Category Archives: Books & Music

Michéal Castaldo’s 2018–2019 East Coast Christmas Concert Tour Raised over $39K for Various Churches and Organizations

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New York City—Michéal Castaldo’s 2018–2019 East Coast Christmas Concert Tour helped raise over $39,000 (in ticket sales and sponsorship) for the following churches and organizations located in the U.S. and Canada:

November 17, Christmas in Italia at Richwood United Methodist Church, in Richwood/Mullica Hill, NJ. The sold out concert was proudly supported and sponsored by Fulton Bank, Mt. Laurel; Giacomo Gattuso, Gibbstown; Heritage Winery, Mullica Hill; Hometown Transport, Woodstown; Kaitanna Solar, Mullica Hill; Kelley Funeral Home, Pitman; Martins Specialty Sausage Co., Mickleton; Mathis Funeral Home, Glassboro; Republic Bank, Glassboro; Total Quality Drilling, Newfield; A Tour of Italy Gift Shop, Smithville; Peach Country Tractor, Mullica Hill; Alfonso Palladino, Paulsboro; Berkshire, Hathaway, Fox & Roach Realtors, Amy Reuter, Realtor and Classic Cleaners, Glassboro; Federal Credit Union, Millville; Smith Funeral Home, Mantua; The Candy Box, Richwood; Weiss Department Store, Paulsboro; Sons of Italy, Paulsboro; Caterina & Vernon Dawson, Mickleton.

December 1, Christmas in Tuscany at the New Dorp Moravian Church in Staten Island, NY. This concert event was sponsored by Nurnberger Bierhaus, Joyce Fernandez, Dorothy Ambrosino, Colonel Clean, David and Bailing Young, and Sounds Big Productions, NYC. Food, wine, and other beverage contributions provided by The Gables LBI – NJ, Holtermann’s, and the Cake Chef.

December 9, Italian Christmas Concert in Town Plot, a fundraiser for Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, Waterbury, CT. The concert was sponsored by Jerry Padula, Esq., Francesca’s Deli Norwalk – CT, Aitoro’s Norwalk – CT, LC Foods New Haven – CT, John Zaffina Contracting, Westport – CT, and New York City Olive Oil Coop (NYC, NY).

December18, Christmas in Italia at Blessed Sacrament Church, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Majestic Castle Music Productions and Blessed Sacrament Church partnered to help promote the Italian culture and heritage at this Italian Christmas Concert featuring the Odin String Quartet while raising funds to help Out of the Cold Program, St. Vincent de Paul, and ShareLife reach their fundraising goals for 2019. This concert was sponsored by Temperance Partners, Bernardo Funeral Home, Corazza & Palummo Charted Accountants, Teatro Verde, International Productions, Famiglia DiCecco, and New York City Olive Oil Coop. This is just a snippet (90 second video) of what the concert audiences experienced, https://vimeo.com/311147103 Password: concert

December 27, Italian Christmas Concert in Buffalo, a sold out fundraiser at The Alden Presbyterian Church. Majestic Castle Music Productions, Mrs. Maria Foss, and The Parlato Family, Alden NY, partnered to help promote the Italian culture and heritage at this Italian Christmas Concert while raising funds to help Danny’s Helping Hands and The Children and Youth of the Alden Community.

Two of the concerts were sellouts, and more than 1900 people attended. The holiday tour concerts benefit the hosting churches and organizations while sharing the spirit of Christmas and the reason for the season with all involved.
Castaldo’s holiday concerts fill the hearts of audiences with the spirit of the holidays. Accompanied by the Castaldo String Quartet, he performs classic Advent and Christmas carols from his chart-topping, best-selling album, “Extravergine: Christmas in the Mediterranean.”

Castaldo is an award-winning, Italian tenor, who sings in the style of Andrea Bocelli. When putting his voice to a particular melodic song, the results are nothing short of wondrous. Castaldo’s rich operatic voice, strong but soft, is perfect in pitch and tempo and always on key. Castaldo, who studied music at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, has toured North America and Europe, including performances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Rainbow Room, Shea Stadium, Toronto’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre, and Italy’s Teatro F. Cilea and Pescara Opera House. His passionate performances consistently thrill audiences with sweeping romanticism. For more information about Michéal Castaldo, visit www.michealCASTALDO.com.

To learn how your church can benefit from being part of the 2019–2020 Michéal Castaldo Italian Christmas Concert Tour, contact Charlotte Jayne at 631-256-6515 or cjayne@optonline.net.

Elena Ferrante: ‘Yes, I’m Italian – but I’m not loud, I don’t gesticulate and I’m not good with pizza’

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I love my country, but I have no patriotic spirit and no national pride. What’s more, I digest pizza poorly, I eat very little spaghetti, I don’t speak in a loud voice, I don’t gesticulate, I hate all mafias, I don’t exclaim “Mamma mia!” National characteristics are simplifications that should be contested. Being Italian, for me, begins and ends with the fact that I speak and write in the Italian language.

Source: Elena Ferrante: ‘Yes, I’m Italian – but I’m not loud, I don’t gesticulate and I’m not good with pizza’

Il fascino eterno della lingua italiana sugli artisti stranieri

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Che l’Italia nel corso dei secoli abbia ispirato tanti artisti, scultori, architetti, pittori, è cosa nota, ma negli ultimi tempi sembra si sia prepotentemente riproposta sulla mappe della musica globale. Viviamo questa paradossale situazione in cui molti artisti nostrani si cimentano con le lingue straniere e si scontrano con le difficoltà del produrre musica in inglese nella nostra nazione mentre, ad altre latitudini, il parere sembra esattamente l’opposto.

