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vilaine fille is an archive. If you would like more information on Marion Lignana Rosenberg’s current activities, please visit mondo-marion.com. Thanks!

Gianmaria Testa

Gianmaria Testa, one of today’s finest singer-songwriters, makes a rare visit to New York on Sunday, May 25, when he plays Joe’s Pub. Here is my advance on the joint concert by Gianmaria and flugelhorn virtuoso Paolo Fresu from Time Out New York. At Gianmaria’s site, you’ll find part of my 2004 review of his album Altre latitudini.

My 2005 report on a Montréal concert by Gianmaria is one of vilaine fille’s most frequently visited posts. Listen to his music at goear.com—I especially love “Manacore,” “Extra-muros,” and “’Na stella”—and on YouTube.

* * *
One of the very first articles I wrote back in 1997 was on Gianmaria Testa. (In fact, I believe I was the first North American journalist to interview him.)

For the past eleven years, my professional goal has been to land a full-time writing position at a magazine, newspaper, or other publication. Such a position has not materialized, so vilaine fille is closing up shop and moving on to new pursuits. Warmest thanks to all who have visited and supported this site.

vilaine fille will stay live through Labor Day—and “permanently,” if I can obtain free hosting beyond that. I am hanging on to the domain name.

I’m still blogging, but not in English, and only incidentally about music. If you would like to stay informed about my writing projects, please drop me an e-mail at vilaine [{d0t}] fille [{at}] gmail [{d0t}] com. I do plan to launch a new music-related blog in 2009.

To all, thanks and bon vent!

Sorrisi e canzoni XX

172. healthy aches and pains and sweat
173. letting go
174. inspiration and grace
175. love from Oz and FI
176. gallows humor
177. challenges flung down
178. good hair days (repeat)
179. Like a prayer
180. Like a star

Pensée du dimanche 18 mai

In his folk song “Farewell to the Gold,” Nic Jones tells the story of a failed gold prospector. After two years of finding no more than a few flecks of the precious metal, the unlucky man is giving up his search. “Farewell to the gold/that never I found,” he sings. “Goodbye to the nuggets/that somewhere abound./For it’s only when dreaming/that I see them gleaming/down in the dark deep underground.” If I’m reading the omens correctly, Sagittarius, it’s time for you, too, to say goodbye to a quest that hasn’t panned out. Yes, it’ll be sad. But here’s the happy ending: Within a month of the time you surrender, you’ll be led to a better quest with more chance of success.
—Rob Brezsny

Sorrisi e canzoni XIX

163. sleep
164. healing
165. bringing cheer to others
166. having some movies to look forward to!
167. true friends (repeat of a repeat of a repeat…)
168. ooh…
169. Act as if your adversaries are great teachers. Thank them for how crucial they’ve been in your education.
170. Chissà, chissà, le stelle, le città, foschia, foschia, enigma o fantasia…
     
171. Stars, they come and go, they come fast or slow, they go like the last light of the sun, all in a blaze, and all you see is glory. But it gets lonely there when there’s no one here to share…

Pensée du dimanche 11 mai

You know that the world has gone utterly to pot when Peggy Noonan starts making sense.

In a jaw-dropping interview in USA Today on Thursday, [Mrs. Clinton] said, “I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on.” As evidence she cited an Associated Press report that, she said, “found how Sen. Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.”

White Americans? Hard-working white Americans? “Even Richard Nixon didn't say white,” an Obama supporter said, “even with the Southern strategy.”

If John McCain said, “I got the white vote, baby!” his candidacy would be over. And rising in highest indignation against him would be the old Democratic Party.

To play the race card as Mrs. Clinton has, to highlight and encourage a sense that we are crudely divided as a nation, to make your argument a brute and cynical “the black guy can’t win but the white girl can” is—well, so vulgar, so cynical, so cold, that once again a Clinton is making us turn off the television in case the children walk by.

A resident of New York who twice pulled the lever for Senator Clinton, I will vote for anyone, even Gus Hall’s maggots, before casting another ballot for racist trash of her ilk.

She and all who still support her make me ill.

Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes.

Well, I say to them tonight, there’s not a liberal America and a conservative America; there’s the United States of America.

There’s not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America.

The pundits, the pundits like to slice and dice our country into red states and blue States: red states for Republicans, blue States for Democrats. But I’ve got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don’t like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states.

