516/Annual Action Programme for Georgia ENPI 2007/C(2007)5372/Annual Action Programme for Georgia DDI SVP of Leadership Insights Matt Paese shares research-backed insights on where leaders encounter obstacles Today’s business leaders face unprecedented challenges that can lead to stress and burnout It’s no small feat to ensure teams can perform well in uncertain environments and leaders often lack the time to learn new skills and gain insights personalized learning that fits into their daily work allowing them to improve without disruption senior vice president of leadership insights at DDI shares his thoughts and insights on leaders’ biggest obstacles concerns and frustrations and what they value most in their roles Paese sheds light on the critical skills leaders need to navigate uncertain times and highlights how organizations can support effective leader development priorities and needs of today’s leaders?  Paese: Leaders in today’s environment face new, unfamiliar challenges so regularly that stress and burnout are common. They are tasked with ensuring strong team performance in highly ambiguous situations organizational restructuring and the need for rapid upskilling to match the pace of change are just a few among many forces that create new The velocity and chaos of business means that leaders can waste no time but they need to be able to gain and use personalized insights efficiently to support learning that is relevant to their daily work Leaders also need to learn in the flow of work immediate feedback and continuous improvement in the context of actual work challenges What skills do leaders need to navigate current and future uncertainties In DDI’s Global Leadership Forecast 2023 leaders identified five key skills as crucial in today’s business environment: developing talent prioritization and influencing others.  While leaders want support to develop these skills many organizations fail to provide learning and development opportunities to truly build new skills and change behavior.  Are companies prioritizing these crucial leadership skills and how do successful organizations approach development While more than 60 percent of leaders say the five skills listed above are critical only 30 percent or less have ever received training to develop them Many companies see leadership skills as “soft” and then make the mistake of deprioritizing leadership development in favor of technical or functional training — or no training at all which allows them to provide more personalized learning in the moments when individuals or groups need it most.  The most successful organizations are able to customize and deploy a wide array of content programmatically addressing company-wide priorities and just-in-time needs What are the most effective and well-received development approaches It’s a mistake to believe that the stress and demands of work make leaders averse to learning and development Our research suggests a different conclusion.  Hybrid and remote workplaces continue to leave leaders feeling starved for more time with their teams and colleagues both in the way they work and in the way they learn How does diversity and inclusion shape leadership development strategies of modern organizations These trends and others persist despite the compelling evidence that organizations with stronger DEI efforts far outperform their competition Awareness of the importance of diversity and inclusion as well as the skills to foster an environment that capitalizes on human uniqueness is crucial to both culture and the bottom line making these critical topics for every organization influencing the landscape of leadership development One of the most exciting developments is how AI-driven assessment is enabling learners to practice skills with an AI partner and receive immediate influencing and providing feedback can be practiced safely and comfortably at the leader’s pace without any involvement of human assessors or trainers These assessments are proving to be as or more reliable and accurate than human assessors and are creating an exciting new horizon in which people can receive accurate feedback about their skills in safe efficient ways that foster greater use and faster growth How should businesses measure the impact and effectiveness of leadership development learning should result in two core outcomes: application and growth Application is the use of new learning in actual work situations and growth is the demonstration of behavior change over time Both metrics should be part of an organization’s development strategy.  you can gauge leadership development effectiveness through improvements in key performance indicators including enhanced employee engagement scores increased productivity metrics and higher customer satisfaction ratings Operational efficiencies such as decreased downtime shorter production times and improved safety records can reflect the positive impact of leadership development initiatives on your bottom line Explore more findings from DDI’s Global Leadership Forecast 2023 one of the largest leadership research projects in the world DDI has examined the state and business impact of leadership development practices and leader experiences within and across organizations in major industries and economies around the globe View All Post a press release Chief Learning Officer Copyright © 2024 | Chief Learning Officer | All Rights Reserved | Privacy Policy Ambassadors panel Arctic Congress 2024 with moderator Arne O Holm Editor/commentator High North News, Maria Varteressian EU Delegation to Norway, Ambassador Amy Baker Canadian Ambassador to Norway, Jamal Al-Mussawi Indian Ambassador to Norway and Ambassador Florence Robine French Ambassador to Norway. (Photo: Trine Jonassen) (Photo: Trine Jonassen) with 1,200 researchers and decision-makers Must the country's deafening absence be considered permanent We have been at the massive Arctic Congress the Arctic Congress – a merger of three Arctic conferences – has gathered 1,200 researchers The Arctic city is buzzing with life and all the world's languages but there is a geopolitical backdrop behind the laughter and friendships in the bright summer nights This characterized many of the discussions.  Including this week's commentary from Commentator and Editor of High North News There is still a lot of trust and support for the kind of democracy we do have,” the diplomat told Holm during the traditional Ambassadors Panel at the Arctic Congress Arctic tourism was part of several discussions during the congress.  We will continue to follow the congress throughout the weekend so stay tuned for more news from the North.  High North News is not responsible for the content or opinions expressed on external web pages Editor in Chief:Trine Jonassen E-mail High North News Editor/Commentator: Arne O. HolmTel: (+47) 905 29 472 Journalist:Hilde-Gunn Bye Journalist:Astri Edvardsen Translator:Birgitte Annie Molid Martinussen Most people who travel to north Italy go of course to Venice but only a few miles away is  the wonderful city of Padova I hope these photos will tempt readers to visit and sample for themselves the architecture and other delights of Padova Discover all our subscription plans and become a member Cleveland’s Little Italy is a vibrant eastside neighborhood near University Circle with the main roads of Mayfield and Murray Hill began to form in the late 1800s when Italian immigrants settled here in search of work and a better life Little Italy has retained its distinct character and continues to preserve Italian traditions.  Afghanistan is facing one of the world’s largest and most complex humanitarian crises which has also far-reaching impacts on neighbouring Iran and Pakistan.  The complex and protracted humanitarian situation in Afghanistan is further aggravated by climate change The humanitarian community is facing new challenges since the withdrawal of international troops and the Taliban takeover in 2021 the EU continues to provide life-saving assistance in Afghanistan through its various funding programmes.  EU humanitarian aid strictly adheres to the humanitarian principles of independence It is solely channelled through our humanitarian partners on the ground and always directly to the people most in need Over 90% of the country’s population lives below the poverty line over 23.7 million people – more than half of Afghanistan’s population – will need humanitarian assistance Millions of people across the country do not have access to safe water The effects of climate change have caused a widespread water crisis across the country Currently 15.8 million people are acutely food insecure with 3.5 million people facing extreme food shortages Afghanistan continues to face a protection crisis nearly 60% of families reported that a member experienced psychological distress Intersecting vulnerabilities add a toll on girls Despite the significant reduction in armed conflict Afghanistan remains one of the countries that are most contaminated by explosive ordnance worldwide and gender-based violence are strongly interconnected protection risks The end of 2023 was marked by the return of hundreds of thousands of people after neighbouring Pakistan endorsed a plan to repatriate over 1 million foreigners – mostly Afghans - without valid documents and the surge of new arrivals has further stretched the already scarce resources in the country Returns are expected to continue throughout the year with projections indicating that close to 1.5 million Afghans from Pakistan and Iran will come back in 2024 The EU has been funding humanitarian operations in Afghanistan since 1994 providing close to €1.8 