Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
A chaotic day in Italian class: Amid grammatical difficulties, unexpected incidents, and group dynamics, tensions, irony, and solidarity intertwine among students and teachers.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
The students tasked by Marioni to help Matteo create a chat group, and Sara immediately puts her foot in it. At Robbo's house, things are a bit tense and little Chiara is worried about what might happen.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Marioni asks Sara for help with Matteo. In the evening, Matteo is out walking with his uncle who is being a bit over-protective.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Marioni tells the orchestra what he has in mind to help Matteo get integrated into the orchestra. The students involved begin to get organized by sharing their phone numbers.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
During the orchestra rehearsal, a player makes a mistake and Marioni, the conductor, doesn't hesitate to press the point, in his usual cruel manner, that an orchestra is not a democracy.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Matteo seems fine but his father and uncle are worried about him. Marioni learns why Matteo is described as fragile and makes some decisions regarding the orchestra.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Sofia goes up to the roof to practice her cello, but ends up singing a song (in English). When Maestro Marioni gets home from an amorous encounter, he watches a video where Matteo's previous violin teacher introduces him and explains his special situation.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Sofia is practicing cello when her brother asks her for a favor. His girlfriend Ilaria comments on Sofia's weight.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Sara is home at dinner arguing with her mother who finds her unbearable. Sara's phone rings with an audio cue indicating the caller. Robbo and his sister Chiara are going home on the tram when, out the window, they see someone they think they recognize.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Barbara is practicing piano in the presence of her mother, who tries to encourage her. Little by little Barbara manages to focus on the music, and perhaps not only the music. Another pianist is playing the same piece in a music store. He might be there because he has no piano at home.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Matteo is at home with his uncle, doing a tricky jigsaw puzzle and ready for dinner. Even though it is clear to Matteo that his uncle is gay, his uncle is very uncomfortable talking about it. Matteo lets his uncle know that there is a girl he likes.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
A colleague of Marioni's chides him for having treated Matteo as he did. He tries to justify his actions, and then goes to have a word with Rosario, a percussion student.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Marioni puts Matteo to the test, asking him to play first violin in the Brahms symphony, together with the entire orchestra. Later, Domenico tells him about someone who had crumbled under Marioni's harsh treatment.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Matteo is having a violin lesson when Marioni passes by in the hall and hears him. Matteo's lesson ends early and he is about to learn more about the orchestra conductor everyone thinks of as il bastardo (the bastard).
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
A teacher reads a passage from one of Shakespeare's sonnets and asks the class to interpret it. Matteo speaks up. Here is the original English: "Mark how one string, sweet husband to another,
Strikes each in each by mutual ordering;
Resembling sire and child and happy mother,
Who, all in one, one pleasing note do sing:
Whose speechless song being many, seeming one,
Sings this to thee: 'Thou single wilt prove none."
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