Source: Il fascino eterno della lingua italiana sugli artisti stranieri

The Axeman of New Orleans Preyed on Italian Immigrants

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By August of 1918, the city of New Orleans was paralyzed by fear. In the dead of the night, the Axeman of New Orleans (as he came to be known) broke into a series of Italian groceries, attacking the grocers and their families.  Some he left wounded; four people he left dead. The attacks were vicious. Joseph Maggio, for example, had his skull fractured with his own axe and his throat cut with a razor. His wife, Catherine, also had her throat cut; she asphyxiated on her own blood as she bled out.

Source: The Axeman of New Orleans Preyed on Italian Immigrants

‘Tears of Salt’ is a deeply moving, first-hand response to Italy’s refugee crisis 

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As a doctor working on Lampedusa, Italy’s southernmost island, he has been on the front line of the refugee crisis for more than 20 years. He has seen boats of refugees arriving from Africa, sometimes on a daily basis, crammed with people who are starving, dehydrated, and terrified. And these, he points out, are the fortunate ones – they are still alive.He has seen desperate children separated from their parents and dying parents frantic to entrust their children to anyone who can help. He has seen young

Source: ‘Tears of Salt’ is a deeply moving, first-hand response to Italy’s refugee crisis – CSMonitor.com

Explorers Emigrants Citizens: A Visual History of Italian Americans

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A visual history of the Italian American experience from the collections of the Library of Congress

Explorers Emigrants Citizens, a new book by Linda Barrett Osborne and Paolo Battaglia, celebrates 500 years of Italian-American history, from the first explorers to the Godfather movies. The 320-page, coffee-table book is lavishly produced with 500 images drawn from the Library of Congress’s vast pictorial holdings.
The book highlights the accomplishments of well-known individuals such as Fiorello LaGuardia and Joe DiMaggio, and also delves deeper to recognize people like Joe Petrosino, the first Italian-American police officer to lose his life fighting organized crime.

Carefully selected photos illustrate the lives of Italians in crowded Eastern cities, and in the fields and mines of rural America. Also included are photos of works of art by Italian

Explorers Emigrants Citizens

Explorers Emigrants Citizens

Americans, such as photographer Carlo Gentile and Athos Casarini, a futurist painter and illustrator for Harper’s Weekly.

Aside from celebrating Italian- American history, the book also touches on harsh realities faced by the early immigrants: stereotyping, racism and barriers to assimilation.

Linda Barrett Osborne, a fourth generation Italian American, is a former writer and editor at the Library of Congress and co-author Paolo Battaglia is an Italian author of illustrated history books.

Director Martin Scorsese, whose grandparents came from Sicily, writes in the book’s foreword, “In images and words, this wonderful book charts our transformation across generations—in my family and so many other families—the hundreds of thousands of families that came to these shores and left their mark on this place we call America.”

Nigellissima: Easy Italian-Inspired Recipes

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Nigellissima, like the Italian cooking from which it takes its inspiration, is a celebration of food that is fresh, delicious, and unpretentious. Here Nigella Lawson serves up 120 straightforward and mouthwatering recipes that are quick and easy yet elevate weeknight meals into no-fuss feasts.

“It was when I was sixteen or seventeen that I decided to be Italian. Not that it was a conscious decision . . . No: I simply felt drawn to Italy,” writes Nigella. And so it was that before she was a Food Network star and bestselling cookbook author, Nigella found her way to Florence, where she learned to cook like an Italian. Indeed, Italian cooking is trademark Nigella: light on touch but robust with flavor.


With beautiful color photographs to inspire, Nigellissima has all the hallmarks of traditional Italian fare in its faithfulness to the freshest ingredients and simplest methods. From pasta and meat to fish, vegetables, and, of course, dolci, this cook’s tour has something for every mood, season, and occasion: Curly-Edged Pasta with Lamb Ragu is the perfect salve for a winter’s night, while tangy and light Spaghettini with Lemon and Garlic Breadcrumbs takes just minutes to prepare. Meatzza, the favorite at Nigella’s table, is a meatball mixture pressed into a pan and finished with traditional Margherita ingredients—or whatever you may have on hand. And the versatile Baby Eggplant with Oregano and Red Onion works beautifully as a starter or side or as dinner sprinkled with ricotta salata or crumbled feta. Here, too, are Green Beans with Pistachio Pesto, Roast Butternut with Sage and Pine Nuts, and fluffy Mascarpone Mash, Nigella’s twist on mashed potatoes. Never an afterthought, Nigella’s low-maintenance “sweet things” include Instant Chocolate-Orange Mousse; light, doughnut-like Sambuca Kisses; and One-Step No-Churn Coffee Ice Cream, to name just a few.


Nigella believes that every ingredient must earn its place in a recipe, and she gives tips and techniques for making the most of your time in the kitchen. For example, a stash of sweet vermouth saves you from opening a bottle when you need just a splash. If a recipe calls for the juice of a lemon, Nigella uses the zest, too—that’s where its force and fragrance lie. She guides you to stocking your pantry with a few supermarket ingredients and shows you how to make the most of them for spontaneous meals that taste boldly Italian.


Nigellissima is a love letter to the pleasures of cooking—and eating—the way Italians do. With a nod to the traditional but in Nigella’s trademark style, here are recipes that excite the imagination without stressing the cook.