billion in humanitarian funding the EU has so far allocated nearly €161 million in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan the EU mobilised €156.5 million in humanitarian funding including a €4.5 million support package following the series of deadly earthquakes in October 2023 The 2024 funding continues to provide critical relief assistance to the most vulnerable EU humanitarian aid in Afghanistan is solely channelled through our humanitarian partners on the ground. The funding strictly adheres to the humanitarian principles of independence impartiality and neutrality to ensure it reaches those Afghans most in need To facilitate the delivery of lifesaving aid, the EU has transported over 1,850 tonnes of relief items through 37 Humanitarian Air Bridge flights to Kabul since August 2021 23.7 million people need humanitarian assistance in 2024 More than 1 million children under 5 are malnourished EU humanitarian aid funding:€160.95 million in 2024€159 million in 2023€174 million in 2022€225 million in 2021Approximately €1.8 billion since 1994 by June 19, 2024Source: Vimeo "Why can't you go skate at the skatepark instead?" Ah yes the frustrating question skateboarders are asked day after day This clever short titled SPOTS: A Way of Seeing addresses that question with thoughtful scientific analysis Spots is a short film from skateboarder / filmmaker Daniel Paese taking a close look at the "spots" skaters choose and what makes them so appealing It's a visual presentation by Paese's research facility delving into the phenomena of "SPOTS" - showing everyone why they love to skate around on the "wild" architecture of the streets.. "The world of naturally occurring spots is so vast and complex that it is virtually impossible to catalog and define in its entirety." Starring Avery Miller It really does feel like I learned something watching this Find more posts in: Short Film, To Watch Add our RSS to your Feedly +click here+ Latest posts now available on Bluesky: Get the latest posts sent on Telegram Want emails instead?Subscribe to our dailynewsletter updates: Picture by ACMTwo young men have avoided time behind bars for a Berkeley home invasion in which one smashed a window with the butt of a rifle before they left crucial evidence at the scene All articles from our website & appThe digital version of Today's PaperBreaking news alerts direct to your inboxInteractive Crosswords Sudoku and TriviaAll articles from the other regional websites in your areaContinueTaj Hearn and Cruise Paese were sentenced at Wollongong District Court on Wednesday to intensive correction orders for one year and 10 months for the February 18 and low risk of re-offending into account when handing down his sentence Paese and an unidentified third man were captured on CCTV donning hoodies and masks at the entrance of the home occupied by a couple and their baby with Paese holding a weapon resembling a rifle Hearn kicked the screen door twice but was unable to open it with Paese then using the weapon to smash a stained glass panel The trio were met by the male occupant who was standing on the other side of the door "Get the f--- out of here now!" the man inside yelled The trio ran around to the back door with Paese using the butt of the weapon to smash through the kitchen window panel which was picked up by the unidentified man who pointed it at the occupant Hearn stayed behind holding the black duffel bag while the other two walked inside but left the bag and a 30-centimetre kitchen knife at the scene the male occupant suffered lacerations to his arms from the broken glass that Paese smashed through Police arrived shortly after midnight and seized the duffel bag with Paese's DNA lifted from it Hearn and Paese were arrested shortly after in Port Kembla Hearn could be heard in a recorded jail call with his parents a week later discussing a media article about his arrest "I reckon I'm gonna get out 100 per cent mum .. because the reason we're here is because of the firearm charges The pair pleaded guilty in November 2024 to aggravated break and enter with intent to commit larceny while armed with a dangerous weapon The court heard both men had engaged in psychological treatment and expressed genuine remorse Paese had been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder He was also introduced to drugs from the early age of 12 which quickly escalated into taking harder substances Hearn has been diagnosed with ADHD which made him more susceptible to being influenced however had since been assessed as a low-risk of re-offending Today's top stories curated by our news team Grab a quick bite of today's latest news from around the region and the nation Catch up on the news of the day and unwind with great reading for your evening Get the editor's insights: what's happening & why it matters Get the latest property and development news here Find out what's happening in local business tips & travel writing to transport you around the globe Your weekday morning newsletter on national affairs Your essential national news digest: all the big issues on Wednesday and great reading every Saturday Let the ACM network's editors and journalists bring you news and views from all over reviews and expert insights every Thursday from CarExpert Your digital replica of Today's Paper Test your skills with interactive crosswords co-founder and managing director of Sophia Loren Hong Kong (Photo: Zed Leets/ Tatler Hong Kong) Tony Paese co-founder and managing director of Sophia Loren Hong Kong (Photo: Zed Leets/ Tatler Hong Kong) Sophia Loren Hong Kong marks the first international footprint for the dining and entertainment concept founded by the iconic actress; there are four restaurants in Italy the Hong Kong outpost—which takes up the historic Wan Chai building that once housed Woo Cheong Tea House—is styled by Italian architect and designer Ivo Maria Redaelli who also designed the four Sophia Loren restaurants in Italy Sophia Loren Hong Kong’s co-founder and managing director says Loren has always had an affinity for Hong Kong when she starred in Charlie Chaplin’s film A Countess from Hong Kong (1967) he talks to Tatler about revamping the location into a glamorous Italian hotspot You might also like: The best Italian restaurants in Hong Kong What made this historic building the ideal spot for Sophia Loren Hong Kong?We really wanted to have something unique and special for Hong Kong The outdoor space was perfect for us to create alfresco dining which is very popular in Naples and the Amalfi Coast This type of building can be seen in Italy Sophia Loren Hong Kong could not have been anywhere else Tell us more about the four concepts within Sophia Loren Hong Kong: Sophia Loren Pizzeria Stage and Pellicola Rooftop.We started renovations in November 2023 The 17,000 sq ft space underwent a huge transformation over five months All four floors have a totally different design and set-up where you can go from the ground floor pizzeria which is Casa Sophia Loren—a cosy and refined Italian seafood restaurant very reminiscent of the interior of her house which is linked to her world of acting and performing 1970s-inspired club with live performances a dancefloor and an atmosphere charged with nostalgia It overlooks the tramway and Johnston Road and has a beautiful olive tree in the middle It’s a very interesting and fun place to be a guest Of all the places to expand internationally why Hong Kong?I met Sophia in Geneva in 2022 The Cimmino family is the major driving force for this whole operation [Sophia Loren Hong Kong is a collaboration with Neapolitan entrepreneur and politician Luciano Cimmino] we started the idea of creating our own brand and Hong Kong is our first step into the international world Sophia has been to Hong Kong and she did A Countess from Hong Kong; she loves Hong Kong and its history The Cimmino family used to travel here a lot It was an easy decision to make and it came with a lot of blessings from both sides What is your earliest memory of Sophia?I am blushing I always thought my mum and Sophia had certain similarities so I would ask my mum if that was her on TV I always thought Sophia Loren was my mum [laughs] Neapolitan people have a lot of passion for our history Sophia turns 90 and the city of Naples has a fantastic celebration planned for her I still have goosebumps every time I walk into the restaurant What is Sophia like and how involved is she in the project She is involved with final approvals on layouts and designs You can’t play around with that [laughs] The pizzeria was a non-negotiable for her—she was very particular that the concept would be a no-go without the pizzeria She is completely in love with our pizza recipe What do you hope people will feel when they come to Sophia Loren Hong Kong?I really hope people feel the elegance and style of Italy—from the kitchen to the design to the way we approach our guests Do you have any plans to expand further?There are big expansion plans for Sophia Loren in Hong Kong itself—perhaps in Kowloon We are forging ahead with expansion plans in Japan and we are looking into Europe as well 11 Hong Kong restaurants loved by Anthony Bourdain 20 of the Best Eyewear Brands That Are Truly Are ‘Made in Italy Everything You Didn't Know About Sophia Loren's Jewellery Collection Pictures by Grace CrivellaroTwo young men have admitted to breaking into a Berkeley home and leaving a large knife and duffel bag with crucial DNA evidence at the scene faced Wollongong Local Court last week and pleaded guilty to an aggravated break and enter with intent to commit larceny while armed with a dangerous weapon on February 18 Paese and an