The Murals In Orgosolo

Yesterday we spent a very enjoyable couple of hours in Orgosolo, a small town which is about twenty minutes drive from Nuoro. Orgosolo is famous for its wall murals, which are in every corner of the town, and I was very taken by their quality and diversity. Many are accompanied by script in Italian or Sardo, often political in nature and illustrating issues which affect the entire world, not just Sardinia.

 

 

Ieri abbiamo passato due ore molto divertenti a Orgosolo, una cittadina che si trova a circa venti minuti in macchina da Nuoro. Orgosolo è famosa per i murales che sono dappertutto in paese e mi piacevano la loro qualità e diversità. Su molti murales è possibile leggere la scrittura in Italiano e in Sardo. Molti sono politici e illustrano i problemi di tutto il mondo, non soltanto della Sardegna.

Parades and Jazz come to Nuoro

The last fortnight or so has been quite lively in Nuoro. Firstly, the weekend before last, Nuoro was invaded by a large number of people from the small towns and villages from other parts of Sardinia for the two parades which took place through the centre of the town. On the evening of Saturday August 21st there was la sfilata delle maschere (the parade of the masks), a very lively and entertaining affair in which the representatives of various towns and villages dress up in costume and sometimes wear very sinister looking masks (which actually scared some of the small children present) while taking part in the parade. However, the masks are supposed to be symbols of good fortune which drive out evil spirits.

However, the most fun was saved until near the end when the best known of the groups parading, the issocadores from Mamoiada, experts with a lasso, showed how adept they were by lassoing some of the young ladies watching from the side of the street (they came to no harm and were freed straightaway).
On the afternoon of Sunday August 22nd la sfilata dei costumi (the parade of the costumes) took place where representatives of what seemed like every small town in every part of Sardinia paraded through the centre of Nuoro wearing their own particular traditional costume. The costumes were incredibly beautiful but the parade went on for so long that after being rooted to the same spot for two hours I was longing to sit down and drink a coffee well before the parade finished!

Then, from August 25th until it finishes on September 4th an International Jazz Festival has come to town. We were fortunate in being able to go to two excellent concerts. We saw the Filomena Campus Quartet on Friday 27th August in the garden of the house of Grazia Deledda and were treated to some excellent music and Filomena's well known use of theatrics as she sang songs in Italian, Sardo, English and Portuguese. Then, on the evening of August 30th, at the Teatro Eliseo we saw world renowned Sardinian jazz musician Paolo Fresu with members of his quintet and special guests, well known jazz musicians Dave Douglas and Enrico Rava. The musicianship was breathtakingly brilliant and the audience was hugely appreciative of a great concert which was some distance from the mainstream of music.

(Italian text to follow at later date)

  














 

BBC Radio3 Programme on the Music of Sardinia and Corsica

Yesterday evening, quite by chance, I came across this radio programme Andy Kershaw explores the music of Sardinia and Corsica from 2005, still available to listen to online and divided into chapters to make it easier for the online listener.

Ieri sera, per caso, ho trovato questo programma alla radio Andy Kershaw esplora la musica della Sardegna e Corsica del 2005, disponibile ancora da ascoltare online. Il programma è diviso in capitoli per facilitare l'ascoltatore.

Nuoro - poem about the City of Nuoro (in English)

Over the last 10 days or so I have been trying to write a poem about Nuoro and how my eight months here have informed my impressions of the city (I think an Italian translation is beyond me at the moment!). Here it is:-

Nuoro

So here I am in Nuoro,
this untidy mess of a town
which is nonetheless endearing.
"Il comune non fa niente!"*
is what I keep on hearing.
Sun scorched scruffy weeds
and dirt and litter adorn
the uneven pavement
while some have sought
to see to feline needs
with a plate or two of fish-heads
left out for the strays;
the buildings blighted by graffiti,
beautiful and ugly in equal measure
and cars parked curiously
at strange angles from the kerb.
And then the gems, the treasure:
the stunning vista of the mountains
from Via Aspromonte
and the valley between Mt Ortobene
and the edge of town;
how Via Corso Garibaldi
comes to life on summer evenings,
the bars packed and thriving,
the Nuorese of every generation
walking up and down
with youth, beautiful and tanned,
showing its propensity
for elegance and style;
the museums displaying
the cultural heritage of a town
that gave us Nobel Prize winning writer
Grazia Deledda and poet Sebastiano Satta
and artists and sculptors
whose charming works beguile.
Nuoro is like a woman
whose potential beauty sometimes delights,
occasionally astounds and also frustrates
wrapped up in the frumpy clothing
of habit and convenience
that draw attention to
the lines upon her face
but seldom have I known
people of such warmth and generosity
inhabit any other place.

Geoff Davis © 2010

* The council do nothing!

