A Roman Rhapsody

July 1, 2019
Alexander (Under a Sardinian Sky) once again weaves a story of family, food, and music off the coast of Italy in this animated portrait of the stubborn and often silent Alba Fresu. In 1968 in Ozieri, Sardinia, Alba’s father and brother were kidnapped for their failure to repay loans. They are eventually released, but the trauma continues to define their forlorn family life as they must all work to pay off the debt. Alba’s mother works cleaning the house of Signora Elias, a classical musician, and one day, when accompanying her mother, Alba is drawn to Signora Elias’s piano. Realizing the “astonishing talent” of the little girl, Signora Elias negotiates secret lessons for the precocious child, whose mother believes Alba is delivering groceries during her morning visits. When Alba accepts entry into the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Alba and Signora Elias become “clasped in complicit trust like the two photographic faces of a snapped-shut locket.” The only other person Alba truly trusts is Raffaele, her cousin, who provides Alba the money to escape after her parents refuse to entertain the idea of her leaving. Once at the academy, she meets Vittorio, a cellist, who steals her heart. In a final section set two decades later, Alba is an internationally renowned pianist and stars in a film with music composed by Vittorio. After a death in the family, she reluctantly returns to Ozieri to face her family and friends. Filled with sumptuous descriptions of the music and food of Sardinia, Alexander’s pleasurable tale will appeal to fans of Louis de Bernieres’s Corelli’s Mandolin.