unidentified third man were captured on CCTV donning hoodies at the entrance of the home occupied by a couple and their baby with Paese using the weapon to smash a stained glass panel Hearn remained behind holding the black duffel bag while the other two walked inside but left behind the bag and a 30-centimetre kitchen knife at the scene Hearn and Paese were arrested shortly in Port Kembla their lawyers opposed a detention application lodged by the Director of Public Prosecution to revoke their bail Defence lawyer Caitlin Drabble argued Paese had already served eight months on remand after being granted Supreme Court bail and has since made every effort to seek out mental health treatment and employment Defence lawyer Matt Ward submitted Hearn's role was less than the others and that he was seeking crucial treatment for physical and mental health issues including for an autoimmune condition and potential autism spectrum disorder DPP solicitor Jacqueline Azad said the offending was aggravated through the use of a firearm as well as the young family being asleep with their child before being woken She added full-time custody was a likely sentencing option however Magistrate Mark Douglass denied the application meaning the men will await their sentence date in the community Receive bi-weekly updates and analysis from  “L’Italia non è un Paese per giovani” — “Italy is no country for young people” — is an all too common catchphrase across the political spectrum The consensus among the Italian youth is clear, too: Italy is no country for them. As polls show, four in five young Italians think that they would be better off living in another country. In the past decade, a net total of 243,000 aged 25-32 have left their homeland in search of better living conditions the lack of employment opportunities does not paint the full picture this widespread youth discontent — left unchanged by recent reform efforts in the labor market — is fueled by the ongoing plight of young workers in Italy Even for those youth who do find employment in Italy coupled with more favorable economic conditions seem to have had their intended effects.  In its attempt to tackle unemployment by reducing worker protections the Jobs Act failed to address the plight of young Italian workers Faced with low wages, financial and career insecurity, and weak workplace protections, the 5.4 million workers aged 15-34 are bearing the brunt of Italy’s decades-long economic underperformance paint a fuller picture of the economic predicament experienced by the Italian youth The lack of a minimum wage in Italy disproportionately affects young workers, keeping them in a cycle of poverty. In fact, they earn 30% less than their older counterparts the average income is 13,074 Euros ($13,797) for women and 15,278 Euros ($16,123) for men Only 5% of workers aged 55-64 were hired under a fixed-term contract in 2022.  By exacerbating economic insecurity for young workers the Jobs Act has become part of the problem rather than a solution.  Financial insecurity and career instability shape the lifestyle choices that young Italians make youth have to postpone significant life milestones or give up on them altogether These include moving out of their parents’ home Firstly, young Italians stay with their parents for much longer than other EU countries. While the Swedish leave their parental household at age 19 on average, Italians wait — or have to wait — until they are 30 years old to do the same Without the chance to secure a stable income it is simply not affordable to live on one’s own insecurity: These are the prospects for the young Italians who manage to enter the workforce more suitable reform efforts by the government.  Our country desperately needs a new way to think about the youth crisis the government should focus on improving working conditions; incentivizing new hirings is not enough.  A first step in this direction is introducing a minimum wage. While sectoral collective bargaining covers 80% of contracts that has failed to solve the problem of chronically low wages Italy would join the 22 EU countries that already have one in place Ensuring adequate wages is not only necessary for respecting the value of work but it would also give young Italians the means to pursue their life goals.   With the necessary shift in perspective on and approach to the youth crisis It can and must become a country for young people again Only this way can it country avoid the looming demographic disaster and earn itself a future — a future that can only pass through its youth it needs reforms — not more deregulation and flexibility but stronger protections and support for workers of all ages.  Already a member? Log in Not a member? Sign up Explore our Food Tours → Editor’s note: To further explore how the pandemic has affected the areas featured in our 2020 “Neighborhoods to Visit” guide and what recovery may look like we will be publishing dispatches from restaurants markets and food shops in these districts all week long The close links between Marseille and the French island of Corsica are Like the red-and-white Corsica Linea ferries docked in Marseille’s port that make daily crossings across the Mediterranean Or the prevalence of Corsican canistrelli at Marseille’s boulangeries and biscuiteries Yet, in spite of the large corse presence in Marseille since the 19th century (according to an article in Corse-Matin Marseille has more Corsicans than the island’s capital only a handful of shops are devoted to delicacies from the French territory This tiny épicerie corse is a treasure trove of the three Cs of Corsican gastronomy – charcuterie Don’t know your Bastelicacciu from your Brocciu Owner Marie-Paule and her associate Marc-Antoine are happy to guide you “I couldn’t sell anything but food,” says Marie-Paule who lights up when talking about her homeland’s cuisine Even with the Covid-19 plastic shield and mask The Ajaccio-born proprietor found her way to a life in Marseille as many Corsicans do – first coming for university and then falling in love with a local. Bored with her civil servant job, she teamed up with her sister-in-law to import authentic Corsican goods that were hard to find in Marseille. After finding success at the Cinq-Avenues farmers’ market they opened a brick-and-mortar space in the village-like neighborhood in 1985 A deli case stuffed with cured pork products sits at U Mio Paese’s front window tempting you to take the French word for window shopping Once you see the wall of hanging sausages inside you’ll understand that Corsica is synonymous with charcuterie This is thanks to the black nustrale pig unique to the island for thousands of years This rare breed roams freely from mountain pastures to forests dining on nature instead of being stuffed with grains and additives Along with their autumnal intake of chestnuts this natural diet lends the porc noir (porcu neru in Corsican) a fantastically rich flavor Classic cuts include the dark-red marbled coppa decadently enrobed in a thick layer of fat Skinny figatelli (sausage) is made of pork liver and pork meat – the darker the color Artisanal figatelli is only available in winter after the pigs are slaughtered These taste bombs are delicious when grilled for sandwiches or topped upon pizzas the Marseillais way “These guys aren’t dicking around,” quipped the late Anthony Bourdain in his Parts Unknown Marseille episode as he devoured a giant platter of charcuterie He loved it so much he insisted on handing slices to his camera crew while filming Though Corsican charcuterie is world-famous and the true artisans often don’t have time to market their wares This is why Marie-Paule’s work is so vital sometimes venturing into remote corners of the island – areas often without cell service – to find the best local pork butchers She does the same for the cheese sold at U Mio Paese which are all made from raw sheep or goat’s milk a whey cheese that is used in many sweet and savory Corsican recipes that fresh AOC (Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée or Protected Designation of Origin) Brocciu is seasonal From an aged niolo to a soft-rind Bastelicacciu U Mio Paese’s fromage is color-coded by potency and châtaigne in French) are prominent in Corsican foodstuffs thanks to a tree-planting initiative by Genoan leadership in the 15th century to promote sustenance on the island Corsica was ruled by Italian states for 500 years hence the similarities in names and language.) U Mio Paese sells confiture de châtaigne (chestnut jam) and farine de châtaigne (chestnut flour) for cakes and flans – with a recipe on the wall for home bakers the Corsican chestnut beer that’s poured at bars across Marseille stock up on the iconic canistrelli and cujuelle cookies plus frappes (beignets.) The fig confiture (preserve) is “great with cheese,” says Marie-Paule she shares how the beekeeper moves his hives both to capture seasonal flavors and to benefit the land When Covid-19 put small businesses in peril, U Mio Paese jumped into action. They instilled a delivery service for Marseille customers outside of the neighborhood and launched an e-shop in response to the rise in online shopping Marc-Antoine explains that their Corsican clients ordered more than usual since travel bans restricted them from visiting the island residents shirk supermarkets in favor of small boulangeries who seek camaraderie in shops after being forbidden to see their loved ones They are among the regulars at U Mio Paese whose familiarity gives the shop more of a village feel than its big city address would suggest Corsica is nicknamed the Île de Beauté for its breathtaking mountains that spill into turquoise coves growing up on an island where the horizon stretches interminably,” shares Marie-Paule She starts humming “Kalliste,” the song inspired by the Greek name for Corsica meaning “most beautiful.” Her mind wanders off to her homeland Which is so deliciously represented in her Marseille shop loading map - please wait...Map could not be loaded - please enable Javascript!