We coach Little League in the blue states and, yes, we’ve got some gay friends in the red states.

There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq, and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq.

We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.

In the end, that’s what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism, or do we participate in a politics of hope?
—Illinois Senate candidate Barack Obama (2004)

Sorrisi e canzoni XVIII

154. definitive good news about M (congratulations, bellissima!)
155. chametz
156. new sources of inspiration
157. bringing a smile to a friend’s face
158. not having toxic shock syndrome (phew)
159. seeing that people care when I have my doubts
160. letting go of seductive but abusive activities and individuals
161. brother Luigi
162. Stars

Pensée du dimanche 4 mai

You know, if our ancestors had thrown out their furniture every decade, as we do, where would we go for antiques? Let us give some thought to the well-being and enjoyment of our descendants, patch up our lares and penates, and  hang on to them, so that the future will inherit at least some relics of our heedless and wasteful age. Working over something, and repairing it,—whether we re-finish furniture, fix over an old house, or put new cuffs on a sweater—not only gives things new life and makes them look cared-for, but embeds them still deeper in our affections.
—Elizabeth Zimmermann, Knitter’s Almanac

Sorrizi e canzoni XVII

145. true friends who hear and understand
146. still more good news about M (in bocca al lupo, m*rde à la puissance treize, ptui ptui ptui)
147. leading a seder with dear ones (and amazing food)
148. yet another new friend thanks to knitting
149. yoga’s power to transform a rotten day
150. feeling detachment and compassion in the face of abuse
151. the rain, which washes away the pollen (thank you, G-d)
152. Dream of better lives, the kind which never hate…
153. Butterò questo mio enorme cuore tra le stelle un giorno, giuro che lo farò…

Pensée du dimanche 27 avril

WHEN I heard the learn’d astronomer;
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them;
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;
Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
—Walt Whitman

Sorrisi e canzoni XVI

136. still more good news about M (in bocca al lupo, m*rde à la puissance treize, ptui ptui ptui!)
137. bringing together two surpassingly cherished friends
138. still more new friends, still more new opportunities to learn and grow (repeat of a repeat)
139. a box of extreme lusciousness from Maine (tack så hemskt mycket!)
140. chocolate-covered bread of our affliction (probably made a mess back in the desert)
141. becoming ever more bendy
142. a bit more clarity about rageaholism and abuse
143. Scegli una stella, prendila, scegli le stelle, non perderle…
144. E in mezzo a questo mare cercherò di scoprire quale stella sei
     perché mi perderei se dovessi capire che stanotte non ci sei…

Pensée du dimanche 20 avril

Freedom is taken, not given.
—Ahad Ha’am

vilaine fille wishes everyone blessings and miracles at Pesach!

Sorrisi e canzoni XV

127. that April has been such a fruitful month over the years (love those Aries!)
128. still more new friends, still more new opportunities to learn and grow (repeat)
129. not having left my knitting on the A train (phew)
130. really good news from M (ptui ptui ptui) and encouraging signs from other friends
131. getting a day off for Pesach (yay!)
132. starting to let go of that bitterness
133. L’altra mia Isotta (vorrei che fossi te! joyeux anniversaire, ma belle)
134. Ce petit cœur (di chi altro?)
135. Non m’importa della luna, non m’importa delle stelle, tu per me sei luna e stelle (buon compleanno)

Pensée du dimanche 13 avril

Miss you, sweetie. Love you.

Sorrisi e canzoni XIV

118. to have had such a friend as RHH (repeat)
119. words of healing and grace
120. still more opportunities to be useful
121. squeezing every last drop of lusciousness out of the day
122. burnt caramel!
123. finding perfect gifts for M and others
124. Armenian and Veggie Planet delicacies (thanks, R and T)
125. words and sounds of wisdom
126. When You Wish Upon a Star

Pensée du dimanche 6 avril

I have learnt how to live… How to be in the world and of the world, and not just to stand aside and watch. And I will never, never again run away from life. Or from love, either…
—Billy Wilder, Sabrina

Merci !

