IL CENACOLO ITALIAN CULTURAL CLUB Founded in 1928

Regular Thursday Meetings, Noon to 2:00 P.M. San Francisco Italian Athletic Club 1630 Stockton Street (3rd floor), San Francisco, CA 94133

www.ilcenacolosf.org

“Il Cenacolo is an organization that preserves, enhances and encourages all aspects of Italian arts, language and culture and recognizes the unique contribution of Italian heritage that is intertwined in the history and life of the San Francisco Bay Area.”

November 2020

Thursday, November 5, 2020 The Fiat Cinquecento Peter Sherwood (Zoom Meeting)*

Thursday, November 12, 2020 Sicily: So Many Cultures in One! Susanna Lombardi (Zoom Meeting)*

Thursday, November 19, 2020 “The Big Reveal: the NEW ‘ILCENACOLOSF.ORG” Jessica Poulin & Georgia Gibbs (Zoom Meeting)*

Thursday, November 26, 2020 No meeting in deference to Thanksgiving.

This month’s programs arranged by Peter Sherwood.

(* Zoom link and instructions by David Cobb will be emailed the week of each meeting.) from the desk of the president November 2020

November once seemed so far away and hopeful. “Surely by then Covid-19 would be under control!” we thought. The elections would finally have set the course for the next four years—for better or for worse. Our beloved Thursday Speaker Luncheons would probably have resumed. Family gatherings might be possible for the holidays. But here we are: I feel naked outside the house without my mask, embarrassed if I forget and extend my hand for a shake, won’t order salad for fear someone coughed on it, and euphemistically label this behavior the “new normal.” This said, Bunny and I, and most all our friends, are still alive and uninfected although cases among the incautious—or simply less lucky—are climbing worldwide. So: no complaining here, just continuing to be patient and careful, and remembering how fortunate we are to be living in our beautiful Bay area in the fall of 2020, Zooming away with our friends and relatives.

On a warm and pleasant Sunday afternoon last October I was able to spend a fine afternoon with my grandson out on the Bay. And, at an event available for all. The Matthew Turner is a 132-foot Brigantine tall ship built as a replica of an 1880s cargo vessel sailing between San Francisco and Tahiti (see photo next page). Construction was completed several years ago in Sausalito by volunteers using traditional materials and methods. Her day job is taking kids out on the water for “Call-of-the-Sea” maritime, science and environmental educational programs. On the weekends, however, it is possible to sign aboard for a three-hour sail, with lunch, out on the Bay. Masks, closely supervised social distancing, and 10 to 15 knots of breeze combine for a pretty safe environment. This time of the year the Bay is especially beautiful and pleasant. I highly recommend it! ([email protected] )

Continuing with safe diversions, our latest favorite TV series is “Nero Wolfe” on the MHZ streaming network. Wolfe is an Italian-American private detective transplanted back to Rome in the 1950’s along with Archie, his assistant. Good detective stories, not particularly violent or gory, beautiful venues, lots of 50’s European cars, trucks and other period items, together with humorous personal details of the many characters woven in out of the main plot(s). In Italian with the clear sub-titles characteristic of most MHZ European mysteries and dramas. Be sure to start with Episode One which introduces many of the characters present for the rest of the entire season which is available now.

October saw the beginning of a new membership policy offering a free year’s Il Cenacolo membership to Thursday speakers as a thank-you for their pro bono presentations. Our first new Member in this category is Jim Lodato, presenter of a nice summary of his decades-long fascination and travel in Tuscany. At the end of the year, it is anticipated that Jim will be offered regular dues-paying membership.

This month we are going to be entertained with a series of presentations and events arranged by Pete Sherwood. On November 5, Pete will tell us about the Fiat Cinquecento—a nice

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follow-up to Dick Gale’s excellent talk (presented by his son Ricardo) on our love affair with Italian cars. Susanna Lombardi, who recently gave us a lovely presentation on some artistic sites in Italy, will again take us there, this time to Sicily, and discuss the many different influences which make Sicily so unique. Finally, November 19 will be “THE BIG REVEAL” or our new and improved and beautiful and exciting website. Jessica Poulin and Georgia Gibbs, who have been working with us for the past several weeks, will bring us behind the scenes in the making of a website. And of course the last Thursday of this month there is no luncheon due to the holiday.

