Betrothed in New York in a literary ceremony

I have always wanted to marry a couple and starting a celebration in Italian with a literature opening like this in the Promessi Sposi by Alessandro Manzoni:

The branch of Lake Como that turns south between two unbroken mountain chains, bordered by coves and inlets that echo the furrowed slopes, suddenly narrows to take the flow and shape of a river, between a promontory on the right and a wide shoreline on the opposite side. The bridge that joins the two sides at this point seems to make this transformation even more visible to the eye and mark the spot where the lake ends and the Adda begins again, to reclaim the name lake where the shores, newly distant, allow the water to spread and slowly pool into fresh inlets and coves.

New couples that want their ceremony be celebrated by me in both languages, can expect everything and they can ask me any opening remarks as they want, of course.

When I was an officiant for two friends, they didn’t expect my sermon was a mix of poetry and reality. Because harsh reality is a specialty of real literature, like in the famous book The Betrothed. And the past year was the right timing for “The Betrothed” (“I Promessi Sposi”), written in 1842, by the Italian writer Alessandro Manzoni, now in a new translation—the first in fifty years—by Michael F. Moore. (The book has been published by the Penguin Random House)

Here is a presentation in English at Casa Italian Zerilli Marimo’ in New York.

Why do you think this novel (and this translation) have struck a chord with contemporary readers? It’s not just the story of a peasant couple that simply wants to get married and is prevented from doing so by the whims of the powerful. Read the New Yorker review to learn more.

“Manzoni forged the modern Italian language, and his novel—yes, he wrote only one—is still the greatest novel in the Italian language”, like the American magazine reviewed.

The timing was perfect when many scholars quoted the novel to remind readers how plagues are déjà vu.  Me, as a podcaster, I also aired this audio reading (in Italian ) https://anchor.fm/emanuele-capoano/episodes/La-peste-al-tempo-dei-Promessi-Sposi-ed0lce

In fact, “The Betrothed” were frequently cited after the Covid-19 pandemic struck Italy in 2020, originating again in Milan and its environs.

Here they are two important interviews in Italian newspapers.

Here also a wonderful and sharp interview on Italian National Radio

“I promessi sposi,” as it is known to all Italian schoolchildren, is a work of foundational national literature on par with Dante’s “Divine Comedy” and Boccaccio’s “Decameron”—the cornerstone work of “Italy’s first and finest novelist. We were forced to read it in school, as a kind of national treasure to be admired rather than enjoyed, as NYBOOKS review mentioned it as polyphonic past.

“Now the English-speaking world can discover what the fuss is all about”, the Wall Street Journal said.

And as in an Italian Comedy, the bailamme is ensured too here! I’m not the scared priest “Don Abbondio” as in the book. ↓