→ more information Cardiovascular and Smooth Muscle Pharmacology Volume 11 - 2020 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2020.574656 This article is part of the Research TopicNew Drug Targets for Proteotoxicity in Cardiometabolic DiseasesView all 24 articles Doxorubicin (DOX) is an anthracycline cancer chemotherapeutic that exhibits cumulative dose-limiting cardiotoxicity and limits its clinical utility DOX treatment results in the development of morbid cardiac hypertrophy that progresses to congestive heart failure and death Recent evidence suggests that during the development of DOX mediated cardiac hypertrophy mitochondrial energetics are severely compromised thus priming the cardiomyocyte for failure To mitigate cumulative dose (5 mg/kg QIW x 4 weeks with 2 weeks recovery) dependent DOX we applied an orally active selenium based compound termed phenylaminoethyl selenides (PAESe) (QIW 10 mg/kg x 5) to our animal model and observed that PAESe attenuates DOX-mediated cardiac hypertrophy in athymic mice we demonstrated that DOX impedes the stability of the iron-sulfur cluster biogenesis protein Frataxin (FXN) (0.5 fold) resulting in enhanced mitochondrial free iron accumulation (2.5 fold) and reduced aconitase activity (0.4 fold) Our findings further indicate that PAESe prevented the reduction of FXN levels and the ensuing elevation of mitochondrial free iron levels PAESe has been shown to have anti-oxidative properties in part we observed that PAESe can mitigate DOX mediated cardiac hypertrophy by enhancing glutathione activity (0.4 fold) and inhibiting ROS formation (1.8 fold) we observed that DOX significantly reduced cellular respiration (basal (5%) and uncoupled (10%)) in H9C2 cardiomyoblasts and that PAESe protects against the DOX-mediated attenuation of cellular respiration the current study determined the protective mechanism of PAESe against DOX mediated myocardial damage and that FXN is implicitly involved in DOX-mediated cardiotoxicity reducing DOX-induced toxicity without dampening its anti-cancer activity is critical to optimizing its use and effectively treating different cancers Based on a mechanistic understanding of Frataxin and the descriptive observations related to PAESe’s cardio-protective activity we hypothesize that PAESe protects against DOX-induced cardiotoxicity through stabilizing mitochondrial bioenergetic metabolism and mitigating the attenuation of frataxin expression through antioxidant mechanisms by recycling GSH Here we describe the molecular basis for the observed cardioprotective activity of PAESe against DOX-induced cardiotoxicity Juvenile NCr athymic (nu/nu) mice were obtained from Taconic (Tarrytown NY) and maintained according to an approved Institutional Animal Care Use Committee protocol at Auburn University Mice were housed in a controlled environment (23°C; 12:12-h light-dark cycle) with ad libitum access to water and standard chow diet Juvenile (6–8 week old) mice were randomly divided into four groups Mice received weekly tail vein injections of saline DOX (QIW 5 mg/kg in saline x 5) for a cumulative dose of 25 mg/kg of DOX or DOX + PAESe (QIW 10 mg/kg x 5) over four weeks followed by two weeks of recovery with no treatment hearts were surgically removed immediately after exsanguination and stored at −80°C for further use Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was completed at the AU-MRI Research Center Cardiac volumetric functional parameters for left ventricular (LV) end-diastolic (E.D.) volume and LV mass were calculated using Matlab (Mathworks Wall thickness was calculated as the radial distance between the endo- and epicardial contours and wall thickening as percent change from the end-diastolic (ED) wall thickness to end-systolic (ES) wall thickness Both endo- and epicardial contours were traced on the short-axis (SA) and images that were acquired were at the E.D The values attained from the areas defined by these contours included the associated per-slice E.D and thus allowing the LV mass to be calculated; where LV mass = LV volume * 1.055 g/cm3 slice parameters provided whole-LV volumetric parameters Rat-derived embryonic ventricular cardiomyoblast (H9C2) cells were purchased from ATCC (CRL-1446) and cultured according to the manufactures recommendations cells were grown in DMEM supplemented with 10% (v/v) fetal bovine serum and 1% (v/v) Pen-Strep cells were counted and plated with equivalent numbers of cells (density) based upon plate size into several 100 or 150 mm2 plastic cell culture plates for drug treatment and phenylaminoethyl selenide (PAESe) was synthesized and provided by Dr Cells were treated with complete DMEM media containing the desired concentration of drugs for 24 h cells were treated with or without DOX (10 µm) for 24 h followed by incubation with or without PAESe (1 μM) for an additional 24 h resolved and blotted on a nitrocellulose membrane The blots were stained with primary antibodies #25830) and α-tubulin (1:2,000 washed with Tris-buffered saline-Tween and incubated with a secondary - horseradish peroxidase-conjugated antibody (1:2,000 Blots were visualized with chemiluminescence reagent (Millipore) and imaged on a Bio-Rad gel dock system Protein bands were analyzed using Quantity One software (BioRad) or ImageJ software and standardized to α-tubulin Changes in markers (gene expression) associated with ventricular size enlargement were measured by real-time PCR analysis was extracted from animal tissues and cultured H9C2 cardiomyocytes with or without DOX using Trizol (Invitrogen) following the recommended protocol from Invitrogen heart tissues were crushed in liquid nitrogen with mortar and pestle into a fine powder Trizol was then added to each sample and combined with 0.1 ml chloroform into each tube was isolated by centrifugation (12,000 g for 15 min at 4°C) was isolated and combined with isopropanol centrifuged again at 12,000 g for 10 min at 4°C and then centrifuge at 7,500 g for 5 min at 4°C pellets were then air-dried and reconstituted into RNAse free water using a first strand OneScript cDNA synthesis kit (A.B.M.) Aconitase activity was measured using Aconitase Assay Kit (Cayman chemicals aconitase catalyzes the isomerization of citrate to isocitrate which is then converted to α-ketoglutarate by isocitrate dehydrogenase Cells were grown in 150 mm2 plates and treated with or without DOX (10 µM) for 24 h followed by incubation of PAESe (1 μM) Aconitase enzyme activity was monitored from isolated mitochondria and based on assay protocol by measuring the change in absorbance at 340 nm that is associated with the formation of NADPH using a Cytation 5 (BioTek) multimodal imaging reader Values were standardized by protein concentrations Cardiac troponin-I (cTnI) is a component of the troponin complex that regulates cardiac muscle contraction The current ELISA measures troponin expressed specifically in cardiomyocytes and therefore it is an excellent biomarker of cardiac injury ELISA for mouse cTnI was purchased from Life Diagnostics (Cat # CTNI-1-HS) cTnI was measured from serum samples (100 μL) Values were determined from samples by the endpoint method where plates are measured at 450 nm after 5 min at room temperature using a Cytation five multimodal imaging reader Concentrations of cTnI from measured samples were based upon given concentration curve of mouse cTnI from the ELISA kit Final values were represented as per ml of blood Glutathione peroxidase activity was measured using a Glutathione Peroxidase Assay Kit (Cayman Chemical) heart tissue samples from mice were washed with PBS and then snap-frozen and ground to a powder with liquid nitrogen using a mortar and pestle (as per instructions form the kit) Tissue and cell pellets were reconstituted in MES buffer (supplied in kit) Glutathione peroxidase activity from samples was determined by the endpoint method where plates are read at 405–414 nm after 25 min at room temperature using a Cytation five multimodal imaging reader Cellular respiration was measured as previously described (Koves et al., 2005) Following DOX (10 µM) with or without PAESe (1 µM) treatment trypsinized and centrifuged at 800 g for 3 min Cellular particulate pellets were then washed and resuspended in 400 μL PBS containing 10 mM glucose and pH 7.45 and maintained at 37°C 300 μL of glucose supplemented PBS was added to the oximeter chamber (Hansatech Instruments United Kingdom) and equilibrated for approximately 1 min after which 350 μL of the cell suspension solution was added The basal respiration rate was then recorded for approximately 5 min 6 μM FCCP (OXPHOS uncoupler) was added and respiration was monitored for an additional 2 min Basal (coupled) and maximal (uncoupled) respiration rates were normalized to protein concentrations from cells (50 µL of aliquot) remaining in supplemented PBS The mitochondrial membrane potential was measured utilizing tetramethylrhodamine ethyl ester a positively charged red-orange dye that accumulates in active mitochondria H9C2 cells treated with or without DOX (10 µM) plus or minus PAESe (1 µM) were plated in a 12 well plate and mitochondrial membrane potential was determined Depolarized or inactive mitochondria have reduced membrane potential and therefore fail to sequester TMRE The cells