In La Cultura Italiana, Jim Boitano relates the short but illustrious life of , the quintessential composer of Bel Canto opera who lived in the early 19th century. And monthly chairman Peter Sherwood weighs in with his favorite Involtini di Melanzane, with memories of Sicily.

The October 28 Member’s open meeting was interesting and productive. After a brief status report on Il Cenacolo finances (strong) and the development of the new website (on schedule), the discussion turned to the status of the weekly luncheons (not yet), virtual and outdoor member events during COVID (many coming up), and the exciting potentials of the new website. Attendees offered a number of ideas to enhance benefits of the Club for both current and future Cenacolisti. All comments and suggestions deserve and will receive the Board’s attention in the months ahead. And now, a word from Chuck Stagliano: “An exciting addition to our new, soon to be released, website, will be a section dedicated to Il Cenaclo’s long-standing relationship with the Merola Opera program. This section will feature interviews with the artists, their biographies, and video recordings of some of their work. Where possible, we will feature those Merolini whom Il Cenacolo has specifically supported in the past.

“The first two artists are already committed and will be interviewed by Jean Kellogg on Zoom in the next few weeks. Their stories will be featured when the new website is released. They are Ashley Dixon, former Merolini and Adler Fellow, and her husband, tenor Carlos Santelli, both now resident artists with the San Jose Opera.”

I hope you all have worked out a good Thanksgiving solution for you and the family. Bunny and I are self-isolating for two weeks before being joined down here by relatives from Eugene, Oregon, who have endured the same two weeks. Several hours in the oven at 350 or so should render the turkey non-infectious. Ah…the new normal. A presto, David

— PAGE 3 — program profiles

Zoom Thursday, November 5, 2020 The Fiat Cinquecento Peter Sherwood, Cenacolista

The Fiat Cinquecento was a marvel of engineering that burst on the scene in postwar Italy, winning the hearts and pocketbooks of Italians. Its design was revolutionary in many respects and got young and not-so-young Italians to get off their Vespas and into a Fiat! Plus it was really a lot of fun to watch and drive, and Fiat sold almost four million of them during its nearly twenty-year run.

Pete will talk a bit about the history of this classic and its place in Italian culture, share some photos and videos (assuming he can make them work for you!) and invites everyone to share their knowledge and experiences with this little gem of a “macchina.”

Pete Sherwood has been a Cenacolista since the turn of the milennium. He worked with Man of the Year Dave Lombardi as a mediator at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco for many years. He has traveled in Italy extensively this century and the last and never tires of this fascinating and beautiful land, with all its offerings, edible, sippable, and drivable!

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Zoom Thursday, November 12, 2020 Sicily: So Many Cultures in One! Susanna Lombardi, Cenacoliste

Sicily is a treasure trove of architecture and mosaics from three civilizations that occupied Sicily: Greek, Roman, Norman/Byzantine. Through images we will first examine the Greek Temple of Concordia (below) which is the best preserved Greek temple outside of Greece. Next we will view the Roman floor mosaics of the Villa del Casale, a late third century CE estate, located outside Piazza Armerina. We will close with the Byzantine style mosaics executed by Venetian artists that adorn the Norman Cathedral of Monreale on the outskirts of Palermo. I hope you will join us in the visual exploration.

Susanna Lombardi earned a graduate degree in the History of Art, University of Califor- nia, Berkeley. She is an art historian and educator and has been lecturing in colleges and universities throughout the San Francisco Bay Area for the past 25 years. Since its incep- tion in 1996, she has been on the faculty of Bay Area Classic Learning Road Scholar (for- merly Elderhostel). She was also Associate Director of the Graduate Humanities program at Dominican University of San Rafael and has received numerous awards and grants in appreciation of her teaching. She recently published a second book with Inkwater Press, The Enigma of Mary Magdalene: A Pictorial Narrative. She is also a new member of Il Cenacolo.

