With the new Little Italy Museum and Cultural Center in San Jose now open to the public, people got their first chance to explore the restored house on West St. John Street at Sunday’s Little Italy Festival.
Anyone who toured the old Beltramo house during the groundbreaking ceremony in 2020 can attest that architect Sal Caruso — and a team of builders — pulled off a miracle in bringing the early 20th-century house back to life. The rooms have been converted into galleries with displays that pay tribute to the Santa Clara Valley’s agricultural past and community leaders like Bank of America founder A.P. Giannini, as well as showcasing the home regions of Italian immigrants who came to the valley like Sicily and Venice.
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An entire wall is devoted to a collection of Venetian carnival masks, and Little Italy San Jose Executive Director Joshua DeVincenzi Melander made the smart move to add to the atmosphere by covering the windows in the Italy room with a protective film depicting images from the area.
Like any good Italian home, of course, the centerpiece is the kitchen which will be used to host cooking classes and demonstrations. (For the grand opening dinner and concert last Friday, Rollati and Eataly put the kitchen to use for dinner and appetizers.) But the most vibrant spot in the house is the basement, which is home to the Italian Cellar speakeasy, a bar for Little Italy members and their guests that’s open Wednesday through Sundays. Get more information at www.littleitalysj.com.
IMPRESSIVE IMPORTS: One of the big draws at Sunday’s Little Italy Festival — besides the shade — was the Supercars of Italy display, featuring more than 100 Lamborghinis, Ferraris and Italian motorcycles in the Guadalupe River Park. “Every driveway in Los Gatos must be empty today,” one passerby noted.
SYMPHONIC SUCCESS: Jon Nakamatsu, George Gershwin and air conditioning turned out to be a winning combination for Symphony San Jose over the weekend. Executive Artistic Director Robert Massey said the program, “Jon Nakamatsu and the Jazz Age” was the biggest opening weekend in the symphony’s 23-year history. It was so big that ushers ran out of programs to hand patrons at Sunday’s packed California Theatre.
What a lively atmosphere, too, with a jazz band and dancers in flapper dresses entertaining the audience in the lobby before the concert. But Nakamatsu had a lot to do with it, too. The San Jose native and Van Cliburn award-winning pianist performed Aaron Copland’s “Piano Concerto” and Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” with the orchestra, under the direction of conductor Elinor Rufeizen. Observers noted that Nakamatsu played the complicated Gershwin piece, celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, without any music in front of him.
Those pieces were bookended by Gershwin’s “An American in Paris” and Maurice Ravel’s “Bolero” for a program entirely made up of music from the 1920s. Up next, Symphony San Jose will welcome back conductor Peter Jaffe for its “Symphonic Spooktacular” on Oct. 26-27, with some classically moody music the audience will certainly recognize from movies and stage (including Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera.”)
SPECIAL DELIVERY: Sculptor Ken Matsumoto, who owns the Art Object Gallery in Japantown, had known for months that he would be receiving the Cornerstone of the Arts award from the City of San Jose, which was presented last Thursday at the Hammer Theatre Center.
Matsumoto — who was honored along with the late Rick Holden; Scott and Shannon Guggenheim from 3Below Theaters and muralist Paul J. Gonzalez — has a long history with the award itself as he’s designed a unique stone sculpture for every award presented since the program started in 2013. So that meant that Matsumoto would receive an award he had made himself, which is pretty cool (but not unprecedented: Cedric Gibbons, who designed the Academy Award statuette, won 11 Oscars as an art director).
But as Arts Commission Chair Shelby Takeda explained at Thursday’s ceremony, the arts commission thought Matsumoto should have another unique award, so they surprised him with a second award, a sculpture called “The Last Stone,” created by Santa Clara artist Terry Kreiter, whose work has been shown in Matsumoto’s gallery and other local venues like Works/San Jose.