were stained according to the manufacture’s protocol and the signals were measured (ex/em at 548/575 nm) using a Cytation five multimodal imaging reader The ATP levels were quantified based on a protocol using the ATPlite luminescence ATP detection assay system (PerkinElmer H9C2 cells were plated based upon a standardized cell number using a hemocytometer Cells were then treated with increasing concentrations of DOX (1–50 µM) with or without PAESe (1 µM) the bioluminescence represents the reaction between D-luciferin and ATP and was proportional to the ATP concentrations The luminescence was measured using Glomax luminometer (Promega) Values were standardized to total protein concentrations per well Iron detection was performed using a Ferrozine colorimetric assay, which is based upon previously published technique for detection and quantification of free iron by forming a colorimetric complex (Riemer et al., 2004; Nanayakkara et al., 2015) Cultured H9C2 cardiomyocytes were treated with or without DOX (10 µM) for 24 h followed by incubation with or without PAESe (1 μM) Mitochondrial and cytosolic fractions were isolated from ventricular lysate and H9C2 cell lines and lyzed with NaOH lysis buffer for 45 min Cellular fractions were then incubated with H.C.L./KMnO4 for 2 h at 60°C which enhanced the detection of iron in the samples Absorbance was read at 550 nm and standardized to total protein concentrations Mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) was measured using mitochondrial specific dihydrorhodamine (DHR) assay (Biotium) DHR is a ROS indicator that accumulates in the mitochondria and is oxidized to form the charged cationic rhodamine 123 where it exhibits a green fluorescence (505/534 nm) The cells were seeded in a 24-well plate and stained according to the manufacturer's protocol cells were treated with or without DOX (10 µM) for 24 h Fluorescence intensity was detected using a Cytation five multimodal image reader and analysis was accomplished using Gen5 software and ImageJ software per treatment from four independent sets of experiments The total fluorescence values were obtained by comparisons of densitometric values to the total area Statistical comparisons between groups were determined using paired Student’s t-test and one-way ANOVA was applied to analyze for multiple groups Data were reported as means ± S.E.M A p-value ≤0.05 was considered to be a significant difference between groups All experiments were accomplished with a minimal of N = 3 replicates in three independent experiments [MHCβ (t (8) = 3.405; p = 0.0093)] PAESe protects against DOX-induced cardiac hypertrophy (A,B) PAESe reduces DOX mediated changes in cardiac architecture and performance in athymic mice as determined from MRI analysis 16 segment model of the LV portion of the Bull’s eye plot from MRI scans show the anterio-lateral geometry of the left ventricle (LV) in DOX treated mice (Ant Further MRI the analysis revealed an increase in left ventricular mass index the effects of DOX on cardiac performance revealed a reduced end-diastolic volume and end-systolic volume ejection volume and overall cardiac output Measurements of cardiac troponin (cTnI) from serum samples revealed the presences of cardiotoxicity and that PAEse offered cardioprotection against Dox mediated cardiotoxicity (C,D) Measurements of changes in markers for cardiac hypertrophy (ANP and β-MHC) as measured by qRT-PCR analysis in athymic mice treated with Doxorubicin (DOX) (5 mg/kg Values were based on ΔΔct values which were standardized to β-actin expression Statistical differences were determined by a student t-test and comparisons were analyzed based on SEM where n = 4 animals per group Values are represented as mean ± S.E.M and were analyzed by student t-test where N = 4 animals per group PAESe protects against DOX-induced cardiac hypertrophy in H9C2 cardiomyoblasts (A) Representative phalloidin fluorescence imaging displays protective effects by PAESe (1 µM) against DOX (10 µM) mediated hypertrophy in H9C2 cell as demonstrated by fold change in size by treatment (B) Graphical measurement of morphometric measurements from panel A (C,D) ANP and β-MHC mRNA expression were evaluated by two-step qPCR analysis from cells treated with DOX (10 µM) with and without PAESe (1 µM) for 24 h Data are represented as fold change from control and in the case for qPCR analysis standardized to β-actin Indicated above are the mean ± S.E.M ***; p < 0.0001 ###; p < 0.00001 PAESe prevents DOX-mediated reduction of frataxin expression (A,B) Western blot analysis of frataxin expression levels from heart tissue from cumulative dosing of DOX (25 mg/kg) ± PAESe (50 mg/kg/dose) as described in the methods section Animals were administered drugs once a week (Q.I.W.) (*p < 0.05; **p < 0.001 ***p < 0.0001; Mean ± SEM n = 3x4) (C,D) Western blot on H9C2 and (E–H) Frataxin over expressing (OE) H9C2 cardiomyobalsts cell lines Both H9C2 and Frataxin overexpressing cells were treated with drug for 24 h as control (media) or 10 µm) with or without PAESe (1 µM) (*p < 0.05,**p < 0.001 ***p < 0.0001 vs Control; Mean ± SEM Our results suggest that increasing DOX concentrations leads to reduced expression FXN these findings were not replicated in our FXN-OE cells [t (9) = 17.25; p = 0.0001] we demonstrated that PAESe treatment inhibited DOX-mediated increases in iron accumulation [t (9) = 11.80; p = 0.0001] These results support the hypothesis that PAESe protects against DOX-mediated cellular iron dyshomeostasis and FXN expression is involved in the protective mechanism underlying PAESe’s role in preventing mitochondrial iron overload from mitochondrial and cytosolic H9C2 subcellular fractions Cells were treated with DOX (10 µM) with or without PAESe (1 µM) for 24 h (*p < 0.05,**p < 0.001 PAESe protects against DOX mediated mitochondrial ROS formation (A,B) Fluorescence images of mitochondrial ROS formation (green) in increasing concentrations of DOX (0–50 µM) treated H9C2 cells with or without PAESe (1 µM) and graphical representation of ROS levels in H9C2 cardiomyoblasts mitochondrial heart lysate from DOX treated athymic mice with and without PAESe (cumulative dosing of (DOX 25 mg/kg) ± PAESe (50 mg/kg/dose) GPx activity was measured in isolated mitochondria from H9C2 cells treated with DOX (10 µM) or PAESe (1 µM) treated and non-treated H9C2 and FXN-OE cardiomyoblasts (E,F) Mitochondrial membrane potential (Δψm) determined by TMRE (2 μM) immunofluorescence in DOX treated (1–50 µM) H9C2 cells with and without PAESe (1 μM) for 24 h where N = 4 independent experiments and are represented as mean ± S.E.M and analysis was accomplished by student t-test with post-hoc analysis for significances between groups and within groups based upon averages from the assays *;p < 0.05 **; p < 0.001 PAESe protects against DOX-mediated attenuation of mitochondrial bioenergetics (A) H9C2 cells were treated as following; control (media) and DOX (10 µM) + PAESe (1 µM) Mitochondrial isolations were extracted from cells for aconitase activity assay Values were standardized to total protein concentrations based upon on a standard curve of enzyme activity from the kit (B) ATP levels were measured from H9C2 cardiomyoblasts treated with increasing concentrations of DOX (0–50 µM) for 24 h treated with and without PAESe (1 µm) (N = 4 independent experiments with three repetitions and values are based upon averages ± SEM (C) Mitochondrial respiration (basal and uncoupled (FCCP)) in H9C2 cardiomyoblasts were measured following DOX (10 µm) with our without PAESe (1 µm) for 24 h Values were normalized to total protein levels The mitochondrial complex activity was decoupled by adding Trifluorocarbonylcyanide (FCCP; 6 µM) where N = 4 independent experiments N = 4 independent experiments with N = 3 repetitions per group) describes together how PAESe regenerates glutathione and protects Frataxin from damage associated from doxorubicin the mechanisms associated with the development of DOX-mediated cardiotoxicity are unclear and complicated These findings helps to explain the reduced ejection volumes and reduced cardiac outputs in our mice We chose to use an athymic mouse model for our studies This model lacks the T-cell immunity and thus are immunocompromized in many ways our model investigated the direct impact of DOX on the cardiomyocytes Our goals were to determine the mechanism by which PAESe protects the heart against DOX mediated cardiotoxicity We acknowledge that the immune system also has a major impact on the inflammation hypertrophy and development of compensatory myocardial damage to DOX Future work will investigate whether PAESe protects from DOX mediated cardio toxicity in a model where the impact of the full immune system is involved including potential T cell mediated immune damage to the heart suggest that PAESe offered protection against DOX-mediated adverse effects by significantly improving the mitochondrial energy flux and anti-oxidative capacity thereby preserving the mitochondrial bioenergetics These findings indicate that PAESe protected against DOX-induced iron overload thus indicating a potential therapeutic mechanism towards mitigating the development of DOX mediated cardiac hypertrophy our findings indicate that FXN plays a significant role in the development of DOX mediated myocardial iron overload and that PAESe protects FXN from the impaired mitochondrial bioenergetics leading to progression of de-compensatory cardiomyopathy Further that PAESe was found to be protective against DOX mediated mitochondrial dysfunction and the ensuing cardiac hypertrophy Our future work will focus on determining how PAESe can prevent