Sorrisi e canzoni XIII

109. opportunities to be useful (repeat)
110. physical activity and the ability to do it (repeat of a repeat)
111. starting to recognize sick, abusive behavior for what it is
112. still more new friends, still more new opportunities
113. (veggie) burgers with S
114. a reprieve from the disgusting warm weather
115. the huge success of another bella piemontesina (but, ouf, that nano destroide!)
116. Lost in the Stars
117. Il est grand temps de rallumer les étoiles !

Pensée du dimanche 30 mars

D’una città non godi le sette o le settantasette meraviglie, ma la risposta che dà a una tua domanda.
—Italo Calvino

Sorrisi e canzoni XII

100. MHS
101. hanging with sweet kitties
102. getting to know so many wonderful new people
103. a first opportunity to heal that place
104. gumption!
105. eyes on the prize
106. Quién escribe tu nombre con letras de humo entre las estrellas del sur?
     Ah déjame recordarte cómo eras entonces, cuando aún no existías.
107. J’ai tendu des cordes de clocher à clocher ; des guirlandes de fenêtre à fenêtre ; des chaînes d’or d'étoile à étoile, et je danse.
108. Avant que tu t'en ailles décrocher les étoiles…

Pensée du dimanche 23 mars

I look forward to an America which commands respect throughout the world, not only for its strength, but for its civilization as well. And I look forward to a world which will be safe not only for democracy and diversity, but also for personal distinction.
—John F. Kennedy

To all who keep the holiday, vilaine fille sends best wishes for a happy and blessèd Easter!

Sorrisi e canzoni XI

91. to have had such a friend as RHH
92. feeling connected, useful, and loved
93. military-strength Wellbutrin
94. getting my mind severely blown (the description is bowdlerized drivel)
95. and again
96. dream visits
97. Du moment qu’on s’aime, l’on devient si doux…
98. Stardust…
99. …and more Stardust

Thank you, dear heart, for the image!

Pensée du dimanche 16 mars

If you believe breaking is possible,
believe fixing is possible.
—Rav Nachman of Breslov

Sorrisi e canzoni X

82. the opportunity to spend time with A, C, J, and R
83. multiple opportunities to experience genius
84. a tender-hearted friend’s tough-love words (danke)
85. the culinary delights of Somerville and East Boston
86. opportunities to be useful (grazie, G, M e P)
87. still more knitting-related miracles
88. Provo l’incredulità amara e muta di ogni pubblico ingenuo…
89. Aux clartés des étoiles, je crois encore la voir…
90. La noche que me quieras desde el azul del cielo, las estrellas celosas nos mirarán pasar…

Pensée du dimanche 9 mars

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise;
seek what they sought.
—Bashō

International Women’s Day

vilaine fille sends greetings to her sisters all over the globe for International Women’s Day, La Festa della Donna.

In particular, she salutes those lucky enough to live in civilized countries, who enjoy abortion rights; state-funded healthcare, child care, and maternity leave; and explicit guarantees of equality under the law. (G-d willing, she’s gonna be joining you real soon.)

Read Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women.

Sorrisi e canzoni IX

73. happy anticipation of seeing faraway friends
74. fan mail for baby undertakings
75. that knitting helps with office politics, too
76. prayer warriors in CA, IL, and oltreoceano
77. letting go of junk, physical and emotional, and finding lost treasures
78. having an overabundance of invitations for an upcoming trip
79. lust
80. Tutto è già qui: i torti, le ragioni, le grandi verità e le speranze vuote, la voce che non sa per chi si spenderà…
81. Dove sarai, anima bella? Stella gemella, dove sarai? Magari dietro la luna sarai…

Pensée du dimanche 2 mars

With some powder and some paint,
and the patience of a saint,
I’m still here.

My life’s not over yet,
I’m not up there on the shelf.
I’ve found someone to love
apart from just myself

I’ve had my fill of bitterness,
I’ve had my fill of dirt,
I’ve had enough of emptiness,
I’ve had enough of hurt.
I think we’ll get the last laugh
if we don’t break down and cry.
—Marc Almond

Pensée du lundi 25 février

A nation of sheep
will beget a government of wolves.
—Edward R. Murrow

Sorrisi e canzoni VIII

64. ¡ …y hasta con plan de salud !
65. the opportunity to make C and la S smile
66. the return of reading
67. The minute you commit to living an authentic life, the world shifts. Friends fall away. Sometimes even family. But once you decide to be part of the energy that heals rather than destroys life, there is no other path. (Thank you, dear heart!)
68. remembering who I am, and being supported in the process (thank you, V)
69. knowing that AB is back at home, comfortable and healing beautifully (thank you, G-d)
70. that so many friends are ready to stand by me in my great adventure
71. You got me writing lyrics on postcards, then in the evenings looking at stars…
72. Someday I’ll wish upon a star and wake up where the clouds are far behind me…

Pensée du dimanche 24 février

Non ti aspetto più,
neanche se quando ritorni
ritornasse un’altra estate.
Non ti aspetto più,
è passato molto tempo.
Le mie stagioni sono già finite.

