Santa Barbara celebrates Italy's 150th Birthday

On the occasion of the 150th Anniversary of the Reunification of Italy, Santa Barbara is hosting two special Italian events to honor this important celebration. The first event is organized by Opera Santa Barbara, which, on March 4, 2011 will host the opening night performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s great opera “La Traviata” at The Granada Theatre, under the auspices of the Consul General of Italy in Los Angeles and the Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Los Angeles.

Furthermore, on March 12, Nicola Faganello, Consul General of Italy in Los Angeles, Frederick and Diane Sidon and the Italian Cultural Heritage Foundation of Santa Barbara will celebrate Italy’s 150th birthday with a special Gala Dinner at La Cumbre Country Club offering a sophisticated menu based of banquets in 1861 and enlivened by Opera singers.

This year’s recurrence is particularly meaningful for Italian people because it was indeed in March 1861 that Italy – fragmented into a host of local principalities and lordships, some of which under foreign rule - became one Nation after almost half a century of struggle called “Risorgimento”.

One of the central figures of that period was Giuseppe Mazzini, who, having witnessed the distress of the "refugees of Italy" after the failure of their revolutionary efforts, chose to devote his life to the cause of Italian independence and unity and founded a secret organization called “La Giovine Italia” (Young Italy). Giuseppe Garibaldi, another prominent figure of “Risorgimento” and later famous as an Italian patriotic leader, joined the secret society and took an oath dedicating his life to the struggle to liberate his homeland from Austrian dominance. On 11 May 1860, "Garibaldi and the Thousand" disembarked at Marsala in Sicily where Sicilians in revolt against King Francis II welcomed this arrival.

In August, with Sicily almost completely won from the control of Francis II, Garibaldi decided to carry the revolt to the Neapolitan mainland and his forces were joined by many people variously committed to challenging Bourbon rule or to securing further changes in the overall situation of the Italian Peninsula. Subsequently, this force of volunteers succeed in defeating the Kingdom of the two Sicilies leading to its dissolution and annexation by the Kingdom of Sardinia, an important step in the creation of a newly unified Kingdom of Italy.

On March 17, 1861, Victor Emmanuel was proclaimed King of Italy “by the grace of God and the will of people” by the newly appointed Italian Parliament in session in Turin. As part of his first speech to the new parliament, King Victor Emmanuel spoke of Italy: ” It is no longer the Italy of the Romans, nor that of the Middle Ages; it must no longer be the battle-field of ambitious foreigners, but it must rather be the Italy of the Italians".

Therefore, this year’s recurrence is a very meaningful anniversary that reaffirms the strength of our national identity and the renewed sense of our nation’s cohesion and mission and it is a new opportunity to revisit the roots of Italy’s cultural identity and the talents of many Italians who have made our country famous worldwide, particularly in the United States.

The decision of Opera Santa Barbara to celebrate the Anniversary with Giuseppe Verdi’s Opera, could not be more appropriate since the Italian composer was so much connected with the Risorgimento that one of his masterpieces “Nabucco” and the Va’ Pensiero chorus became a sort of patriotic hymn. He was so deeply commited to the Italian cause that his very name became an acronym for the revolution.

Indeed, Italians who wanted to express their patriotic fervor without getting in trouble, would yell “Viva Verdi!” in the streets, as an acronym for Viva Vittorio Emanuele Re D'Italia (“Long live Vittorio Emanuele, king of Italy”).

With this program of events Santa Barbara is thus paying a tribute to Italy and all the Italian American living in the United States, strengthening the long-standing relations between our two countries. For any further information frsidon@impulse.net, and www.operasb.com