myocardial iron accumulation in chronic usage of DOX administration at extended time points following completion of DOX therapy we are currently developing the FXN overexpressing mouse model to understand better and justify the role of FXN in the DOX mediated damage to the mitochondria Our FXN overexpressing mouse model will further help decipher the role of FXN in the development of DOX mediated cardiomyopathy The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors The animal study was reviewed and approved by Auburn University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee which is accredited by AAALAC and RA worked on cell culture and animal work and RHA contributed to manuscript preparation The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest We would like to thank the support from the Auburn University Research Initiative in Cancer (AURIC)-Major (RA/RDA/PP) and Seed Grant (RA/RDA) Awards and the Tubitak Bideb-2219 International Post Doctoral Research Fellowship Programme (ET) Acute doxorubicin cardiotoxicity involves cardiomyocyte apoptosis Google Scholar Metformin rescues the myocardium from doxorubicin-induced energy starvation and mitochondrial damage in rats PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Glutathione-dependent redox status of frataxin-deficient cells in a yeast model of Friedreich's ataxia PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Mitochondria as a therapeutic target in heart failure PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Adriamycin-induced oxidative mitochondrial cardiotoxicity PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar biochemical and molecular genetic correlations in Friedreich's ataxia PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Frataxin is reduced in Friedreich ataxia patients and is associated with mitochondrial membranes PubMed Abstract | 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Eggert, Yoo, Patel, Zhong, Steinke, Govindarajulu, Turumtay, Mouli, Panizzi, Beyers, Denney, Arnold and Amin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Robert Arnold, cmRhMDAwN0BhdWJ1cm4uZWR1; Rajesh H. Amin, cmhhMDAwM0BhdWJ1cm4uZWR1 †ORCID: Robert D. Arnold, orcid.org//0000-0001-6143-3991; Peter Panizzi, orcid.org/0000-0003-0141-8807; Rajesh H. Amin, orcid.org/0000-0001-8741-0018 Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish Pack your bags and sunglasses—the Hearthstone Championship Tour’s next stop is in the Paese del Sole HCT Italy Powered By Zotac is the first Hearthstone tour stop in the country’s history The event will take place July 6 to 8 at the PALA2A in Varese The HCT Italy Tour Stop Powered By Zotac will be a bring-your-own-device Grand Prix and feature a 512-player Swiss bracket that will narrow down into a top 16 single elimination playoffs All matches will be played best-of-five in Conquest format with one ban with the tournament administered through Battlefy All games will take place on the Europe server and all tournament rounds will be streamed Tournament registration requires the pre-purchase of a three-day competitor pass to the event. Ticket sales will begin on April 20 at 18:00 CEST (9:00 a.m. PDT) and cease on June 29 at 20:00. CEST (11:00 a.m. PDT), so make sure you register fast! As with other Tour Stops, travel and accommodation must be self-funded. Tournament organizer eVox has two partner hotels that you can take advantage of—learn more here If you have any questions about the tournament or registration, send an email to tourstop@evoxsrl.com or join the dedicated Discord server hereRegister If you’re just interested in spectating the tournament, general admission ticket sales will be open right up to the day of the event. For more information on general admission tickets to HCT Italy, click here The full ruleset for HCT Italy Tour Stop Powered By Zotac can be viewed here, with the HCT 2018 Player Handbook available here The HCT Italy Tour Stop Powered By Zotac takes place from July 6 to 8 Registration for HCT Italy Tour Stop Powered By Zotac is open globally Which game region will HCT Italy be conducted on HCT Italy will be played on the Europe server What is the format for all matches in HCT Italy Tour Stop Powered By Zotac Matches will be played in two different phases. The Swiss rounds will be played best-of-five in Conquest format with one ban, while the top 16 playoffs will be single elimination. Each player will have to bring four decks. The full ruleset for HCT Tour Stop Italy Powered By Zotac can be viewed here, with the HCT 2018 Player Handbook available here How do I get more information on HCT Italy Tour Stop Powered By Zotac Email the organizer with any questions you might have! Click here to do so. You can also join the official Discord server Can I play with an account that is not mine All participating players must be the legal owners of their Hearthstone accounts Players found to not be in ownership of the account they are using to play will be disqualified immediately Stay up to date on tournament details through the Hearthstone Esports Twitter channel and let us know your thoughts with the hashtag #HCTItaly Sal Ferrante is passionate about tomatoes.   He starts talking about the importance of tomatoes and how having the right ones make all the difference in the world between a good sauce or a bad sauce and He goes into the kitchen at his restaurant and returns a moment later with a jar of tomatoes The ingredients begin – and end – with tomatoes.  grown in the mountains in central Sicily as they ripen in the Mediterranean sun Then he talks about olive oil and how the stuff you buy at the grocery store is a fraud And then he gets started on cheese and how you need just the right milk to make it or it's no good And then he shows me a bottle of balsamic vinegar tilting the bottle so I can see its viscosity not the caramel-colored stuff you get at the grocery store He visited a vinegar maker during one of his visits to Italy and described the complex and lengthy process that results in the nectar ancient vessels that have been used for generations to make the vinegar He described leaning over one of the barrels and sniffing it pausing for a moment to come up with the right words to convey the experience. "It," he says It doesn't take long to realize that Sal is pretty much passionate about everything – life food. As a person whose last name ends in a vowel and whose family's roots are firmed planted in the rocky soil of that little island at the tip of the boot (both my maternal and paternal grandparents are Siciliano) I can relate which translates to "beautiful country."  More: York County man is walking across America in search of the good in people April 29 is his daughter Stefania's birthday.) He remembers the date because it was one of the more important days in his life He remembers seeing the "big yellow taxi cabs" in New York a small town called Vittoria on the southern coast of Sicily known for its vegetables the produce basket of the rest Italy – and Europe Like the multitudes that preceded him – like my grandparents – he came here for opportunity where his uncle Joe Mannino runs a pizza shop (It's still there.) He worked there for a couple for years before branching out on his own opening a pizza shop across the river in Red Lion Central Pizza, now run by his sister a small pizza shop also called Central Pizza in a strip mall on Whiteford Road He started making the kinds of dishes you couldn’t get anywhere else a kind of cuisine foreign to palates honed on chicken pot pie chased with whoopee pies.   You have to understand the relationship Italians the Normans and just about every civilization that exercised empire building spent some time in Sicily and the Sicilians watched them come and go taking bits and pieces of their cultures as they passed through Sicily has the most biodiverse land in the world Fish are abundant just off its shores coupled with the resourcefulness of Sicilian cooks leads to a rich culinary heritage.  It was that heritage that Sal sought to share.  He traveled frequently to Sicily and Italy in search of the best ingredients He buys his milk from an Amish farm and only uses eggs laid by his own chickens.  His restaurant quickly developed a large and loyal customer base didn't see the people who came through the door as customers That was the kind of place he wanted to run.  His daughter Stefania has worked there since she was 14 and can't thank them enough for making the place work as it did.  the kind of place that doesn't just serve good food – and the food is excellent – but also the kind of place that reflects his heritage a heritage in which food provides more than just nourishment for the body "Everything in here has meaning," Sal said The tile on the wall was imported by Florence The murals on the wall depict his homeland (He is an American citizen and holds both U.S More: 'Po Jimmy': How one black man in York fought for and found success, happiness his own way there were some customers who just didn’t get it Having dinner at Bel Paese is a leisurely affair more about the occasion than stuffing calories into your gullet and some people might have expressed displeasure with that And others might not have understood what Sal was providing complained that he found bones in his fish Sal went to his table and explained that the fish wasn't farm-raised not some frozen block of fish meat. The customer's wife gave him grief and they said they would never come back Sal walked back to the kitchen and then returned make sure you never come back because you won't like what I do to you."  though. The majority of his customers kept coming back They came to Bel Paese for special occasions as much a part of the fabric of the community as the York Fair or Central Market He's kind of philosophical about it now He's been thinking about the business a lot ever since he announced recently that the restaurant's last day would be June 3.   