Greek Temple of Concordia (Photo: Berthold Werner)

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Thursday, November 19, 2020 Zoom The Big Reveal: the New “ILCENACOLOSF.ORG” Jessica Poulin & Georgia Gibbs

For the past several weeks Jess and Georgia have been working with the website pivot team (David Cobb, Chuck Stagliano, Peter Sherwood and Susi Segal) to renovate our website. The goals: to attract new members and enhance the user experience of our loyal members. They will tell us about what it takes to build an effective, beautiful and fun website. Then they will give us a tour of our very own, very new website:

ILCENACOLOSF.ORG coming soon to a computer near you!

Georgia Gibbs is an independent Bay Area web designer. Her clients include non-profits, e-Commerce, and small business owners who want a website that is solution-driven and not just an online brochure. The clients’ goals are used as guideposts to craft a solution that will engage new customers, communicate fresh ideas to existing customers, and help grow new leads. www.georgia-gibbs.com/

Jessica Poulin is a marketing analytics consultant and digital strategist, with a marketing economics degree and a passion for making things better. She has worked in marketing research, social media analytics, business analytics and several other number crunch- ing career paths before falling in love with marketing optimization, now specializing in boutique agencies, where the clients are more like partners and the objectives are more life-affirming. www.columnandrow.com/

Photo: Joshua Hoehne

— PAGE 6 — CALL FOR SPEAKERS Il Cenacolo is looking for a few good speakers!

Our Thursday Zoom@Noon presentations are getting more and more popular! We are stepping up our game, looking far and wide for new speakers! Cenacolisti, you know what we all love: Everything Italian! Architecture, design, music, cuisine, wine, literature, North Beach, San Francisco, and more! If you have an idea for someone who can speak on any of these subjects, someone you know or perhaps someone you have just heard about, or someone who is just an interesting speaker on any topic, shoot any contact information* you have over to our Program Chairman, Chuck Stagliano ([email protected]). He will take it from there! And...thanks! *If you know the person, forward the phone number and email address. If you do not know the person, please Google their name and see if you can find contact info or a website with that information. Please do not just send a name. Chuck will do all of the heavy lifting in setting up the talk, but he needs the contact information. Thanks again! la cultura italiana

Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835) This month’s essay is about an Italian opera composer from Sicily who was known primarily for his long-flowing melodic lines that garnered for him the sobriquet “The Swan of Catania.” He was the quintessential composer of Bel Canto opera. He became a master of the varied possibilities of the human voice, teasing out the proficiencies for vocal production. In so doing, he created a novel art which culminated in the Bel Canto style. He saw a dual purpose for vocal works: first, for the development of the aria and vocal piece within the opera or context of the song, and second, for the wider context of presenting that opera or musical drama as a symbol of the beauty of human accomplishment within the arts. Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was born in Catania, Sicily, on November 3, 1801, the son of Rosario Bellini and Agata Ferlito Bellini. He was the eldest of his parents’ seven children. He was blond and blue-eyed, unusual for a Sicilian, a throw-back to his ancestors’ roots in central Italy. He was a child prodigy from a highly musical family. His grandfather, Vincenzo Tobia Bellini, had studied at the conservatory in Naples and, in Catania from 1767, had been an organist and teacher, as had Vincenzo’s father, Rosario. Both were also composers of note. An anonymous 12-page hand-written history, held in Catania’s Museo Belliniano, states that Bellini could sing an air of the Italian opera buffa composer, Valentino Fioravanti, at 18 months, that he began studying music theory at age two, the piano at three, and by the age of five could, apparently, play very well. The document states that Bellini’s first five pieces were composed when he was just six years old, and “at seven he was taught Latin, modern languages, rhetoric, and philosophy.” Bellini’s biographer Herbert Weinstock regards some of these accounts as no more than myths, not being supported from other, more reliable sources. Additionally, he makes the point in regard to Bellini’s apparent knowledge of languages and philosophy: “Bellini never became a well- educated man.” Regardless of whether or not all these claims are true, it is certain that Bellini’s future career as a musician was never in doubt. Bellini’s early education was at home—his teachers were primarily priests, brought by the family to educate the young man. In 1816, at the age of 15, Bellini began living with his grandfather, from whom he received his first formal music lessons. Soon after, he began to write more serious and complex compositions, among them the nine Versetti da Cantarsi il Venerdi Santo (Verses to Sing on Good Friday), eight of which were based on texts by the 18th Century Italian poet and librettist, . By 1818, he had completed several additional orchestral pieces, which quickly gained broad approval in Catania, and at least two settings of the Mass Ordinary: one in D Major, the other in G Major (both of these survive and have been commercially recorded).

