Nov 29, 2019

What if I told you that the good, old sandwich has both a birthplace and a birthdate? What if this place was Italy and the year was 1926? In this episode of Italian Culture, we discover how a humble recipe changed the life of its inventor, a young woman who turned the entire restaurant business upside down. This is...

Nov 18, 2019

- 3.35 Opera and gender construction

- 5.36 “Tuneful scarecrows”: orchiectomy and its effects

- 6.35 Masters of the voice: the castrato training

- 9.20 Voice and femininity

- 11.25 The ambivalence of the church

- 13.10 The apex of the castrati era

- 14.03 The end of the castrati era

- 17.49 The influence of the...

Nov 15, 2019

A candid angel, a bratty popstar and a cunning smuggler: what have they in common? They sacrificed their testicles and gained a splendid voice. In this episode of Italian Culture, we investigate the fascinating world of the castrati singers. From the Baroque era to the Twentieth century, we’ll follow the stories of...

Nov 4, 2019

- 2.27 Who is Antonello da Messina?
- 4.45 The portrait of Unknown
- 5.47 Two smiles
- 6.44 Antonello’s eyes
- 9.18 Enrico Piraino, il Mandralisca: politician and philanthropist
- 12.35 Francesco Vitale: the bishop, the humanist
- 14.20 The last traces of Francesco Vitale
- 17.00 The journey of the Unknown

Today’s...

Nov 1, 2019

The painting is cursed, it portrays the devil who’ll drive crazy whoever looks at him – that’s what people say. Why is his gaze so unsettling? Who is he really? No one knew, until now. In this episode of Italian Culture, we investigate the story of the Portrait of Unknown by Antonello da Messina, one...