Santa Claus Village, 2nd ed.

December 21, 22 and 23 December 2018

Hotel Villa Diodoro, via Bagnoli Croci n. 75

Opening hours
Friday 2st and Saturday 22nd: from 9.00am to 8.00pm
Sunday 23: from 9.00am to 6.00pm

Free entrance

 

A magic world for children of all ages.
A tour starts every 30 mins and it lasts about  an hour.

Kids will have the chance to talk to Santa Claus, play with the elves , become a Santa Claus little helper in the his toy’s factroy

 

More info: magicovillaggiodinatale.it

 

 

Uno Nessuno Centomila

One, No one and One Hundred Thousand

A play based on the namesake novel by Luigi Pirandello

Taormina Congress Hall, Thursday 20 December 2018 @ 8.30pm

 

A monolgue acted by the great Italian actor Enrico Lo Verso in a minimal stage set


Tickets

online >> soon on www.ciaotickets.com
ticket office >> Tabaccheria Federico Simone, Corso Umberto n. 96 Taormina (T. 009 0942 680507)
More info: 0039 327 9097113

 

 

Plot of  the novel
Vitangelo Moscarda discovers by way of a completely irrelevant question that his wife poses to him that everyone he knows, everyone he has ever met, has constructed a Vitangelo persona in their own imagination and that none of these personas corresponds to the image of Vitangelo that he himself has constructed and believes himself to be. The reader is immediately immersed in a cruel game of falsifiying projections, mirroring the reality of social existence itself, which imperiously dictate their rules. As a result, the first, ironic “awareness” of Vitangelo consists in the knowledge of that which he definitely is not; the preliminary operation must therefore consist in the spiteful destruction of all of these fictitious masks. Only after this radical step toward madness and folly in the eyes of the world can Vitangelo finally begin to follow the path toward his true self. He discovers, though, that if his body can be one, his spirit certainly is not. And this Faustian duplicity gradually develops into a disconcerting and extremely complex multiplicity. How can one come to know the true foundation, the substate of the self? Vitangelo seeks to catch it by surprise as its shows itself in a brief flash on the surface of consciousness. But this attempt at revealing the secret self, chasing after it as if it were an enemy that must be forced to surrender, does not give the desired results. Just as soon as it appears, the unknown self evaporates and recomposes itself into the familiar attitudes of the superficial self. In this extremely modern Secretum where there is no Saint Augustine to indicate, with the profound voice of conscience, the absolute truth to desire, where desperation is entrusted to a bitter humorism, corrosive and salvific at the same time, the unity of the self disintegrates into diverse stratifications. Vitangelo is one of those “…particularly intelligent souls …who break through the illusion of the unity of the self and feel themselves to be multiform, a league of many Is…” as Hermann Hesse notes in the Dissertation chapter of Steppenwolf.

Vitangelo’s extremely lucid reflections seek out the possible objections, confine them into an increasingly restricted space and, finally, kill them with the weapons of rigorous and stringent argumentation. The imaginary interlocutors, (“Dear sirs, excuse me”…”Be honest now”…”You are shocked? Oh my God, you are turning pale”…), which incarnate these objections rather than opening up Vitangelo’s monologue into a dialogue fracture it into two levels: one external and falsely reassuring, the other internal and disquieting, but surely more true. The plural you (“voi”) which punctuates like a returning counterpoint all of the initial part of the novel is much different from the “tu” of Eugenio Montale, which is almost always charged with desperate expectations or improbable alternatives to existence; it represents, rather, the barrier of the conformist conceptions which the lengthy ratiociations of Vitangelo nullify with the overwhelming evidence of implacable reflections.

