Carneval
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3002 Carnevale Veneziano
Date: Jan 28 – Feb 08, 2005
City: Venice / Italy
Let yourself be enchanted by the city of the water and play along with the big “Spettacolo des Carnevale Veneziano”. This is where there are no audience galleries or VIP platforms, this is Casanova’s and Goldoni’s carnival so it takes place in the streets. Old, young, rich, poor, tourist, local – no one cares during Venice’s carnival days. The only thing that counts is if you are masked or unmasked. There are many reasons to visit the Venetian carnival: every mask is a reason and every one of the fantastic costumes is a reason. Gracious, demonic, historical, gods and goddesses, the sun and the moon and, favourites figures of the Commedia Dell'Arte like Arlecchino, Colombina,and Pulcinella. Alone or in a duo, silent and masked they walk the narrow streets. Before breakfast you can spot them on the Plaza San Marco or sitting at one of the historical, cafés. Stendhal, Dumas, Byron, Wagner and Proust have been among the creatures during the carnival season in Venice, sitting at their favourite café‚ Quadri, while other famous people have sipped their antique-recipe hot chocolate for years in the Café Florian, while looking at the many masks. The masqueraders must stop again and again for the tourists to photograph them, and the masks take away all self-consciousness. Sometimes one might to believe that the Japanese photography industry were the founders of the Venetian carnival in order to sell more of their products.
But the carnival is of course, older than Japanese cameras. The oldest known document about the wearing of masks leads back to the year 1268. The first official masked ball was in the 16th century to celebrate the end of the plague. The masks offered anonymity – social barriers were taken down. Aristocrats dressed as servants and servants as aristocrats, men and women exchanged costumes. For a few days in February, discipline, social roles, and manners were ignored. In those days, the jester days took up almost half of the year and were controlled by the government. When Napoleon took over the city in 1797, though, the carnival was made illegal. The rule of Napoleon was not only the end of the republic, but also the beginning of the slumber of the carnival. She awoke after almost 200 years in 1979 with the resurrection of an almost forgotten trade: mask making. One of the few artists that still make masks by hand and is counted as one of the oldest mask makers in Venice is Mario Belloni.
The “Banta”, the simple costume, is composed out of a cape, the three cornered hat, a veil and a “larvae”, the white mask that goes over the entire face and that changes the tone of your voice due to its acoustic construction. The harlequin as the jester of the devil can be traced back to Dante’s Divine Comedy (Arlichino). He is accompanied by Pantalone, originally “Il Magnifico”, the rich man and his fat doctor Dottor Balanzone, the servants “Zanni “or “Zan” and many others.
But apart from the traditional costumes there are many other attractions – music and dance, acrobats, theatre and processions according to the year’s theme and, more often than expected by the millions of visitors, the “Aqua alta” when the Piazza of San Marco transforms into an extension of the sea. It is even sometimes covered in a white blanket of snow. Even St. Peter seems to be in the mood for carnival sometimes.
If you decide to splurge on a real Venetian souvenir from Belloni, decide to photograph the spectacle or take part in one of the exclusive costume balls in a patricians palace (for which we can get you tickets at www.euradvantage.com), Venice in February will stay in your mind for a very long time.
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