A mountain of books for Alfonso Masi and Luciano Maino

On the occasion of the Trento Film Festival of the Mountain 2019 UNA MONTAGNA DI LIBRI (A MOUNTAIN OF BOOKS) by Alfonso Masi has overwhelmed and moved the audience who spoke on Friday 3 May 2019 at the local headquarters of the Cultural Association “Antonio Rosmini”.

With the elegant and refined voice of Master Alfonso Masi and the evocative sounds of Luciano Maino’s accordion, the mountain was the absolute protagonist of Friday afternoon in all its forms.

(Photos: from the left, Alfonso Masi and the artist Gentile Polo among the audience the list of readings in program runs.)

Many are the literary or poetic compositions written yesterday as today that tell the mountain, subject or crossroads of passions.

Introducing the evening with some aphorisms by David Thoreau, the notes of “La pastora”(The shepherdess) started the interpretation of “I segnavia” (The trail signs) by Giuseppe Mazzotti, multifaceted figure of contemporary Venetian culture

“assiduous promoter of art,” fervent “mountaineer and, not least, appreciated writer and essayist.” (from Premiomazzotti.it)

 

Following is another poem focused on another symbol of the mountain “La picozza” (The ice ax) by Giovanni Pascoli:

[…] From me, alone, only with the soul, / with the cerulean stone ax, / on slow, on anel, / always; breaking you, or frost! / And I still go up to me, making / from me the scale, tacit, assiduous; / in the frost that I break, / digging in the end and the middle. / I go up; and I do not ascend, no, to descend, […]

but to remain alone with the aquile, / but to die where I placidly / immersed in the algae / vermilion you find those who ascend: / and guide me to it, with flash immediately , / my cerulean steel ax, / which, on the ground I saw last, reflects the stars of the Bear.

 

who introduced “”Per la morte di un compagno caduto”(For the death of a fallen comrade) by Cesare Maestri and the poem dedicated by the poet Antonia Pozzi to her guide and rope master “A Emilio Comici” (At Emilio Comici) fallen

“A thousand meters / of emptiness: / and an inch of stone / for one of your / soles of rope. / He has nailed the sunset to the precipice. […]” (from ANTONIA POZZI AND THE MEN OF THE MOUNTAINS in Il Grinzone .com).

 

The melodic interlude “Dio del cielo, Signore delle cime” (God of heaven, Lord of the peaks) saw the arrival in the hall of the Rotalian artist Gentile Polo and of the staff of the Gentile Polo art studio and introduced the second part with “Addio Monti” (Goodbye mountains) of Alessandro Manzoni, followed by the letter from the Indian chief Capriolo Zoppo (Lame Roe Deer) to President Franklin:

“The great Chief who is in Washington sends us to say that he wants to buy our land […]

But how can you buy or sell the sky, the color of the earth? This idea is strange for us. We are not owners of freshness of the air or of the glitter of water: how can you buy them from us? Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy beach, every drop of dew in the dark woods, every buzzing insect is sacred […]

We are part of the earth and it is part of us […]

the earth does not belong to man, it is man who belongs to the earth. We know this. All things are connected, like the blood that unites a family. Whatever happens to the earth, it also happens to the children of the earth. It was not man who weaved the web of life, he is only a thread of it. Whatever he does to the canvas, he does it to himself same […] “(from SIAMO PARTE DELLA TERRA in istitutobioetica.org Campania region) .

 

The mountain is therefore “Terra di conquista” (Land of conquest) of Giuseppe Mazzotti but also of “Sconfitta” (Defeat) of Cesare Maestri, a land that has unfortunately seen much blood shed as the anonymous notes of “O Monte San Michele” (Oh St. Michael Mountain) tell

“… bathed in Italian blood! / Tempted several times, but in vain / Gorizia catches. / From Monte Nero to Monte Cappuccio / up to the height of Doberdò, / a regiment several times destroyed: / no one returned at last … “(Anonymous 1915 – 1916).

 

and the homonymous poem by Mario Silvestri. The same poignant atmospheres for “Sono una creatura” (I’m a creature) and “Veglia” (Vigil) by Giuseppe Ungaretti, and the story of the “Ortigara, calvario degli Alpini” (Ortigara, an ordeal of the Alpin troops) of Mattalia.

With “La negritella” (The negritella flower) the atmosphere is diluted in the Gabriele D’Annunzio “Pioggia nel pineto” (Rain in the pine forest), followed by the amusing story by Paul Press on the misadventures of “Quando arrampicano le signore” (When they climb the ladies) to return to the ode “Ad un vecchio sacco di montagna”(To an old sack of mountain) by P. Ghiringhelli.

At this point the accordion of Luciano Maino intones “La montanara” (The mountaineer) and the audience follows him kidnapped in a subdued and moved choir, while on the fading of the notes the Maestro Alfonso Masi starts to tell the “Ritorni dell’amore nei boschi notturni” (Returns of love in the night woods) by Rafael Alberti.

To the romantic notes follow the tragicomic pomposity of the journalistic description of “Mussolini sciatore” (Mussolini skier) of Angelo Manaresi on the notes of “Quando scende giù la neve” (When it comes down the snow), which soften the memory of “L’apocalisse del Bondone” (The Apocalypse of Bondone mountain) written by Paolo Facchinetti.

With visible emotion also on the face of his friend Gentile Polo, Alfonso Masi recites “L’infinito” (The infinite) by Giacomo Leopardi, then greetings and thanks with intoning with Luciano Maino the farewell song “Stelutis Alpinis”, dedicated to the queen of the alpine peaks:

If one morning you will come
To the top of the mountains
You will find an edelweiss
That has bloomed on my blood
To mark it there is a cross
I don’t know who put it
But it’s up there that I sleep in peace
And I will sleep forever
But it’s up there that I sleep in peace
And I will sleep forever
You collect that star
Who knows all about your love
You will be the only one to see it
And to hide it on the heart
When in the evening you will be alone
Don’t cry because
In the memory you will see again
You and the star with me
In the memory you will see again
You and the star with me
You and the star with me.
(Arturo Zardini)

(Lucia Martorelli – Gentile Polo Art Studio)