OH WHAT A NIGHT, the night the Coro Brenta di Tione came to Italian American Heritage Foundation (IAHF), April 27. Due to scheduling challenges, there was only a few short weeks to fill the 250 seats available but it didn’t take long before it was a sold out performance.
These men, from Tione di Trento, a village nestled in the Italian Alps, who spoke very little English, if any, brought the house down. Their clear, a cappella voices resonating through the hall was nothing short of amazing.
People came from all over to see this once in a lifetime performance, with many Bay Area Italian clubs in attendance. Their perfect harmonic voices mingled together with the crowd as many sang along. Everywhere in the room was filled with the beautiful sounds of the Italian language. From the announcements to the chatter at the table to the Coro Brenta, “Italian spoken here” was the theme of the night.
After the performance, we did what all good Italians do, we ate! A fabulous dinner of items specifically selected to celebrate the region of Trentino, home to the Coro Brenta singers. There was salad, pasta and sausage with a unique Italian version of sauerkraut. During dinner we were all buzzing about the incredible performance we had just witnessed. We thought it was over but we couldn’t be more wrong.
As we sat enjoying our meal with the wine flowing, there came the quiet sound of a couple voices singing from a distant table, then it grew, with other singers joining in from around the room. Once again we were surrounded by the sound of angels. The song over, the room went back to the clanging of dishes and the low hum of conversations, suddenly it would start all over, like spontaneous combustion, quiet voices turning into big, bold crescendos of beauty and energy. It didn’t take long for the room to be charged with anticipation waiting for the next musical outburst.
The Coro Brenta did encore after encore throughout the evening. Even as the doors closed, and the men boarded the bus for the ride back to their host homes you could hear the melodic sounds of them singing and humming.
It was one of those rare special evenings that reminds us of why we are proud to be Italian, and what an incredible gift it is to share that beauty with the world.
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