NOVEMBER 26 – DAY TO CELEBRATE LIFE AND TOAST TO FRIENDSHIP

November 26th, the date that marks the anniversary of the death of our maestro Pietro Gallina, became for ICBIE and for the entire network of people and places created by him a day, not only to honor Pietro’s memory, but above all, a day to celebrate life, celebrate art, culture, friendship and beauty.

This first year, with a lot of courage, strength and emotion, the ICBIE team organized, here in Salvador, an unforgettable party: guided by Marlene, whose sensitivity and love of remembering special moments during the 30 years she lived intensely alongside Pietro. The event was then directed by a visionary master and provocateur, our friend and artistic director Paco Gomes, with an improvised group of performers who performed a traveling show through all the ICBIE spaces, retracing some of the ideas, passions and activities promoted by Pietro.

The beautiful photos taken by our friend JF Paranaguá vividly show a little of the stages of this performance, but let’s go through them together: we start with the inauguration of the graffiti, a promise made to Pietro while he was still alive and kept by Júlio and Bigode to perform Pacha Breast on the side wall of the mansion. Taking advantage of the beautiful scenery, we had songs and capoeira games involving the poet Gregório de Matos (who incidentally also passed away on November 26th). Thus the public was led by the poet’s verses and the game of capoeira as they entered through the main door of ICBIE where we continued with verses by Castro Alves and a small performance of the poem Navio Negreiro. The scene changed and we entered the mansion with a welcome scene held in the reading room and a dance theater performance in the Leonardo da Vinci Library.

The audience was guided in the transition of each scene by the figure of the Herald who went from the Library to the main hall of the mansion where a small musical presentation of brass instruments was interrupted by the appearance of the black dragon (character from the operetta “Cidade em Perigo ou O Traficante Dragão Preto”, a play based on “O Dragão Verde” by Maria Clara Machado originally presented in August 2011 with the participation of pianist Silvia Stoppani) and for her pursuit to the ICBIE hall where the performance of one act of the play “Proibido Ler ”, presented in July 2012 and directed by Francesca Tagliafierro.

Then a main character of the act and the public were guided by the Herald to the main courtyard where Offenbach’s Cancan was performed, a dance loved by Pietro because it represented a critique of bourgeois society at the beginning of the 19th century. The ICBIE cancan was very Bahian, considering that capoeiristas also appeared on the scene playing to the rhythm of the dance. The performance ended with a hymn to wine and life, as we toasted with the music of another composer loved by Pietro, Verdi, with his “Libiamo,’’ sung by the audience with great enthusiasm and joy. The main hall once again became the setting for the musical performance of the house’s musicians and singers, entertaining the public until the classic pasta all’amatriciana was served to delight the palates of those present. The entire event was masterfully recorded by cameraman Fabricio Seixas and his assistant and the result of the recordings will be a video that we will soon publish on our YouTube channel.

We would also like to remember that on the same day and almost at the same time, ICBIE in Italy was holding another beautiful party in honor of Pietro at Spin Time in Rome, representing the cycle of friendship and affection that has always surrounded the figure of our Maestro. .

It was a magical night, full of emotion and little sadness because it demonstrated that Pietro’s legacy is strong and remains alive.