Vitangelo’s “thinking out loud”, definitely intentional and rigorous, is, however, paradoxically projected toward a completely different epilogue in which the spiral of reasoning gives way to a liberating irrationalism. Liberation for Vitangelo cannot happen through instinct or Eros, as happens in the case of Harry Haller, the steppenwolf, who realizes his metamorphosis through an encounter with the transgressively vital Hermine. Vitangelo’s liberation must follow other avenues; he must realize his salvation and the salvation of his reason precisely through an excess of reason. He seems to say to us: “Even reason, dear sirs, if it is alleviated of its role as a faculty of good sense which councels adaptation to historical, social and existential “reality”, can become a precious instrument of liberation.” This is not true because reason, when pushed to its ultimate limits, can open up to new metaphysical prospects, but because, having reached its limits, deliriously wandering around in cerebreal labyrinths and in an atmosphere satured with venom, it dies by its own hand. The total detachment of Vitangelo from false certainties is fully realized during a period of convalescence from illness. Sickness, in Pirandello as in many other great writers, is experienced as a situation in which all automatic behavior is suspended and the perceptive faculties, outside of the normal rules, seem to expand and see “with other eyes.” In this moment the ineptitude that Vitangelo shares with Mattia Pascal and other literary characters of the beginning of the 20th century demonstrates its positive potential and becomes a conscious rejection of any role, of any function, of any perspective based on a utilitaristic vision. The episode of the woolen blanket signals the unbrigeable distance which now separates Vitangelo from the rules of reality in which the judge who has come to interrogate him appears to be completely enmeshed. While the scrupulous functionary, completely absorbed in his role, collects the useful elements for his sentencing, Vitangelo contemplates with “ineffable delight” the woolen blanket covering his legs: “I saw the countryside: as if it were all an endless carpet of wheat; and, hugging it, I was beatified, feeling myself truly, in the midst of all that wheat, with a sense of immemorial distance that almost cause me anguish, a sweet anguish. Ah, to lose oneself there, lay down and abandon oneself, just like that among the grass, in the silence of the skies: to fill one’s soul with all that useless blue, sinking into it every thought, every memory!”

Once cured of his illness, Vitangelo has a completely new perspective, completely “foreign”. He no longer desires anything and seeks to follow moment by moment the evolution of life in him and the things that surround him. He no longer has any history or past, he is no longer in himself but in everything around and outside of him.
(source: Wikipedia)

Ponti Svelati

Paint exhibition of the Persian painter Safari Rasta

Palazzo Duchi d Santo Stefano, from Sunday 6 December 2018 to Tuesday 8 January 2019

Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, from 9.00am to 2.00pm

free entrance

 

On the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10th 1948, the Fondazione Mazzullo presents the exhibition of the Persian painter  Safari Rasta.

 

Info: + 39 095 532402 – +39 095 340 1295592 (mobile)

More info: beniamingroup.com

FB page: facebook.com/pg/Behnam-Beniamin-Art

Antiquitatis Volumina

Incunaboli e Cinquecentine
Incunabula and fifteeners

Town Library, Piazza IX aprile

From December 15th 2018 to September 15th 2019

Opening hours: everyday except Mondays from 9.00am to 1.00pm and from 3.00pm to 7.00pm

Free entrance

 

Exhibition of ancient books dating back to the 15th and 16th century.

An incunable, or sometimes incunabulum (plural incunables or incunabula, respectively), is a book, pamphlet, or broadside printed in Europe before the year 1501. (Importantly, incunabula are not manuscripts). A “fifteener”, is a book printed in the 16th century

 

Christmas in Taormina

The town of Taormina presents the Christmas Calendar 2018/2019

Here some of the events:

December 15 – Corso Umberto and main squares @ 4.00pm – Santa Claus meets the children

December 19 – Congress Hall @ 7.30pm – Christmas Ballet by the A.S.D. Gymnasium

December 20 – Cathedral @ 7.30pm – Concert of the Orchestra and Chorus of the students of the Istituto Comprensivo I of Taormina

December 20 – Congress Hall @ 9.15pm – Uno Nessuno Centomila (paid admission)

December 21 – Congress Hall @ 7.30pm – Dance Taormina Gala Ballet

December 21 – Hotel Villa Diodoro 9.20am/8.00pm – Santa Claus Village

December 22 – Cathedral @ 7.30pm – Baroque Concert

December 22 – Hotel Villa Diodoro @ 9.230am/8.00pm – Santa Claus Village

December 23 – Ancient Theatre @ 5.00pm – Grand Christmas Concert

December 23 – Cathedral @ 7.30pm – “The troubadour and the Christmas”, concert by the Folk Group Taormina

December 23 – Hotel Villa Diodoro 9.30am/6.00pm – Santa Claus Village

December 24 – Duomo Square and Santa Caterina Square @ 10.30pm – Lighting of the Christmas Bonfires