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Bellini’s birthplace, the Palazzo dei Gravina Gruyas, Catania, circa 1800

Also, by 1818, he was ready for further studies, which for well-off students would include moving to Naples. Bellini’s family was not wealthy enough to support such a lifestyle. However, his growing reputation in and around Catania could not be overlooked. His break came when Stefano Notabartolo, the Duca di San Martino e Montalbo, became the new intendente (main administrative officer) of the province of Catania. He and his wife encouraged the young Bellini to petition the city fathers for a stipend to support him during his musical studies. In May, 1819 he was unanimously awarded a four-year pension to allow him to study at the Real Collegio di Musica di San Sebastiano in Naples. In July, he left Catania carrying letters of introduction from Notabartolo to several powerful persons, including Giovanni Carafa who was the intendente of the Real Collegio as well as the person in charge of the royal theaters in Naples. Bellini was to live in Naples for the following eight years. Although he started off in elementary classes, he progressed rapidly and was granted free tuition by 1820. By 1822, he was in the class of the artistic director and headmaster of the school, the opera composer Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli, studying the masters of the Neapolitan school and the orchestral works of Haydn and Mozart. (Zingarelli appears to have recognized Bellini’s potential and treated him like a son). Zingarelli detested the brilliant reigning composer of the moment, Rossini, and wanted to return to the plainer style of the past, with emotions of gentle and dignified pathos. He pushed Bellini in this direction and emphasized to him that a composition must “sing” if it was to touch the heart and move the audience. One can see Bellini’s acceptance of his master’s approach in several sacred works and small instrumental pieces that he was required to compose at the school. (However, it is in his most famous operatic works where one can really see his acceptance and full creative development of Zingarelli’s guiding ideas). By 1824, he had become a primo maestrino (first teacher, i.e. tutor) to entering students.

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Early Operas and International Fame It was the custom at the Conservatory to introduce a promising student to the public with a dramatic work. The result of this was Bellini’s first opera Adelson e Salvini , which was an opera semiseria (semi-serious opera, i.e. serious but with a happy ending) chosen by the conservatory’s students to be performed in the Conservatory’s theater by an all-male cast made up of students. After its initial performance in February, 1825, it proved to be so popular that the student body demanded it be performed every Sunday for an entire year. Adelson e Salvini was never performed outside of the Conservatory, but it did, however, serve as a source of material for at least five other operas Bellini composed. In the summer or early autumn of 1825 Bellini began work on what was to become his first professionally produced opera. A contract between the Conservatory and the royal theaters in Naples obliged the Conservatory—when it nominated a sufficiently talented student—to require that student to write a cantata or one-act opera to be presented on a gala evening in one of the theaters. After Zingarelli (left) used his influence to secure this honor for his promising student, Bellini was able to obtain agreement that he could write a full-length opera and, furthermore, that the libretto did not have to be written by Tottola, who was the theater’s official dramatic poet. Instead, Bellini chose Domenico Gilardoni, a young writer who then prepared his first libretto, which he namedBianca e Fernando, based on an 1820 play, Bianca e Fernando alla Tomba di Carlo IV, Duca d’Agrigento (Bianca and Fernando at the Tomb of Charles IV, Duke of Agrigento) and set in Sicily. However, the title Bianca e Fernando had to be changed since “Ferdinando” was the name of the heir to the throne, and no form of it could be used on a royal stage. After some delays caused by King Francesco I forcing postponement, the opera—now named Bianca e Gernando—was given its premiere performance at the Teatro di San Carlo on May 30, 1826 (the feast day of St. Ferdinand, the namesake of Prince Ferdinando). This second opera was very successful, helped by the approval of the King, and Bellini’s music was highly regarded. Donizetti, who attended the premiere, enthusiastically wrote afterward to the opera composer, Giovanni Simone Mayr: “It is beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, especially as it is his first opera.” Within nine months of the success of Bianca, in February/March 1827, Domenico Barbaja offered Bellini another commission, this time for an opera to be presented in the autumn of 1827 at La Scala in Milan, which Barbaja was also part of the management at the time. Bellini spent 1827 to 1833 mostly in Milan, never holding any official position with an opera company and living solely on the income produced from his compositions, for which he was

