On the occasion of the World AIDS Day (Dec. 1st ) the Istituto Italiano di Cultura presents Pier Vittorio Tondelli: A Man’s Life Beyond the Page.
A presentation of Tondelli’s work by Sebastiano Bazzichetto and a reading from Tondelli’s last novel “Separate Rooms” by the actor Salvatore Antonio. Tristan Michela, CANFAR Board of Directors and Executive Committee, will be in attendance.
Pier Vittorio Tondelli (September 14, 1955 – December 16, 1991) was an Italian writer who wrote a small but influential body of work. He was born in Correggio, a small town in the Emilia-Romagna region in Italy and died in nearby Reggio Emilia because of AIDS.
Tondelli took his high school exams in 1974 and then enrolled at the University of Bologna’s DAMS (Discipline Arte Musica e Spettacolo) where he took courses with Umberto Eco and Gianni Celati, two of Italy’s most celebrated writers and academics. In 1979, he sent a manuscript to Aldo Tagliaferri. Tondelli credits Tagliaferri with teaching and guiding him in his writing, reinforcing upon the young author the necessity of re-writing one’s work. A year later in January 1980, Altri Libertini was published, and, the following month, Tondelli graduated from the University of Bologna.
Tondelli is one of the most inlfuential writers of the Italian post-modern generation. Among his works Altri Libertini (1980); Rimini (1985); Camere Separate (1989); Pao Pao (1989); Racconti degli anni Ottanta (1993); Dinner Party (1994); Biglietti Agli Amici (1997) Racconti. Camere Separate has been translated into English with the title of Separate Rooms.
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Salvatore Antonio
Born in Toronto, Ontario, to Italian-Canadian parents, Salvatore Antonio was named a finalist for the 2007 Governor General’s Award for English drama, for his debut work In Gabriel’s Kitchen. The play was originally produced at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in March 2006, where it proved a box-office success. The play went on to be translated into Italian, and was performed in October 2006, at Teatro Della Limonaia, in Florence, Italy. The script was published in May 2007, by Playwrights Canada Press. Gabriel’s Kitchen was premiered in the US in January 2008, at The New Conservatory Theatre Center in San Francisco, and was subsequently produced in New York. Antonio is currently writing for Tarragon Theatre, Factory Theatre and Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. He was the playwright-in-residence at Buddies in Bad Times for its 2004-2005 season.
In 2013, Antonio presented Truth/Dare: A Satire (With Dance), an interactive audience participation show which featured staged reenactments of scenes from Madonna’s 1991 film Truth or Dare, at Buddies in Bad Times during Toronto’s Pride Week. The show’s cast also included Adamo Ruggiero, Gavin Crawford and Keith Cole.
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Sebastiano Bazzichetto
Born in Venice, educated in Italy and Canada, Bazzichetto has recently obtained his PhD in Italian Literature at the University of Toronto. Bachelor of Arts with honours in Italian Literature from Università di Padova. Master of Arts in Modern Philology with honours from Università di Padova, and a five-year Diploma with honours from Scuola Galileiana of Higher Education, Padova. Currently based in Toronto, his research investigates the literary panorama of Baroque poetry from the beginning of the 17th century. A former violin student, he also nurtures his great passion for opera and ballet, and he writes as a freelance for the Italian-Canadian newspaper Corriere Canadese on its cultural pages.
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