![]() ![]() Pulling out a core sample shaped like a pencil, he concludes the tree is an excellent specimen. He listens carefully to the knocking sound the borer makes each time it hits a new tree ring. Mazzucchi takes out a manual drill called a borer, and twists it like a corkscrew through the bark. If you ask me, there’s a violin trapped inside.” Then he finds a contender: “It shoots up perfectly straight. “Who knows what kind of sound its violin would make?” “This one over here was struck by lightning,” he says. ![]() He goes from trunk to trunk, crossing flawed candidates off his list. Look carefully and they’ll tell you their life story, their traumas, their joys, everything. “I observe, I touch them, sometimes I even hug them. “I’m really more of a tree listener,” he says. Mazzucchi’s skill has led some to call him “The Tree Whisperer,” but he laughs off that nickname. Marcello Mazzucchi, a retired forest ranger with an uncanny knack for spotting timber that’s ideal for instruments, walks among the trees, tapping on their trunks. Thanks to a serendipitous combination of climate and altitude, these have come to be called “ Il Bosco Che Suona” - The Musical Woods. ![]() These spruce trees have been growing for hundreds of years in the Fiemme Valley, the same corner of the Italian Alps where Renaissance luthiers such as Stradivari, Guarneri and Amati hand-picked the trees that would be turned into some of the world’s finest instruments. And thanks to the surprising teamwork of modern instrument makers and forest rangers, Stradivari’s trees are doing better than ever. Only 650 of his instruments are estimated to survive.īut the forest where the luthier got his lumber is alive and well. Graziano Panfili for NPR Antonio Stradivari, the master violin maker whose instruments sell for millions of dollars today, has been dead for nearly three centuries. Renaissance luthiers such as Antonio Stradivari came here to handpick trees that would be crafted into the world’s finest instruments. In sum, a makeshift collection that misses the mark.Marcello Mazzucchi, a retired forest ranger, stands in the Fiemme Valley in the Italian Alps. Rather than politicians, sports stars and pop singers, she might have tried scientists, or any number of cultural achievers. Perhaps the main flaw here is that the author did not aim high enough in her search for role models. The final interview, with Ferraro, portrays her as an unjustly abused martyr, which current events suggest may be a bit much. Still, the later indictments and accusations against Ferraro's son and husband suggest that this particular family should be dropped as an ideal. No doubt Ferraro was misused in nasty speeches from the Reagan camp. A recurring theme is the abuse received by Geraldine Ferraro during her candidacy. ![]() The author does take her questions about home, children, and parents to some interesting places, such as the office of architect Robert Venturi, but the results rarely transcend a mere listing of domestic details. Painter Frank Stella is unconvincing on the effect being an Italian Catholic had on his painting. Naturally, his remarks seem a bit terse and uncogitated, even for this noted diarist. Marie Cuomo is caught on the fly during two limo trips. As it is, she sticks to the famed, most of whom have been interviewed countless times before. Had Cateura been interested in people rather than in stars, her book might have had considerably more interest. Middlebrow look at celebs who tell what it was like growing up Italian-American. ![]()
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