I've just been to see a screening of a new film documenting the creation of the Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio at the Barbican.
The film follows the orchestra's founders, Mario and Agostino, as they approach immigrant residents in the Roman Esquilino neighbourhood, to find musicians from all over the globe. The search is initially both relentless and fruitless, until an offer of a concert forces them to step up their search. The result is a multinational orchestra comprising of talent from India, Cuba, Senegal, Hungary, Tunisia and Brazil amongest other countries.
Set against a backdrop of Berlusconi's sometimes xenophobic Italy (to put it mildly), the film was really touching and inspirational and the perfect Sunday morning alarm clock.
Afterwards I checked out a hippy dwelling by the Barbican river, part of their current Radical Nature exhibition. The steward inside seemed quite the antithesis of her utopian surroundings, where one was invited to rest, shelter and drink a nice cup of hibiscus tea. Perhaps she wanted all the tea to herself. Never one to deny myself a cup of the brewed stuff, I made sure that didn't happen.