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able to ask higher than usual fees. It was at this time that he composed his third opera—Il Pirata (The Pirate, 1827), which was the result of Barbaja’s new commission. Bellini’s collaborator, the poet (right), wrote the libretto. This led to the longterm friendship and collaboration between Bellini and Romani that would produce some of Bellini’s most important and popular operas. (Il Pirata also cemented Bellini’s friendship with his favorite tenor, Giovanni Battista Rubini, who had sung in Bianca e Gernando). The premiere of Il Pirata on October 27, 1827, at La Scala in Milan, established Bellini as an internationally acclaimed opera composer.

Operas Following Bellini’s International Notoriety Bellini spent the next years, 1827–1833 in Milan, where all doors were open to him. As Bellini gained experience and recognition, he settled into a working method that stressed quality instead of quantity. He composed fewer operas, for which he commanded higher prices. Supported solely by his opera commissions, he produced La Straniera (The Foreigner, 1828), which was even more successful than Il Pirata. This opera sparked controversy in the press for its new style and its restless harmonic shifts into remote keys, something different and experimental that the public loved. His success began to be reflected in his lifestyle and showed that he was not immune to the pressures of producing operas to maintain that lifestyle. He began to show the taste for the social life and the dandyism that Heinrich Heine emphasized in his biography of Bellini— Florentinische Nächte (Florentine Nights, 1837). One example showing that he was not immune to the pressures of producing operas to maintain this opulent lifestyle: opening a new theater, Teatro Ducale, in Parma, his Zaira (1829) was a failure both with the public and with the critics and was never produced again. This failure showed that he had haphazardly rushed the opera to final production without the proper care he usually gave to composition and production, counting on his notoriety to win over his audience, which in this case he failed to do. However, having learned his lesson, he rebounded the following year with I Capuleti e I Montecchi (The Capulets and the Montagues, 1830), based on the same Italian sources as Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. It premiered on March 11, 1830 in Venice’s Teatro La Fenice and was an instant critical and popular hit.

Last Operas The year 1831 proved most successful for Bellini as two of his most famous operas were produced. La Sonnambula (The Sleepwalker) premiered on March 6, 1831 at Milan’s Teatro

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Carcano, and Norma, premiered on December 26, 1831 at the same theater. La Sonnambula was an opera semiseria; it became very popular, even in England, where an English version appeared and was very well-received. Although Norma was unenthusiastically received at the time, many critics and Bellini himself believed it to be his finest work. It is a tragedy that is set in ancient Gaul; its beautiful aria “Casta diva” became one of the stalwarts of the classical vocal repertory. (Here is Renée Fleming singing this aria.) These two operas were followed by a less successful opera, Beatrice di Tenda, which premiered at La Fenice in Venice, on March 16, 1833, a month later than scheduled. The delay led to the falling out between Bellini and Romani, presumably Soprano sfogato Maria Malibran due to the failure of Romani to deliver the libretto in a timely sang the title role Amina in fashion to Bellini, thus ultimately causing the delay of the La Sonnambula in 1834 premiere and the resulting strong reaction of the critics and public. They never collaborated again. (There appears to have been an attempt on the part of both men, through letters and intermediaries, to repair the friendship and to re-establish a working relationship several years after the break, but Bellini’s death prevented either from ever meeting together again.) Bellini spent a short time during the summer of 1833 in London, directing performances of his operas. He then moved to Paris hoping to write for the Paris Opera and to find a wife. He did neither. Instead, he had huge success with the Theatre-Italien. After he consulted with Rosetti, who was the artistic guide for that company, and after hearing the new symphonies (Beethoven’s Pastoral was a special favorite), he composed and produced his last opera, (The Puritans), which premiered on January 24, 1835. The libretto for this particular opera was written by the exiled Italian poet Count Carlo Pepoli, and was not very good. Bellini’s music, however, was superb and pointed in new directions that his future operas might explore. Unlike his previous two operas, I Puritani was enthusiastically received, and was especially championed by Queen Victoria who admired it.

