THE staging of a famous opera and a film depicting the journey of a young swimmer were among highlights of a recent programme to promote the knowledge and study of the Italian language in Malaysia.
The events were organised by the Italian Embassy in conjunction with the 25th edition of “Week of the Italian Language in the World”, an annual event held in October each year.
The embassy collaborated with the Kuala Lumpur City Opera (KLCO) and Universiti Malaya’s (UM) Faculty of Languages and Linguistics for its 2025 event.
The programme kicked off with a free talk on the Don Giovanni opera by Prof Andrea Paduano at the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (KLPac) in Sentul, Kuala Lumpur.
Don Giovanni was a collaboration between composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Italian librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte.
“Not much Italian may be spoken in Malaysia but the presence of Italy, especially in economic terms, is pretty massive as it has more than 150 companies established here,” said Paduano, a lecturer and Italian division programme coordinator at UM.
“So there are many reasons to study Italian because of its economic importance.”
At present, he said the university’s Italian degree programme sees about 70 students every semester, of which 90% are locals.
“Those who are able to speak and write fluently in Italian and are knowledgeable about Italian culture can easily get a job with Italian companies here in Malaysia.
“In fact, several of our alumni hold pretty high positions in Italian companies and institutions,” said Paduano.
Meanwhile, KLCO singers staged a four-day live performance of Don Giovanni near the end of October at KLPac.
KLCO founder and executive producer Danny Chen said the local opera production house had been actively collaborating with the embassy since 2017.
“Where this genre of Western classical music is concerned, I would say that probably 50% of the operas are written in Italian,” he said.
“Maybe about 20% is in German, 20% in French and then the rest are in other languages. There are also operas written in Czech and Russian.”
Chen said Paduano also played an important role in KLCO’s production of Don Giovanni, which is in Italian, as the cast was mostly not native speakers of the language.
“As there was a lot of spoken dialogue, we knew that this was going to be very challenging,” he said.
“We arranged for a month of language coaching with Paduano, who went through the lyrics with all the cast members, reading with the right diction, correcting our pronunciation and explaining some of the nuances and meaning behind some of the texts.
“In addition, our vocal director Cecelia Yap, who trained at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory of Rome, speaks Italian.
“So, she was able to coach the singers during rehearsals.”
Italian ambassador to Malaysia Raffaele Langella, who was guest of honour during the show’s opening day, said the study of the Italian language represents an important gateway to its culture and values.
“The growing interest in the Italian language in Malaysia makes us confident about the future prospects for intercultural dialogue between our peoples.
“We will continue on this path of cultural diplomacy and will do even more to meet the growing demand from those in Malaysia who want to learn Italian,” said Langella.
The “Week of the Italian Language in the World” programme also saw a free screening of the film Rinascere (Born Again) at GSC Quill City Mall, Kuala Lumpur.
Written and directed by Umberto Marino, it is based on the true story of Italian Paralympian swimmer Manuel Bortuzzo who became semi-paralysed after he was shot.
The film, which had English subtitles, told of his courageous comeback as a swimmer after the incident.