December 24 – Corso Umberto and main squares – Bagpipers and Christmas carrols

December 25 – Corso Umberto and main squares – Bagpipers and Christmas carrols

December 27 – Congress Hall @ 9.15pm – Jazz Concert

December 28 – Church of Santa Caterina @ 7.30pm- Christma Concert (Giusy Di Mauro: soprano, Francesco Forzisi: piano)

December 29 – Palazzo Duchi di Santo Stefano @ 6.00pm – Schow Cooking by Chef Cannavò

December 29 – Cathedral @ 7.30pm – Concert by the “Orchestra Mandolinistica Gioviale”

December 29 – San Giorgio Theatre @ 9.00pm – Gran Gala Dell’Opera (paid admission)

December 30 – Congress Hall @ 5.30pm – Christmas Concert “In…canto Natalizio”

December 30 – Church of Santa Caterina@ 7.30pm – Christmas Concert “Natale e… dintorni”

December  31 – Piazza IX Aprile (Belvedere Square) from 10.30pm – New Year’s Eve Party with Sara Putrino and DJ Joe Bertè

January 1 – Villagonia Beach @ 8.00am – Corri Capodanno e Tuffo a Mare – 44th edition (race and dive)

January 1 – Congress Hall – New Year’s Concert by the Taormina Plectrum Orchestra

January 1 – Corso Umberto and main squares – Bagpipers and Christmas carrols

January 2 – Ancient Theatre @ 11.00am – New Year’s Concert organised by Fondazione Taormina Arte

January 3 – Cathedral @ 7.30pm – New Year’s Concert by the “V. Bellini” Taormina

January 4 – Church of Santa Caterina @7.30pm – Opera Concert by E. Moschella

January 5 – Congress Hall @ 9.15pm – Stage Show “San Giovanni Decullato”

January 5 – Congress Hall @ 6.30pm – Stage Show “Le metamorfosi” by Ovidio with E. Lo Verso (paid admission)

Obiettivo Sicilia – Volti, Luoghi, Racconti

Photo Exhbition organised by the Taormina Click Association

Church Del Carmine (former), from December 15th 2018 to January 13th 2019

 

Sicily through the eyes of the photographers of this association

 

Watch the video:

https://www.facebook.com/taoclick/videos/2277580495808035/

Food and Wine Weekend

Pazzo Duchi di Santo Stefano, on:
November 24th (from 4.00pm to 8.00pm) and
Sunday 25th (from 9.00am to 1.00pm and from 4.00pm to 8.00pm)

Free entrance

The event is organised by “Taormine”, the Taormina trade association.
Wine tastings of wines from all over South Italy. Free Workshops and
Many restaurants, trattorias and wine bars of the town involved with special wine-based menus.

More info on Taormine’s Facebook page: www.facebook.com/taormineact/

 

Taormina, fotografie, storia e memoria

photo exhibition by Gaetano Castorina

previous Church Del Carmine, from October 15th to December 10th 2018

free entrance

 

An exhibition of historical pictures of Taormina, from 1920 to 1950

 

 

Museo naxos concertoConcert Promenade

Archealogical Park of Naxos Taormina – Via Lungomare Schisò, Giardini Naxos

Saturday September 22nd 2018 from 5.30pm to 7.30pm

Entrance: € 4,00 – Reduced € 2,00 – free entrance according the law

 

Promenade concerts were musical performances in the 18th and 19th century pleasure gardens of London, where the audience would stroll about while listening to the music. The term derives from the French se promener, “to walk”.

On occasion of the European Day of Cultural Heritage, the concert will be performed by the students of the Messina music conservatory “A. Corelli”.

Info Parco Archeologico Naxos-Taormina T. 0039 0942 628738 urp.parco.archeo.naxos@regione.sicilia.it – parconaxostaormina.com – facebook.com/urp.parco.archeo.naxos

 

Isolabella di notteExtraordinary night opening of the Isola Bella

Saturday 22nd September from 6.00pm to 10.00pm

Sunday 23rd September 2018 from 10.00am to 10.00pm

Entrance: € 4,00 – Reduced € 2,00 – free entrance according the law. The ticket includes a guided tour of the Island and the visit of its museum.

Info
Parco Archeologico Naxos-Taormina
T. 0039 0942 628738
urp.parco.archeo.naxos@regione.sicilia.it – parconaxostaormina.com – facebook.com/urp.parco.archeo.naxos