Non ti aspetto più
e vado via da qui.
Oltre questo ponte,
un altro ponte,
e ancora un fiume,
e un altro fiume ci sarà.

Non ti aspetto più
e vado via perchè
oltre l’orizzonte
un altro mare,
e ancora un mare,
e un altro amore ci sarà…
I’m not waiting for you any longer even if, when you return, another summer should return. I’m not waiting for you any longer. Much time has passed, and my seasons are over. I’m not waiting for you any longer, and I’m leaving this place. Beyond this bridge, another bridge, and a river, and yet another river there will be. I’m not waiting for you any longer, and I’m leaving because, beyond the horizon, another sea, and yet another sea, and another love there will be…

Pensée du mardi 19 février

…e poi viene un giorno
che a guardarlo passare
sembra il giorno di un altro
e di un altro le cose da fare
e di un altro la voce
e anche l’ombra sui muri
e di un altro anche i fiori
che ho preso per te

e sono fiori d’inverno
ma per un’altra stagione
oppure un altro ricordo
che adesso non so
nient’altro che fiori
cosa vorranno mai dire
a guardarli di nuovo
non dicono più

perché viene un giorno…
—Gianmaria Testa, “Nient’altro che fiori”

And then there comes a day that, to watch it pass, seems the day of someone else, of someone else the things to do, of someone else the voice, even the shadows on the walls, and even these winter flowers that I gathered for you. And they’re winter flowers, but for some other season, or for some other memory, of what now I don’t know—nothing but flowers, whatever might they mean? As I look at them again, they say no more. Because there comes a day…

Great news, New Yorkers: Gianmaria Testa will make one of his rare visits to the United States on 25 May, playing Joe’s Pub with flugelhorn virtuoso Paolo Fresu.

Gianmaria’s 1999 CD Lampo, a masterpiece bathed in moonlight and haunted by time’s dizzying rush, has been reissued (including English-language texts this time around).

“Nient’altro che fiori,” from Altre latitudini, features, among others, the great trumpeter Enrico Rava, one of the sexiest men on the planet, who plays Birdland 20–23 February along with pianist Stefano Bollani and other crack musicians. Rava and Bollani have a new ECM CD, The Third Man.

Giuseppe Filianoti: Proust Questionnaire

One of this opera season’s most eagerly anticipated events is just around the corner: the March return to the Met of tenor Giuseppe Filianoti as Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, the role of his sensational 2005 company début.

Filianoti, who opened yesterday as Tom Rakewell in Palermo (his role début), has been to hell and back since his last local appearance, in OONY’s L’Arlesiana in February 2007—and I’m not referring only to the diabolical operas in which he has sung. On the heels of an acclaimed Rome run of Werther, Filianoti fell gravely ill with peritonitis following an appendectomy and was forced to withdraw from some six months of engagements.

His first performances after his illness—as Hoffmann in Hamburg and in Verdi’s Messa da Requiem in Torino—were popular and critical successes, though Il Corriere della Grisi’s Adolphe Nourrit expressed reservations about the Hoffmann. Opera Today’s critic, instead, praised Filianoti’s “balls-to-the-wall phrases,” of which vilaine fille says: Wow, that must hurt.

Last month’s Mefistofele in Palermo reportedly found the tenor in fine fettle. (Yes, that’s Mefistofele in the photo and not That ‘70s Show). And, as all the world knows, Filianoti will open the 2008-09 La Scala season in the title role of Verdi’s Don Carlo (Italian-language, four-act version) under Daniele Gatti. (vilaine fille’s birthday is the day after Sant’Ambrogio; she is SO there.)

