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Florestano Vancini : a memoir Hit by a thunderbolt that determined a career and style of life. “In my day, it made a difference whether you were born and raised inside or outside the walls. Ferrara seemed to be a fortified place compared to that limitless countryside, poor and hard-working, and my father was only the Boara postman….” Florestano Vancini, who died on 18 September 2008 last, was physically born inside the walls, on 24 August 1926 in the hospital. However he was raised in Boara, the first village on the road to Copparo, and not “inside” the walled city.
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Boldini in Paris The relationship between Boldini and French Impressionism will be explored in this great exhibition. Boldini painted a fascinating picture called Cantante mondana [“Society singer”] in the mid-1880s. It shows a snapshot of the Paris of the late nineteen-hundreds - the life, the cafés and the music halls that the artist patronised along with his friends and fellow-painters like Degas - and as such lay outside the area for which he was renowned, namely portrait painting.
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It's all in the blood Impromptu thoughts of a "Dolomite-Po Valley man" My mother was tall and slim, with a consciously understated beauty; on the contrary, my athletic father was well aware of his good looks, tanned by the Cortina sun. She was from a good Ferrara family, had a diploma from the music conservatory and was anything but sporty; he was a ski and ice-hockey champion and mountain climber, from a modest family who were photography pioneers in this remote corner of Italy.
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Story of a insolvent bank Luigi Franceschini and the "Piccolo Credito" bank, as remembered by his son. This is a nice “vintage” photograph taken at the San Girolamo Piazza eighty years ago.  It is a  souvenir photo with a certain historical interest: the  three people on  the right were very important characters in the story of  the insolvency of a Ferrara  bank, the  “ Piccolo   Credito ” : my  father,  the lawyer   Luigi   Franceschini,  who  was  the  receiver  appointed  by   the  Court   of   Ferrara ;   to  his  right,
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Mystery and blades of grass in Filippo De Pisis The re-emergence of the herbarium collected by the Ferrara painter as a young man. The artistic sensibility of many leading cultural figures was cultivated by collecting grasses, herbs and flowers stalks, to then smoothen them out and press them between sheets of blotting paper:Obviously the great naturalists were enthusiasts, but world-famous thinkers also shared this hobby (Rousseau,Goethe,von Chamisso and Hesse), as well as poets,
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Reopening the theatres

Written by  Patrizia Segna

Image of the newly renovated De M;icheli Theatre in Copparo.The energy of Provincial theatres makes up for the disappearance of certain public institutions.

Having witnessed the disappearance of various theatres from Ferrara, the province managed to get its act together and re-open some old theatres over the last few years. Two examples of this can be found among the many theatres scattered over the province of Ferrara: the De Micheli Theatre of Copparo and the Barattoni Theatre of Ostellato. After four successful seasons for the De Micheli Theatre, and five for the Barattoni Theatre, it is reassuring to find a flurry of cultural interest here with the theatre at its centre. The 2008-09 programme for the De Micheli Theatre is impressive: there will be forty shows between November and May, including eight plays, seven concerts, three operettas, one classical opera, one dance show, two multi-ethnic shows, six plays in local dialect, and twelve children’s’ shows. The De Micheli theatre is in the main town square in Copparo, and dates back to the first decade of the last century, when it was known as a cinema-theatre. It was named after Enrico De Micheli who bought the land in Vittorio Emanuele II square in 1908 and decided to build his house and a theatre there. The official opening was on 22 May 1909 and the Barber of Seville by Gioacchino RosImage of the newly renovated De M;icheli Theatre in Copparo.sini was staged. In its first ten years, the theatre became the ideal home to comedy shows, plays in the local dialect, and variety shows, in addition to charity benefits, public ceremonies and ceremonies for local institutions. The architectural structure of the building began to give problems at the beginning of the twenties, so the owner had to renovate it completely. This project was supervised by the engineer Mario Chiarelli. The theatre was reopened in 1924 and was active up to 1970, when the costs of bringing it up to standard and extraordinary maintenanceexpenses led to its closure by the owner Arrigo De Micheli. He then built the Arcobaleno cinema nearby. After being reviewed in the Emilia Romagna historical theatre exhibition, the de Micheli Theatre was purchased by the local authorities in 1989 and renovation was commenced in 2000. The theatre’s programme has enriched the cultural calendar of the Region since 2004. The youth theatre accompanies the official programme and there is also an original festival dedicated to the world of agriculture which is now in its fourth year and there are teaching farms acting as theatres in the Copparo area. The story behind the Barattoni Theatre of Ostellato is no less interesting. It is in Via Garibaldi, in the centre of Ostellato, and was built in the 1920s. It originated as a Casa del Fascio and was intended to function as a working man’s club and theatre, cinema, meeting point.Image of the newly renovated De M;icheli Theatre in Copparo. It came into the hands of the Barattoni family in 1945 and still functioned as a “recreational area”. The Municipality of Ostellato took over the building in the 1990s to renovate it and turn it into a cinema-theatre without changing it or making it bigger. After its renovation, the theatre was inaugurated in 2002 and films started to be shown there again. The municipal authorities of Ostellato, who now own the structure, started up a collaboration with ERT (Emilia Romagna Teatro) in 2003 who organise the season’s programme.

 

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Published in Num. 30

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