Related: After 27 years, Bel Paese Italian restaurant in Springettsbury is going out of business He tried to bring a couple of young men over from Italy to work in the kitchen The restaurant business is a tough racket. Eighty hour weeks are normal but Sal's commitment to using only the best food he can find cuts into that never did things with money in mind," he said stopped at Sal's table the other day and expressed disbelief that Bel Paese would be closing And he has been humbled by all of the people who have stopped by to tell him how much they loved the place and how much they would miss it.   "I can't thank people enough," he said He also has a business importing Italian mid-century modern furniture from the '50s and '60s He may reopen a small restaurant at some point something that will allow him to share his passion for food and good company with others.  "I don't know what's going to happen," he said Reach Mike Argento at 717-771-2046 or at mike@ydr.com.  In this episode of The Pizza Kitchen, PMQ Test Chef Brian Hernandez serves up a recipe from Galbani by way of our April 2020 cover subject, celebrity chef Donatella Arpaia, Iron Chef America judge and owner of the Prova Pizzabar in New York The Galbani Bel Paese Chicken and Mushroom Pizza showcases the flavor of Galbani’s soft all underscored by a delicious mushroom medley Food & Ingredients Learn how to describe the purpose of the image (opens in a new tab) Leave empty if the image is purely decorative Over a thousand Russians including prominent members of the Communist Party packed Saturday a central square in Moscow to protest what Kremlin critics call mass electoral fraud as police detained a number of activists Opponents of President Vladimir Putin have accused the authorities of fraud after results showed the deeply unpopular ruling United Russia party winning a sweeping majority in parliament at legislative polls this month The three-day vote took place following a historic crackdown on the opposition with authorities imprisoning Putin's most vocal critic Alexei Navalny and formally outlawing his organizations.  With nearly all vocal Kremlin critics barred from running many Russians in Moscow and elsewhere backed the Communists as a form of protest voting More than a thousand protesters packed Pushkin Square on Saturday as Communist figures decried what they called a stolen election The crowd chanted "Putin is a thief!" and called for the release of political prisoners Some protesters carried signs demanding a  recount authorities detained a number of activists including Sergei Udaltsov which tracks detentions at opposition rallies Authorities beefed up the police presence on the square but members of law enforcement did not break up the rally they played loud music in an effort to drown out the speakers "United Russia has stolen lawmaker mandates," Valery Rashkin first secretary of the Communist Party in Moscow He and other Communists took particular issue with electronic voting results in Moscow which reversed Communist Party candidates' leads during the September 17-19 vote "There's been colossal vote fraud in Moscow," Rashkin said adding the party would contest the election results Communist lawmaker Alexei Kurinny praised Muscovites for being at the forefront of a fight for fair elections "Whoever steals votes is a criminal," he told the rally who along with other party leaders was set to meet with Putin United Russia's share of the vote went down to 49.8 percent from 54.2 percent in the last parliamentary election in 2016 while the Communists saw their support grow to 18.9 percent from 13.3 percent Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has designated The Moscow Times as an "undesirable" organization criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a "foreign agent." These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia The authorities claim our work "discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership." We see things differently: we strive to provide accurate We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, we need your help please support us monthly starting from just $2 and every contribution makes a significant impact independent journalism in the face of repression Wheeler Motor Company Canterbury Rams 110 defeat Mills Albert Wellington Saints 85 Sal's NBL Box Score BBQ's Direct Canterbury Rams 39 defeat Mills Albert Pathways Wellington Saints 27 Wellington- Rangimarie Dougall-Mita (11pts Sky Broadband Rapid League Box Score  Bel Paese, Italian Ristorante, a home for Italian cooking in York County for more than 27 years, will close its doors next month, according to a post from the company’s Facebook page “The success of Bel Paese has been largely due to its amazing customers privileged and blessed,” a statement read “It has been such a pleasure getting to know our customers and becoming like family.” Related: These are the 5 best Mexican restaurants in central Pa., according to online reviewers The business was started by Salvatore Ferrante Giuseppe Mannino at a pizza shop in Columbia before striking out on his own to open Bel Paese in November 1991 The restaurant’s last day will be Sunday it is time to stop and smell the roses,” the Facebook post reads Stefania and the family appreciate your understanding at this time as we move to a new chapter.” Anthony J. Machcinski is the food reporter for the York Daily Record. Follow him on Facebook, @ChinskiTweets on Twitter or email him at amachcinski@ydr.com Gas Station Proprietor: Sir Anton Chigurh: The most Gas Station Proprietor: I don't know [Chigurh flips a quarter from the change on the counter and covers it with his hand] Anton Chigurh: Call it Gas Station Proprietor: Call it Anton Chigurh: Yes Gas Station Proprietor: For what Anton Chigurh: Just call it Gas Station Proprietor: Well we need to know what we're calling it for here Anton Chigurh: You need to call it Gas Station Proprietor: I didn't put nothin' up Gas Station Proprietor: No Anton Chigurh: 1958 It's been traveling twenty-two years to get here Gas Station Proprietor: Look Anton Chigurh: Everything Gas Station Proprietor: How's that Anton Chigurh: You stand to win everything Gas Station Proprietor: Alright Anton Chigurh: Well done [the gas station proprietor nervously takes the quarter with the small pile of change he's apparently won while Chigurh starts out] Anton Chigurh: Don't put it in your pocket Gas Station Proprietor: Where do you want me to put it Anton Chigurh: Anywhere not in your pocket. Where it'll get mixed in with the others and become just a coin. Which it is. [Chigurh leaves and the gas station proprietor stares at him as he walks out] Your Ads Privacy ChoicesIMDb Nestled on the Tuscan coast in central Italy the ruins of the ancient city of Populonia attract tourists and archaeologists alike offering fascinating insights into two powerful ancient Italian civilizations – the Etruscans and the Romans For four U of T undergraduate and graduate students, the ruins – now part of the Archaeological Park of Baratti and Populonia near modern Piombino – were their classroom for the summer, where they gained archaeological field experience under the supervision of Assistant Professor Seth Bernard of the Department of Classics as part of an international collaboration with the University of Siena and the Superintendency for Archaeology and Landscape for the provinces of Pisa and Livorno – a branch of Italy’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage Populonia was an important Etruscan centre for mining and the metal trade until it was conquered by the Roman Republic in the early-third century BCE although the city was inhabited by the Etruscans for hundreds of years prior to Roman conquest settlement was discontinuous and scattered rather than planned and little pre-Roman architecture other than tombs has survived The excavation focused on a large terraced structure known as the Logge which was once part of the largest monumental building on the city’s acropolis The team excavated a large terraced structure called the ‘Logge’ by archaeologists The building was part of a major investment in urban development commissioned by the residents of Populonia between 125 and 100 BCE Archaeologists believed this construction boom was the first instance of urban planning on the city’s acropolis when it adopted characteristics popular in other major cities of the period such as streets set at right angles in a grid layout But the excavation revealed something surprising about the timeline of Populonia’s urban development The team uncovered remnants of a wall underneath the Logge built in construction techniques that suggest it is 100 or more years older than the rest of the structure The newly discovered wall follows the same orientation as the Logge and other buildings on the acropolis indicating that Populonia’s urban plan was initiated a century or more before archaeologists thought Foreground from left: U of T students Sophia Alkhoury and Drew Davis and Nathan Chazan (Cornell University) work to expose the wall beneath the Logge Background: Professor Stefano Camporeale and Chiara Mendolia (University of Siena) excavate layers of the roadway the area was still very much a conflict zone with Roman armies fighting Etruscans almost every year this area of Tuscany was given over to wealthy Romans and the process of conquest