Ciao, Amici! Join us for a great Italian Festa at Montecito's beautiful Lower Manning Park for a fabulous, FUNTASTIC Festa di Ferragosto! And, even better, it will benefit our local students by helping us raise much-needed money for our Scholarship Fund. For those of you who have no idea what Ferragosto is all about, please scroll all the way to the end of this post, after the details of the event, and you will find out. This is the 5th Ferragosto we have organized in our community and people enjoyed this event tremendously throughout the years. Read more [...]

CIRCOLO ITALIANO Presents THE MAGIC OF AN ITALIAN GUITAR A delightful musical afternoon enlivened by the sounds of some of the most beautiful and beloved classic Italian songs, transcribed with the special touch of Maestro Paradiso! Join Circolo Italiano for this exceptional event in a lovely Montecito garden. Read more [...]

The opera is Don Pasquale by Gaetano Doninzetti and, for a change, it is a funny opera, un'opera buffa, as we would say in the traditional Italian operatic terms. In other words, nobody dies! Here is a synopsis of the opera from Opera Santa Barbara's own website: In this comic masterpiece, the doddering Don Pasquale has willed his fortune to his nephew, Ernesto, on the condition he approves of the young man's bride. Read more [...]