Werther, Hoffmann, Faust, Don Carlo… That’s mighty heavy rep for a young singer. (Soon after his Met début, Filianoti opined that it was “too soon” for him to undertake Don Carlo.) And Edgardo’s tessitura is killing…

En tout cas, we wish Don Peppino a hearty in bocca al lupo and bentornato a New York! Alas, what with the silly set in the new Lucia, he probably will not be able to make his entrance running, with his cape swirling behind him—one of vilaine fille’s most cherished memories from thirty years of opera going. Filianoti also portrays Edgardo in San Francisco later this year. His upcoming performances include, as well, Werther in Genova, La clemenza di Tito in Torino, and Nicias in Thaïs (venue TBA).

Since Don Peppino is that rare tenor who reads Borges and Sgalambro, we thought it only fair to have him answer a version of the Proust questionnaire. (The Italian-language original will appear in print in coming weeks; if it makes its way to the web, I’ll post the link.)

Buona lettura!

Your most marked characteristic?
Determination.

The quality you most like in a man?
Courage.

The quality you most like in a woman?
Intelligence and intuition.

What do you most value in your friends?
Good faith.

What is your principal defect?
Being an introvert.

What is your favorite occupation?
Reading.

What is your dream of happiness?
Living in total serenity.

What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?
Losing those I love.

What would you like to be?
Alight with wisdom.

In what country would you like to live?
Southern Italy.

What is your favorite color?
Brown.

What is your favorite flower?
All of them.

What is your favorite bird?
The phoenix.

Who are your favorite prose writers?
Too many, I couldn’€™t decide.

Who are your favorite poets?
Dante, Shakespeare, Leopardi, Montale.

Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
Edgardo, Achilles, Aeneas.

Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
Desdemona, Anna Karenina, Dido.

Who are your favorite composers?
All those whose music I’ve sung along with Britten, Debussy, and Monteverdi.

Who are your favorite painters?
Mantegna, Leonardo, Raffaello, and Caravaggio.

Who are your heroes in real life?
I have none.

Who are your favorite heroines of history?
Joan of Arc, Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

What are your favorite names?
Arianna, Flavio.

What is it you most dislike?
The abuse of power.

What historical figure do you most despise?
Hitler.

What event in military history do you most admire?
None.

What natural gift would you most like to possess?
The ability to read my own soul.

How would you like to die?
I don’€™t think about it.

What is your present state of mind?
In progress (answered in English).

To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
Those belonging to the people dear to my heart.

What is your motto?
Don’€™t borrow trouble.

* * *

Update: La sor romana answers the ever-pressing question, How many tenors does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

Sorrisi e canzoni VII

55. perché la felicità si coltiva come un talento (grazie)
56. sending and receiving Valentines
57. gumption
58. flashes of being who I am and doing what I love (with lots more to come)
59. good sleep
60. a spring in my step (for real!)
61. other rewards of dumb persistence
62. Tutte le stelle di questa montagna, così piccole e vicine saluterò…
63. Something there is more immortal even than the stars,
    (Many the burials, many the days and nights, passing away,)
    Something that shall endure longer even than lustrous Jupiter,
    Longer than sun, or any revolving satellite,
    Or the radiant brothers, the Pleiades.

Pensée du lundi 18 février (Presidents’ Day)

And until 20 January 2009, we say, with brother Nick: A ognuno puzza questo barbaro dominio (This barbarous regime stinks in all nostrils), De principatibus, XXVI.

A safe and relaxing holiday to my fellow Statunitensi!

Pensée du dimanche 17 février

And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.
—My sister Fred

San Valentino

Love, like the light, silently wrapping all!
—Walt Whitman

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Whether your love be new or old, sad or glad, fleshly or of the spirit, or perhaps all of the above (why not?), vilaine fille sends you a baker’s dozen of musical roses and wishes you immense tenderness and joy.

1. All you need is love
2. Le ciel dans une chambre
3. Carte da decifrare
4. Architetture lontane
5. Message personnel
6. Mysteries of love
7. Lady Marmelade
8. Hallelujah
9. Stormy weather
10. I fell in love with a dead boy (pour moi-même)
11. You are my sister (for S-C, MHS, RHH, AKS, JC, KMA, AF, GM, RS: I love you more than words can say)
12. I’m not ready to love and Want

L’amour… supporte tout, croit tout, espère tout, endure tout. L’amour ne périt jamais.