View from Via Aspromonte

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First Visits to the Nuorese Football Stadium

I've been in Nuoro for seven months now but it's only recently that I've paid my first visits to the Nuorese football stadium, which perhaps is rather surprising since the stadium is only about twenty minutes walk away from where we live and because I've always been a football enthusiast. The first time I went was when Maria Rita and I went to see a concert that was held there on Saturday evening, May 15th to celebrate la festa di Voci di Maggio. It was surprisingly cold and I could have been forgiven for thinking that I was back in England! However, the entertainment was of excellent quality although we had to wait until the end of the evening before the better known acts appeared. As far as I'm aware nearly all the acts were from Sardinia and there was an interesting variety, ranging from some beautiful choral singing of traditional Sardinian songs in Sardo to modern pop and rock music sung mostly in Italian. One performer not Sardinian was the beautiful young Sicilian singer Dulcenera; famous in Italy, she has a wonderfully powerful voice with perfect pitch and was a real joy to listen to. The headline act was Istentales, a rock band from Nuoro who have huge support in Sardinia and who regularly perform on the Italian mainland. The sheer energy of their unique brand of music, fusing rock with the influence of their Sardinian roots, was so impressive and very refreshing. Their charismatic frontman Gigi Sanna was largely responsible for organising the festa.

My next visit to the stadium was on Friday May 21st when we went to watch the annual charity football match taking place between Nuorese and Cagliari, the only team in Serie A from Sardinia. Footballing legend Gianfranco Zola comes from Oliena, a town very close to Nuoro, and signed his first professional contract for Nuorese when they were in C2, the Italian equivalent of League 2. Italian football has since been re-organised and Nuorese now languish a few leagues below league status. Zola also finished his playing career at Cagliari after leaving Chelsea.

The weather was much warmer than the previous Saturday so we were able to sit in the evening sun and enjoy the football which for me, an Englishman, was very interesting to watch. However, unsurprisingly, it wasn't a very competitive or physical game. Cossu and Marchetti, Cagliari's two players in Italy's World Cup Squad didn't play but several players well-known in Italian football did - Matri, Jeda, Conti and Agostini. I thought Cagliari might win quite comfortably but although they went 3-0 up, two goals from Nuorese in the last five minutes made the final score 3-2. I was surpised how good the Nuorese players were technically, far better than English teams in a comparable league in England but, on this evidence, not as physical. Nevertheless, I certainly hope to watch Nuorese again next season. 

Sono a Nuoro da sette mesi ora ma le mie prime visite allo stadio della Nuorese calcio erano molto recenti. Forse questo fatto è sorprendente perchè lo stadio è soltanto venti minuti a piedi da casa nostra e anche perchè sono stato sempre un appassionato di calcio. La prima volta che siamo andati allo stadio io e Maria Rita siamo andati a vedere un concerto sabato sera 15 Maggio per celebrare la festa di Voci di Maggio. Ero sorpreso perchè faceva freddo e pensavo di essere tornato in Inghilterra! Però il concerto era di ottima qualità anche se abbiamo dovuto aspettare fino a sera prima che gli artisti più conosciuti si esibissero. Pensavo che quasi tutti gli artisti fossero sardi e c'era una varietà interessante di bellissime canzoni tradizionali sarde, cantate in lingua sarda, musica rock e pop italiano. La cantante Dolcenera è siciliana ed è famosa in tutta Italia. Lei ha una voce formidabile e potente e mi è piaciuto molto ascoltarla. E finalmente arrivano gli Istentales, un gruppo di Nuoro che ha molti fans in Sardegna ed è popolare in tutta Italia. L'energia e la forza della loro musica, un misto di rock e musica tradizionale sarda, era tanto impressionante e molto vivace. Il cantante carismatico Gigi Sanna è stato il maggiore responsabile della organizzazione della festa.

La mia visita successiva allo stadio è stata il venerdi 21 Maggio per guardare la partita di calcio in beneficenza tra Nuorese e Cagliari, la sola squadra in Sardegna in Serie A. Un mito del calcio è Gianfranco Zola di Oliena, una cittadina molto vicina a Nuoro, lui ha firmato il suo primo contratto professionale per la Nuorese quando la squadra era in C2, l'equivalente di Lega 2 in Inghilterra. Da allora il calcio italiano è cambiato e adesso la Nuorese gioca in qualche campionato indietro. In seguito Zola ha finito la sua carriera come giocatore a Cagliari dopo avere lasciato il Chelsea.

Il tempo era molto più caldo del sabato prima e potevamo sederci a prendere il sole mentre seguivamo la partita. Per me, inglese, la partita era molto interessante da guardare. Però, non era una sorpresa che il gioco non era molto competitivo o fisico. Non giocavano Cossu e Marchetti, i due giocatori convocati in Nazionale ma giocavano altri giocatori famosi in Italia - Matri, Jeda, Conti e Agostini. Pensavo che il Cagliari vincesse abbastanza facilmente e prima era in vantaggio 3-0, poi la Nuorese ha segnato due gol negli ultimi cinque minuti e il risultato finale è stato 3-2. Ero sorpreso quanto bravi erano i giocatori della Nuorese tecnicamente, molto meglio delle squadre del campionato equivalente in Inghilterra ma forse meno aggressivi. Certamente spero di guardare di nuovo la Nuorese la stagione prossima.