was long concluded,” said Bernard “It wouldn’t have been surprising to see Populonia become a planned city in this later and more stable period; it is more of a surprise to find major investment in Populonia’s urban design in the mid-third century when things around the city seem still very much in flux.” The excavation also unearthed fragments of pottery from long before and after Roman conquest demonstrating the long lifespan of the city the excavation provided training in the methods and processes of archaeology a field that overlaps with their classics studies “Populonia offered me a chance to better acquaint myself with proper archaeological procedure especially the ways in which we document finds and use stratigraphy to interpret the different stages of human occupation at a given site,” said Drew Davis “The practical hands-on training I received has helped me to better understand archaeological data as a whole.” Assistant Professor of Classics Seth Bernard and Zoi Samonas excavate an archaeological stratum from the ancient road surface in front of the Logge a fourth-year University College student studying political science and classics noted that participating in the project – her first experience in field research – helped her better understand the cultural objects and architecture studied in her courses “When studying classics in a classroom setting your typical interactions with material culture primarily occur through photos or literature,” she said “The opportunity to leave the classroom and to actually see what we read about on a daily basis is what initially intrigued me and sparked my interest to participate in this project.” The project also provided a unique cultural learning experience as the students worked side-by-side with students and faculty from the University of Siena Their Italian colleagues spoke fluent English but the students still learned some Italian throughout the trip The experience even inspired fourth-year Victoria College student Laura Harris to take an Italian class this year – something she hopes to put to use next summer “I would be thrilled to return to Populonia next year to continue working on the project,” she said Feature Films Database Southern Mediterranean films database Scriptwriters European Film Schools Production Companies Distributors International Sales Submit a Film Industry Reports Co-Production Podcast Online Screenwriting Training Course Guided Course for Feature Film Writing Script Analysis Analysis of the potential of your series Cineuropa's Training Catalogue Film Festival Photographs Newsletter Photogalleries EUFCN Location Award Euro Film Fest 27 Times Cinema GoCritic! Advertise on Cineuropa Logos and Banners FILMS Italy by Vittoria Scarpa 24/03/2016 - Massimo Gaudioso directs a comedy on being true to your roots a remake of Canadian film Seducing Doctor Lewis set in the Lucanian Dolimites an imaginary town in the Lucanian Dolimites Gaudioso’s film casts Silvio Orlando as a stirrer of the people who is willing to do anything to have a factory opened in his town and not have to look for a job in the city involves the entire community to make sure that Dr a plastic surgeon from Milan called to the town against his will for a trial period everyone in front of the TV to pretend you’re fans of this mysterious sport Banknotes scattered around the streets and the beautiful barmaid Anna (Miriam Leone) are further forms of bait set to ensnare the doctor But to what extent is it legitimate to pretend without losing your dignity Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox Not far behind is Italian Race with 16 nominations, and Sweet Dreams with 10. The awards ceremony will take place on 27 March   21/02/2017 | David di Donatello 2017 Da oggi 2 agosto fino al 7a Casacalenda la XIV edizione: ospiti Isabella Ragonese, Massimo Gaudioso, Valentina Carnelutti, Eleonora Danco, Carmine Amoroso, The Pills   02/08/2016 | Festival | Italia The fifth edition of the Festival will be held between 9 and 19 June. It will be opened by box office champion Quo vado? and closed by Correspondence by Giuseppe Tornatore   06/06/2016 | Festivals | Italy/Canada A group of parents decides to kidnap and bring their children, who have emigrated abroad, back to Italy in this surreal comedy directed by Maurizio Losi, screened in the Nuove proposte section at Bari   11/04/2016 | Bif&st 2016 Massimo Gaudioso directs a comedy on being true to your roots, a remake of Canadian film Seducing Doctor Lewis set in the Lucanian Dolimites, starring Fabio Volo and Silvio Orlando   24/03/2016 | Films | Italy 06/05/2025Crossing Europe 2025 Review: Callas, Darling 02/05/2025goEast 2025 Review: My Magical World 30/04/2025Films / Reviews – Italy Review: San Damiano 30/04/2025Hot Docs 2025 Review: King Matt the First 29/04/2025Films / Reviews – Italy Review: Storia di una notte 29/04/2025Films / Reviews – Peru/Spain Review: Kayara. La guerrera del Imperio Inca Subscribe to our newsletter to receive the most important daily or weekly news on European cinema Crossing Europe 2025 Cannes 2025 Marché du Film The Party’s Over! leads France TV Distribution’s Cannes slate CPH:DOX 2025 CPH:DOX Industry Europa Distribution explores the release of documentaries at CPH:DOX Cannes 2025 Marché du Film AFCI runs its second annual Global Film Commission Network Summit at Marché du Film Festivals / Awards Czech Republic Czech Republic’s Anifilm goes sci-fi Distribution / Releases / Exhibitors Europe European Arthouse Cinema Day set to return on 23 November Cannes 2025 Marché du Film Indie Sales presents a three-star line-up at Cannes HOFF 2025 The Shadow and U Are the Universe win at Estonia’s Haapsalu Horror and Fantasy Film Festival Crossing Europe 2025 Awards The New Year That Never Came and The Flats crowned at Crossing Europe Cannes 2025 Marché du Film Be For Films to sell Love Me Tender in Cannes Cannes 2025/Sponsored Latvia set to shine bright at Cannes, led by Sergei Loznitsa’s competition entry Two Prosecutors Las Palmas 2025 MECAS/Awards Manuel Muñoz Rivas and Joana Carro win awards at the eighth MECAS Market TrendsFOCUSA busy spring festival season awaits the European film industry. Cineuropa will continue to keep its readers up to date with the latest news and market insights, covering the buzziest events, including Cannes, Kraków, Karlovy Vary, Tribeca, Hot Docs, Annecy, Brussels, Munich and many others Distribution, Exhibition and Streaming – 06/05/2025Europa Distribution explores the release of documentaries at CPH:DOXThe network has held a case study workshop as part of its brand-new partnership with the Copenhagen-based festival Distribution, Exhibition and Streaming – 02/05/2025Slovak crime-thriller Černák becomes the highest-grossing film in domestic cinemasThe second film in the saga about a local mafia boss, directed by Jakub Króner, outgrossed its first part, which dominated Slovak cinemas last year Jaśmina Wójcik • Director of King Matt the First The Polish director discusses her approach to taking on a 1920s children’s literary classic in an unexpected way Želimir Žilnik • Director of Eighty Plus The Serbian director discusses his deep suspicion of ideologies in relation to his irresistibly charming latest feature, which follows a man whose life spans three political systems Paulina Jaroszewicz • Distribution and marketing manager, New Horizons Association Cineuropa sat down with the Polish distributor to discuss her company’s strategy as well as the connection between its distribution line-up and BNP Paribas New Horizons Festival’s programme Lorcan Finnegan • Director of The Surfer The Irish filmmaker discusses his mystery-thriller, how he created the character with Nicolas Cage and his approach to the use of colours in the film Privacy Policy The images used on this website have been provided by journalists and are believed to be free of rights if you are the owner of an image used on this website and believe that its use infringes on your copyright We will remove the image in question as soon as possible We have made reasonable efforts to ensure that all images used on this website are used legally and in accordance with copyright laws About us | Contact us | Logos and Banners MissionPartnersTeamDonationsTerms and conditions A massive construction project that could affect your commute will be starting soon Video from TxDOT shows you what one of the busiest interchanges could totally different in a few years It’s part of project that will add multiple lanes to Loop 1604 Construction could start later this summer You're bound to see tail lights light up in front of you on Loop 1604 “The traffic is insane,” said Michael Paese He's been living in this area since 1987 “The world ended at Huebner back then,” Paese said Paese owns a bike shop near Lockhill Selma just off 1604 He remembers when the loop was even smaller than it is today “It was a single lane one lane on each side it was mostly gravel trucks,” Paese said TxDOT will begin expanding 1604 to four lanes in each direction They'll start at Bandera Road and work toward I-10 The project will also revamp the interchange there “20 years overdue if not longer,” Paese said Some people are worried about how long the project could take TxDOT estimates it could take until 2026 to finish We asked how they will try to remain on schedule with the projected completion date “Our anticipated date yes is 2026 now however the projects between Bandera Road and US 281 will be done in phases.” Paese believes while it may be rough at first “It’ll be a mess but they got to do something,” Paese said “This’ll have hiccups too but I’m sure they can figure out a way to make it work.”