CCR Book Club - June 24, 2021

For the last meeting of the club season, the CCR Book Club has chosen "Red Island House" by Andrea Lee.

This is the story of a Black American woman and her Italian businessman husband at their vacation home in Madagascar, which the Chicago Review of Books calls "part novel, part collection, part epic. Lee shows us a new setting, its natural beauty and stark class divisions, and its rich culture and settler exploitation."  

When: Thursday June 24, 2021
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Where: by Zoom
RSVP: canadarome@gmail.com ATTN Luigi.

Guest Speaker: Q&A with Piano Star Angela Hewitt - April 19, 2021

One of the most famous classical pianists in the world and recipient of numerous honours, including the Order of Canada (CC) and Order of the British Empire (OBE), Angela Hewitt is a fellow Canadian with deep connections to Italy. In addition to having performed and recorded for over 40 years throughout Italy, she is the artistic director of the Trasimeno Music Festival, which she founded in 2005. Her very deep attachment to Fazioli grand pianos, crafted in northeastern Italy, was also demonstrated in a series of tumultuous events and emotions during the first year of the pandemic (read The Guardian's account here).

The Q&A session will be moderated over Zoom by Rome-based Canadian foreign correspondent Megan Williams. Please send your questions in advance so that Megan can streamline the organization of this interview with Maestra Hewitt. 

When: Monday, April 19, 2021

Time: 6 p.m. Rome time

Where: on Zoom.

Cost: free

RSVP: canadarome@gmail.com ATTN Marielle; please submit your questions for Angela Hewitt by Apr. 16th at the latest.

Guest Speaker: Megan Williams on the Ndrangheta - March 30, 2021

Picture this: a trial with more than 300 suspects, 900 witnesses and a thousand or so lawyers, judges and others. Even with many appearing via video due to COVID-19, the Calabrian town of Lamezia Terme had to transform a vast call centre into a courtroom with long cages. Almost all of the defendants were arrested in late 2019, the peak of a three-year investigation into Italy’s most powerful organized crime network, the Calabrian Ndrangheta. Rome correspondent Megan Williams will take us into the dark heart of the Ndrangheta, explaining its roots, its rules and its role, not only in the economy of Italy, but in that of the world.

When: Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Time: 6 p.m. Rome time 

Where: on Zoom.

Cost: free

RSVP: canadarome@gmail.com ATTN Marielle.

Megan Williams is a Rome-based Canadian foreign correspondent and writer who has been covering Italy, Europe and the world for more than 20 years, mostly for the CBC. She has won numerous prizes for her reporting and radio documentaries, including a James Beard Award, and is the author of the story collection "Saving Rome," now being turned into an audio book.

CCR Book Club - March 24, 2021

The next online meeting of the CCR Book Club will  discuss "The Friend" by Sigrid Nunez (American, Winner of the National Book Award 2018).

This is a marvelous book about friendship, love, grief, healing and the magical bond between a woman (formerly a cat woman) and a dog. Set in New York, this novel relates the story of a woman who unexpectedly loses her friend and mentor and finds herself burdened with the unwanted dog he has left behind. Her own suffering is intensified by the mute suffering of the Great Dane, traumatized by the inexplicable loss of his master.

When: Wednesday March 24, 2021

Time: 6:30 p.m.

Where: by Zoom

RSVP: canadarome@gmail.com ATTN Luigi.

Guest Speaker: Opera Star Roberto Frontali - March 5, 2021

Roberto Frontali and Susanna Branchini in Verdi's Macbeth

We're thrilled to have another outstanding speaker -- this time from the world of opera and belcanto. Roberto Frontali, who is considered one of the greatest baritone voices of our time, has performed in the most important theatres of the world, including the Royal Opera House, the Met, Teatro alla Scala, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, La Fenice, and the Wiener Staatsoper, among many others. He performed the role of Montfort in French for "Les vêpres siciliennes" at Rome's Teatro dell'Opera in 2019. One of his current projects is a live stream of "La Traviata" in February 2021.

He will tell us about important moments and fascinating anecdotes along his career path, as well as the impact COVID-19 has had on his work and that of his colleagues. The opera world, like many other cultural fields, attempted to provide comfort and beauty for everyone during the initial lockdown in 2020 and has sought to be resilient in the months that have followed. 

In Italian and English.

When: Friday, March 5, 2021

Time: 6 to 7 p.m. Rome time 

Meeting Place: wherever you are -- remote interactive talk on Zoom.

Cost: free

RSVP: canadarome@gmail.com ATTN Marielle.

CCR Book Club - February 24, 2021

For their February discussion, the CCR Book Club has chosen "Resto qui" ("I’m Staying Here") by Marco Balzano (Italy, shortlisted for the 2018 Strega, translated into English in 2020). This is a wonderfully told story about a town in northern Italy that was turned into a  hydro dam and the fight by the town’s citizens to keep it from happening. The time period covers Mussolini, WWII and the aftermath.

When: Wednesday February 24, 2021

Time: 6:30 p.m.

Where: by Zoom

RSVP: canadarome@gmail.com ATTN Luigi.

Guest Speaker: COVID-19 Q&A with Dr Allison McGeer - January 19, 2021

Here's your opportunity to get answers on COVID-19 directly from one of the top experts in the field in Canada!

Dr Allison McGeer is a professor in Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto's Dalla Lana School of Public Health, and a senior clinician scientist at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute of the Sinai Health System in Toronto. Her research interests are in the prevention of healthcare associated infection, the use of epidemiology to reduce the burden of infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance in adults, and adult immunization. She has worked on outbreak investigations for SARS COV-1 in Toronto and MERS in Saudi Arabia, and on infection prevention for the World Health Organization during the 2014-15 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Since January, 2020, she has been working on research related to understanding the clinical features and epidemiology of COVID-19.

You may submit potential questions in advance when booking your spot.

When: Tuesday, January 19, 2021

Time: 7 to 8 p.m. Rome time (1-2 p.m. Toronto time)

Meeting Place: wherever you are -- remote interactive talk on Zoom.

Cost: free

RSVP: canadarome@gmail.com ATTN Marielle.

CCR Book Club - December 18, 2020

For the next book club meeting the group is reading "American Dirt" by Jeanine Cummins (2019). It is a gripping story about a mother and son’s migration from Mexico to the US using a combination of rail and land routes. It’s a very fast read. The Guardian has a compelling review of the novel.

When: Friday, Dec. 18, 2020

Time: 6:30 p.m.

Where: by Zoom.

RSVP: canadarome@gmail.com ATTN Luigi.