Death Bellini died, at the age of 33, on September 23, 1835 in Puteaux, a quiet suburb near Paris where he lived and did his compositional work. He had been ill for several years, even though he was able to function without showing outward signs of his illness. Ultimately, he succumbed to an acute inflammation of the colon, which was compounded by an abscess in his liver. The inflammation of the intestine had produced violent symptoms of dysentery during the later years of his life.

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Immediately taking charge of the funeral arrangements, Rossini began to plan Bellini’s funeral and entombment, as well as taking care of his estate. Initially, Rossini regarded burial in Père Lachaise cemetery as a short-term arrangement, not knowing where the final resting place would eventually be. He created a committee of Parisian musicians in order to fund a monument to Bellini that was eventually built at the cemetery. In addition, he arranged for a funeral Mass to be celebrated on October 2, 1835 in the chapel of the Hôtel des Invalides. Of the many tributes that poured in following Bellini’s death, one stands out. It was written by his ex-librettist for so many of his operas and his friend, Felice Romani, and published in Turin on October 1, 1835. In it, Romani described his friendship thus: …Perhaps no composers other than ours know as well as Bellini the necessity for a close union of music with poetry, dramatic truth, the language of emotions, the proof of expression…I sweated for fifteen years to find a Bellini! A single day took him from me!

Despite attempts over many years to have Bellini’s remains transferred to Catania, they were eventually moved in 1876 when his casket containing the remains was taken with great ceremony to the cathedral in Catania and reburied there (left). His memorabilia and scores are preserved in the Museo Belliniano, located in the Gravina Cruyllas Palace in Catania. In the 1980s and 1990s, he was commemorated on the front of the Banca d’Italia 5,000 lire banknote, with a scene from his opera Norma depicted on the back. [These notes went out of circulation when Italy discontinued the use of the lira and adopted the euro as its single currency on February 28, 2002.]

Photo by Berthold Werner

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Legacy and Analysis Vincenzo Bellini’s fame was closely bound up with the Bel Canto style of the great singers of his day. He was not a reformer; his ideals were those of Haydn and Mozart. He strove for clarity, elegance of form and melody, and a close union between words and music. With perseverance, he corrected some of the grosser abuses of the opera of his day. While he subordinated the orchestra accompaniment to the singers and placed upon their voices the responsibility for dramatic expression (as his master teacher, Zingarelli, had taught him at the Conservatory in Naples), his harmony was more enterprising than that of his contemporary Gaetano Donizetti. Although his handling of the orchestra in introductions and interludes was far from perfunctory, it is for the individual charm and elegance of his luminous vocal melody that Bellini is remembered. Donizetti had been influenced by Rossini and Rossini also gave Bellini some of his inspiration. However, Bellini did not have the natural fluidity of composition that caused these two composers to dash off operas in weeks or even days in order to meet deadlines. Bellini worked much slower, revising again and again for perfection; an opera per year was his pace. From age 24 through his death some ten years later, Bellini composed eleven operas, more than half of which were quite remarkable. This poses the question, of course, as to how great his music could have been had he lived on. We will never know the answer to that question since he left us at such a young artistic age. However, what we do have indicates that in the Bel Canto style, his unique gift for melody made him the purest and most sustained melodic composer of this genre.

Adapted by James J. Boitano, PhD from: Encyclopedia Britannica website; Famous People website; Lundgren, Bruce. “Vincenzo Bellini Biography.” All Music website; New World Encyclopedia website; and Wikipedia.

— PAGE 14 — membership

NEW MEMBERS

This month we welcome:

James Lodato, Palo Alto, sponsored by David Cobb.

Jim was born in Lodi, California. He has a BA in English Literature from Stanford University. He is now retired, having been a Project Manager at DPR Construction Inc.

