The celebration of one of the most important holidays in Italy, Italy’s National Day (Festa della Repubblica), took place on Monday, June 2. In the U.S. it was just simply a work day — and quite a busy one, like every Monday. Then, on Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal ran a front cover story about the celebration, titled “Soaring Tribune Marks a Roman Holiday.”
Still, on a June 2 Monday evening in New York City, a record number of 1,300 people, including Italians and Italian-Americans living in the Tri-state area (New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut) responded to an invitation from Fabrizio Di Michele, Consul General of Italy in New York, inviting them to an early evening Festa held at The Glasshouse on 49th street and 12th Avenue, which has a terrace overlooking the Hudson River. This year, 68 Italian companies sponsored the New York City event, including luxury brands such as Giorgio Armani, Maserati, and Lamborghini.
For this event, said the official invitation, the “Celebration takes inspiration from the Italian Theatre: A stage where the vibrant, multifaceted souls of Italy comes to life.” The fact that “theatre” was spelled in the British style, rather than the American “theater,” was a cause of some amusement, a detail that vice consul Marta Mammana said hadn’t been noticed when the invitation was drafted.
The Festa celebrated “Italian art, history, cuisine and design blending together in harmony.” After the national anthems (Italian and American) performed by students from La Scuola d’Italia G. Marconi (the only Italian learning institution in the U.S. that runs from elementary to high school), a ballet performance was staged by principal dancers from La Scala of Milan, Martina Arduino and Marco Agostino, while operatic parts were performed by soprano Tatev Baroyan and tenor Jeremy Brauner.
Finally, Broadway star Melissa Errico closed with Frank Sinatra’s famous song: New York, New York.
Pictured above, from l. to r.: Consul General Di Michele with guests Rosario Mariani, Emanuele Tozzi, Angela Rapino, and Paolo Consalvi.
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