Melburnians unite to celebrate the Festa della Repubblica

Many events and activities have been organised by the Italian community in Melbourne to commemorate this special day.

The festivities began last Sunday, with the Showcase of the Italian Choirs of Melbourne, held at the Furlan Club in Thornbury.

The group in charge of organising the events for the 73^rd Festa della Repubblica Italiana is led by president of Com.It.Es. Victoria and Tasmania, Francesco Pascalis, and treasurer of the organisation, Ubaldo Aglianò.

This year’s rich program includes events organised in collaboration with the likes of Brunswick South Primary School, CO.AS.IT., the Furlan Club and the Dante Alighieri Society.

The celebrations were planned with the support of the Italian Consulate in Melbourne.

The CO.AS.IT. Museo Italiano hosted two events last week, in the lead up to the Festa della Repubblica.

On Monday, Italian Consul General in Melbourne, Pierluigi Trombetta, presented CO.AS.IT. president, Mauro Sandrin, with a precious publication from the Museo della Battaglia di Vittorio Veneto, the Order of the Knights of Vittorio Veneto, Names List, Australia.

The publication (only three copies of which were released in Australia) contains the list of names of approximately 2000 Italian World War I veterans who received the prestigious Knighthood of Vittorio Veneto (Cavaliere di Vittorio Veneto) while living in Australia.

Then on Wednesday, the Dante Alighieri Society held an evening with Professor Patrizia Burley-Lombardi, who spoke about the diffusion of English in the Italian language.

On Sunday, many people participated in an afternoon dedicated to music at the Furlan Club, beginning with a performance by the Banda Bellini, directed by Giuliano Di Ienno.

Introduced by the club’s president, Frank Di Blasi, the iconic group officially inaugurated the 2019 Festa della Repubblica celebrations with both the Italian and Australian national anthems, followed by well-known Italian songs and more classic symphonies, including Il Carnevale di Venezia by Niccolò Paganini.

The Banda Bellini was followed by performances from all six Italian choirs in Melbourne: the Gruppo Culturale Italiano; the Coro Furlan; La Voce Della Luna; the Coro Veneto; the Coro Casa D’Abruzzo; and Sicilia Bella.

With the first major event over, the remaining celebrations for the Festa della Repubblica Italiana will be centred around the most important day: June 2, the date that Italians voted in a referendum for Italy to bin the monarchic system and become a Republic in 1946.

This Sunday, June 2, the Italian community will come together at 11:00 am for a special mass in Italian at St Brigid’s Church, in Fitzroy.

Father Savino Bernardi, the parish priest, said June 2 is a special date for the Catholic community in general.

“It also marks the 114^th anniversary of the death of the Blessed Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, founder of the Missionaries of Saint Charles, along with the 135^th anniversary of the foundation of our parish,” he said.

Following the mass, the community will carry on the celebrations at Brunswick South Primary School from 12:00 pm.

Emceed by executive producer of SBS Italian, Magica Fossati, the event will begin with an official greeting and a performance of the Italian and Australian national anthems by students.

Also set to grace the stage are folk band The Rustica Project and the group Musa International, which will explore Italian music of the ’80s.

The day will also include: food stalls; a show by the magician David Key; football activities run by the Melbourne City Football Club; cooking workshops with chefs, Riccardo Siligato of Arancini Art, and Michele Usci of Genobile Saba Australia; face painting; inflatable games; and much more!

The festivities will continue on Tuesday, June 4, with a seminar entitled ‘Costituzione e solidarietà politica, economica e sociale’, to be held at the CO.AS.IT. Museo Italiano.

Beginning at 6:00 pm, the seminar will be presided by Ubaldo Aglianò and will feature Felice Giuffrè, Associate Professor of Constitutional Law, Faculty of Law at the University of Catania, who will participate via video conference from Italy.

The final event organised in honour of the Festa della Repubblica is a performance of Terra Matta 2 (1918-1943), to take place at the CO.AS.IT. Museo Italiano on Tuesday, June 11, from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm.

The show tells the effort to survive after World War 1, the rise of Fascism and the return to war in World War II, in parallel with the life of Vincenzo, the author of the autobiography Terra Matta.

The performance includes Lina and Saverio, fictional characters created by Panzeri on the basis of the migrant stories collected by him in Australia during Terra Matta 1 in 2018.