Wednesday, July 5, 2017

A Contemporary Song About Living in Venice




As the crowd of more than 2,000 of Venetian residents was departing from the Arsenale last Sunday (as recounted in my last post) this group of performers was seeing them off. I'm afraid that I missed the opening of the performance, and though I've been meaning to find out more information about the performers and their song, I'm in the Dolomites right now and happy to have a short break from Venice and its challenges. If anyone would like to provide such information (and maybe the lyrics to the song) in the comments section below, I'll incorporate them into this post. 

The song is about the frustrations of living in Venice, and is a lively and darkly comic account of the heartbreak felt by Venetians as they watch their city destroyed by the short-sighted and cynical pursuit of--as is repeated at one point--"schei, schei, schei!"  Or "money", in Venetian.

I think it's a marvelous performance, and more than just a litany of complaints, it, too, like last Sunday's march, embodies a determination to make themselves heard and seen, even by a city administration which is stubbornly and self-interestedly deaf and blind.

2 comments:

  1. I am pretty sure I remember seeing the animated video for this on the Gruppo25Aprile page on Facebook but it was probably several months ago now and I have no idea where to start looking for it. I will send it your way if I spot it.

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    1. Thanks, Claudia, I have some vague memory of seeing some version of this song in a video also, but haven't followed up on it.

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