Reading-born Peter Dulborough and Florentine Alessandra Parrini are an England-meets-Italy love story, bound by their creative careers that combine words and music in myriad ways. Both language teachers, of English and Italian respectively, the ways in which their cultures, national and artistic, have blossomed into projects including a musical, books and albums form the basis of our conversation conducted in TF’s headquarters one chilly January morning.
First things first: how did you meet?
Peter: We met at a very traditional language school in Oxford. I didn’t have a large CV at the time, but I wrote down cricket, and that was enough to get me in the door. It was my first time teaching English. Alessandra was in Oxford taking a course at the same time, and so we met and discussed things like A Room with a View and The Little Prince, which ended up becoming the subject of the musical called The Music of the Stars that we worked on together.
Your creative, professional and personal lives cross over so much. How do you find the balance and how does being an intercultural couple play into it all?
Alessandra: At the beginning, his life was the creative one; mine kicked off later. I started writing poetry more seriously in summer 2016, but I had already written short stories for children, greatly influenced by Rodari. (He even inspired my ambassador and alter ego, a greedy mouse!)
Peter: I think the essence of being a creative couple and mixed nationality couple is the opportunity to express ourselves in a unique way. We have the mirror of another culture and person that encourages us to ask questions about ourselves and discover parts of ourselves we would never find otherwise.
Alessandra: We fuel our common human trait, creativity, both with coffee and tea brunches. When we first met, Peter was given the Italian menu and I was given the English. Now when we go out, we feel more British in Italy and Italian in England. A question of voice volume essentially.
What groups or events in Florence provide support in building your creative networks?
Alessandra: I regularly attend events held at St. Mark’s English Church or organized by the Florence Literary Society. The recent publishing day they held at The British Institute of Florence was a particularly successful occasion.
Peter: As an English-speaking musician and resident in Florence, a key skill in developing musical projects has been collaboration with Florentines. You need a creative hub and to mix with local musicians, sharing your music and showing interest in theirs. One way has been getting involved with Open Mic sessions. The Social Hub Lavagnini on the first Tuesday of each month (this month, however, on February 10) is run by my friend Patti DeRosa, called Global Village Open Mic Firenze. Another open mic called ‘Open Mice’ is famous for showcasing original music and poetry, and is co-run by my good friend and collaborator Martina Magionami at the Birreria Fiorentina near Ponte al Pino. She has also recorded a lot with me and helped me so much in finding new musical friends and contacts.
What are some of the challenges and opportunities in working and writing in both English and Italian?
Peter: We are on a journey inwards to understand our past, culture, selves and relationships from the perspective of being, thinking and writing in another language and country. The longest and most ambitious musical project I have worked on is my musical based on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince, called The Music of the Stars. It’s written in English in Italy about a French story that centres on a journey through planets and worlds that are very different from each other. It also has the central theme of friendship and taming from understanding others in a gradual way. It has all the elements of touching humanity. This also lies at the heart of my two EPs, Touch and William. They explore themes of loss, humanity and finding peace. For music and writing to sound genuine and honest we need to be vulnerable and open to our emotions. We find openness to others in an intercultural relationship and being open to the changes we find in our world and ourselves, which puts us in touch with our own humanity. And it’s where we find a way to connect.
Alessandra: Most of my collection, Starfish and other poems, came to me in English while I was visiting Greece. I think it comes down to my love of reading in English and also my childhood. I was quite shy in middle school, but became more confident whenever I spoke in English because it was something I was good at. It was almost like I developed a different personality, one in which I found it easier to express myself. Regarding translation, it’s a double-edged sword. I’m stuck between all the richness of meaning and exactness of references to each single lexical choice—to include or not to include—an operation that often leads to discovering unsuspected added meaning or unspecified elements that leave you quizzical and lead to more self-exploration. Ultimately, you have to let the song take its flight and create its own ripples in meaning, resonating with others.