Nuorese-Bristolese Dictionary or Dizionario

A few days ago Maria Rita and I were walking through the 'centro storico' (historic part) of Nuoro when we saw an Italiano-Nuorese pocket dictionary (Nuorese being the dialect of Sardo spoken by the inhabitants of Nuoro) in a shop window. We immediately went in and bought it. After looking through the dictionary I thought it would be fun to compile a very brief Nuorese-Bristolese dictionary. It must be stressed, however, that Sardo is an officially recognised language whereas Bristolese is a mixture of dialect words and the way Bristolians with a very strong Bristol accent pronounce certain words in English! So here it is, with the standard Italian in brackets after the Nuorese words and standard English in brackets after the Bristolese words.

Pochi giorni fa io e Maria Rita facevamo una passeggiata in centro storico di Nuoro. In vetrina abbiamo visto un dizionario "Italiano-Nuorese" (Nuorese è il dialetto Sardo che gli abitanti di Nuoro parlano). Siamo entrati subito in negozio ed abbiamo comprato il piccolo libro. Dopo avere guardato il dizionario ho pensato che sarebbe stato divertente creare un dizionario molto breve "Nuorese-Bristolese". Pero, devo dire che il Sardo è una lingua ufficiale mentre il Bristolese è un misto di parole in dialetto con le parole inglesi dei Bristoliani pronunciate con un accento di Bristol molto forte. Comunque, eccolo, con le parole in italiano standard in parentesi dopo le parole in Nuorese e le parole in inglese standard in parentesi dopo le parole in Bristolese.

Nuorese (Italiano)         Bristolese (English)

abba            (acqua)  =  wau'err         (water)

abilidade      (abilità)  =  abili'ee          (ability)

cuntentu   (contento)  =  appee           (happy)

diàulu         (diavolo)  =  devawl         (devil)

frebbe         (febbre)  =  feevurr         (fever)

furare          (rubare)  =  to still           (to steal)

furone           (ladro)  =  feef              (thief)
idea                (idea)  =  ideawl         (idea)

mannu         (adulto)  =  adawt          (adult)

mannu        (grande)  =  macky          (big)       

mascru     (maschio)  =  mell              (male)

meda           (molto)  =  gurt              (very) or   mennee    (many)

muccore       (muffa)  =  mawd          (mould)        

nerbosu    (nervoso)  =  nurvuss        (nervous)

pretzisu       (esatto)  =  zackley        (exactly)

pro                  (per)  =  furr              (for)

risurtau      (risultato)  =  rizawt           (result) 

sèmpritze  (semplice)  =  simpawl        (simple)

zenerosu  (generoso)  =  jenruss          (generous) 

zero                (zero)  =  zero              (zero)

Elias Portolu by Grazia Deledda

On my first visit to Nuoro in early November 2008, two days after my arrival, Maria Rita took me to 'Museo Deleddiano - Casa natale di Grazia Deledda' located at the old home of Nuoro's most celebrated writer who was only the second woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature when she won it in 1926. The museum, as far as it is possible, recreates the house much as it was lived in when Grazia Deledda was alive. I remember being especially struck by the study and the kitchen, both of which gave a fascinating insight into how life in Nuoro must have been lived in the late nineteenth century.

About a week ago we found and bought an English translation of Grazia Deledda's novel Elias Portolu in the nearest bookshop to home. In fact, it was about the only English language book in the entire shop. On Sunday I started reading it and I finished reading it yesterday evening. I was very taken by the poetry of her prose, breathtaking at times as it evoked in such picturesque detail the Nuoro of just over one hundred years ago and the surrounding area, much more rustic and simple than today and yet the timeless battles of the human psyche were obviously as much in evidence then as they are now and as they are always. There are still echoes of that world today. In fact, there is something almost eccentric about how in Nuoro nowadays you can walk past several blocks of high rise flats and then look out over a field towards the mountains and hear the clanging sound of the bells around the sheeps' or goats' necks just a few yards away; likewise, the sight of the few elderly women who still wear the traditional black as they walk along the street talking on their mobile phones. The physical description of the men in Nuoro - short and stocky, with ruddy to bronze complexions - was one I recognised as still being fairly predominant today too.

Sad tale though it is, Elias Portolu is an absolute joy to read. The title takes its name from the central character whose passion evoked memories of my reading of Sons And Lovers by D H Lawrence and its central charcter Paul Morel; and the Catholic guilt that torments Elias Portolu throughout, although a little less extreme, reminded me of Stephen Dedalus' struggle in James Joyce's Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man. Despite her reputation as major writer in Italy the work of Grazia Deledda isn't very well known in the English language world with only a few of her titles having been translated. Shame. Elias Portolu works very well in its English translation version.