Valley events mark Italy anniversary

Staff report

Youngstown

The Youngstown State University College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences through its Center for Applied History is hosting an evening of southern Italian music.

The event will be 7:30 p.m. Oct. 8 as part of events commemorating the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy.

The Italian folk group DisCanto will join the Youngstown area Italian-American community in commemorating the anniversary. A free performance will be at St. Columba Cathedral at 151 W. Wood St.

DisCanto’s music reinterprets the traditional ethnic southern Italian music that was typical of the mid-1800s through contemporary and traditional instrumentation.

The songs, sung in dialect, bring to life the historical themes of celebration, mourning, struggle — against nature, injustice and poverty — and are songs of defiance against foreign occupation. They reflect the diverse range of influences that was prevalent in the peninsula in 1861.

DisCanto’s concert is the second event in a series of free cultural events whose aim is to celebrate this sesquicentennial anniversary of Italy’s Unification in the valley.

The full list of events:

5:30 to 7: 30 p.m. Tuesday, Italian Consul, Dottore Marco Nobili, visits Youngs-town to open the exhibit, “Giuseppe Garibaldi and the Expedition of the Thousand,” Ohio Historical Society Youngstown Center of Industry and Labor, 151 W. Wood St.

5:30 to 7 p.m. Oct. 13, Frank Treccase, Ph D., presents a lecture on “Manzoni and the Unification of Italy” at the OHS Youngstown Center of Industry and Labor.

5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Oct. 20, Pamela Schoenewaldt hosts a book signing of her novel, “When We Were Strangers,” at the OHS Youngstown Center of Industry and Labor.

7:30 to 10:30 p.m. Nov. 11, Giacomo Puccini’s Opera, “Tosca,” at Stambaugh Auditorium, 1000 Fifth Ave.

Call (330) 480-0693 for tickets.