“I am a friend of Alex Kuguskev’s and I am aware of how much Alex enjoys being a member. After I gave my presentation last month about the beautiful city of Siena, Il Cenacolo kindly offered me a one-year membership.”

If you wish to sponsor a prospective member to Il Cenacolo, please contact:

David T. Giannini [email protected] He will take it from there!

— PAGE 15 — A Tavola! La Cucina Cenacolista Involtini di Melanzane (Eggplant Roulade) by Peter Sherwood I was looking for recipes to utilize wonderful ricotta cheese and eggplant like those we experienced in Sicily. I wanted to recre- ate meals we had there and this came pretty close! Here is one that is so easy and also delicious courtesy of “The Endless Meal”.

INGREDIENTS 2 1-lb. round eggplants Olive oil, for drizzling A generous pinch of sea salt 1/2 cup grated parmesan, plus extra to serve 1/2 cup basil, plus extra to serve

TOMATO SAUCE: 1 tablespoon olive oil 3 garlic cloves, minced 1 teaspoon sea salt A large pinch of red pepper flakes 1 28-ouce can diced tomatoes 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

RICOTTA FILLING: 1 cup whole milk ricotta 1/2 cup grated parmesan Juice from 1 lemon 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves Sea salt and pepper, to taste

— PAGE 16 — INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Cut the tops and bottoms off the eggplants and thinly slice them lengthwise. Drizzle them with the olive oil and sprin- kle with the sea salt. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, or until soft.

While the eggplants are roasting, prepare the rest of the meal. Heat the 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a medium-sized pot over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add all the other tomato sauce ingredients and bring the pot to a boil. Reduce the heat to a gently simmer.

In a medium-sized bowl, stir all the ricotta filling ingredi- ents together.

ASSEMBLY

When the eggplants come out of the oven, set them aside to cool for a minute. (Keep the oven on.) Pour the tomato sauce into an oven-proof baking dish.

Divide the ricotta filling between the eggplant slices, heap- ing the filling on the wide end of the eggplant, and top with the basil. Carefully roll the eggplant around the filling and place, seam-side down, in the tomato sauce in the baking dish.

Sprinkle the parmesan over the top and bake in the oven until bubbly, about 15 minutes. Serve with extra parmesan and some basil sprinkled over the top.

— PAGE 17 — SFIAC Foundation Giving Campaign Sponsor our SFIAC Employees

As you know, the Club closed on March 16, pursuant to San Francisco Mandate. COVID-19 has impacted all of us in so many unexpected and abrupt ways. At the SFIAC that has been particu- larly true for our employees - our chefs, bartenders, waitresses and dishwashers - who, prior to COVID-19, came to work weekly, giving everything they had to keep our Club thriving and ensuring our members and guests had a top notch experience at every event. With the temporary shutdown of the SFIAC, we are unable to host any events, which means our employees have no work for the foreseeable future.

This is where you can make a difference. Please consider sponsoring our employees as a tax-de- ductible donation. We will pool the funds together and distribute as a stipend to help our employees during this hardship. We will update this site with your names as our generous donors (unless you choose to be anonymous).

We have an amazing team at SFIAC and we are hopeful that when this is all over, we will be back up and running, serving you as eagerly and graciously as we did before. We understand that many can- not support financially during this time; so, please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. Know that we are exploring all available options from local, state, and federal sources at this time.

Thank you for your support. Please stay safe.

Bill Isetta, President, SFIAC Foundation and Directors Nicolas Figone, Tom Piro, Roberto Lombardi & Randy BessoloGuido Perego, President, SFIAC and 1st VP Manuele LaTorre & 2nd VP Chuck CanepaAl Casciato, President, IABA & Scott Bambacigno, Director, NBEC

Cenacolisti, Thanks to all who have contributed to this fund through Il Cenacolo. We are pleased to be able to present to SFIAC over $3000 so far. If you still would like to add to the Club’s group support, please make checks payable to SFIAC, and send them to David Cobb, 80 Beach Road, Belvedere, CA 94920. He will then forward them all with a cover letter from Il Cenacolo. —David T. Giannini and David Cobb