(openPR) - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Beehive Celebrates Venetian Style with Voices, Strings, Harpsichords & More!
The Beehive, Based in Boston, MA Hosts Venice Style Carneval on March 9th, 2011

WHAT: The Beehive partners with Save Venice Boston to create a startling Baroque musical party & dinner to celebrate Carnival/Mardi Gras the Venetian way. This will be an event worthy of Casanova himself! Enjoy Italian specialties including octopus salad, scallops with Swiss chard and polenta, roast cod with Orecchiette & broccoli rabe and carnival fritters. Celebrate with one of the most extensive wine and cocktails lists in Boston, MA at the bar while An “All Baroque Ensemble” including the best early music players in from the Longy School of Music in Boston play high energy and thumping classical music (You haven't heard Vivaldi’s, "La Follia" like this before)!

Later in the evening the music will be taken over in a contemporary way by Roberto Cassini and members of Gran Fatilla for a funky take on Italian folk music. "A Carnevale Ogni Scherzo Vale." It means, “...anything goes at carnevale,” It is rarely said aloud, for the words would be wasted, redundant. Plan for a celebration unlike anything you have ever experienced. Masks, period-style attire and costume are highly encouraged. Reservations recommended by calling 617.423.0069.

WHERE: The Beehive, 541 Tremont Street, Boston, MA 02116 | P. 617.423.0069

WHEN: Wednesday, March 9th, 2011 – 5:00PM – 2:00AM

The Beehive is an underground Bohemian bistro featuring amazing cuisine, libations, artwork and live music nightly. Nestled below the Boston Center for the Art’s historic Cyclorama in Boston’s South End, The Beehive serves the eclectic fare of Chef Rebecca Newell, rustic comfort foods infused with American, European, Mediterranean, and Middle Eastern influences. Open for dinner 5:30 pm to 1:00 am seven days a week, and with cocktails and live entertainment available nightly until 2:00 am; The Beehive is the perfect location for after-work cocktails, dinner, live music, events and more. Come to taste the cuisine, come to view the art, come to hear the music or simply come to share in the merriment. The Beehive is at 541 Tremont St., 617-423-0069; beehiveboston.com . Dinner 5:30 p.m. to 1 a.m., bar to 2 a.m., entertainment nightly, Saturday and Sunday Brunch 10:30 am to 3:00 pm, bar menu from 3:00 to 5:00 pm.
More:

CARNEVALE DI VENEZIA
The Carnival of Venice (Italian: Carnevale di Venezia) is an annual festival, held in Venice, Italy. The Carnival starts around two weeks before Ash Wednesday and typically ends on Shrove Tuesday (Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras), the day before Ash Wednesday, although it is not uncommon for the parties to continue in the days after Shrove Tuesday.

Carnival started as a time for celebration and expression throughout the classes in Italy, as wearing masks hid any form of identity between social classes
Nowhere is the party more boisterous than Carnevale in. There are lavish parades, luxuriant masquerade balls, and spontaneous parties in the streets as the celebration lasts for almost two weeks. Costumes and masks abound, both ornate and simple. The point is not always the gaudiness of the fabric or the construction of the Carnevale masks, but the anonymity they provide the bearer with. With your mask on, you are pardoned your sins. With the mask on, anything goes.

The roots of Venice Carnevale lie midway through the 12th century, when a festival was held the day before Ash Wednesday to commemorate a vital Venetian military victory. The celebration became an annual tradition, developing until 1268, when the first Venice Carnevale masks were said to have been donned. The masks shielded the wearers not only from their sins, but also from displaying their social status, thrusting the city into an egalitarian frenzy every year until 1797, when the conquering Napoleon disbanded the festivities.
But the spirit of Venice Carnevale would rise again. The city resuscitated the festival in 1980 in hopes of boosting the tourist-based economy during the quiet winter months. Its return has been welcomed by most of the city, though it is a little more sedate than its heyday. Though millions descend on the city each year, many are there to merely gawk, not participate. Some participate halfheartedly, with a few swift strokes of makeup hastily scrawled on their face by one of the ubiquitous makeup artists found throughout the piazzas. Some buy a cheap mask from a nearby merchant’s cart, hoping no one will notice the sweatshirt and jeans they are wearing below. But how many in the city really care? During Carnevale in Venice Italy, the focus is on fun, on movement, on the release of inhibitions in a roaring atmosphere that happens only once a year, or for many - only once in a lifetime.

SAVE VENICE

Save Venice is proud to have active Chapters in California and Boston that take part in the mission of Save Venice Inc. and also host a series of activities and events in their local areas. Each Chapter raises funds for its own restoration projects in Venice. The Boston Chapter of Save Venice is entirely volunteer-based, and is supported by many loyal friends and donors.

Save Venice itself was founded in 1971 in Massachusetts by a group of concerned citizens in response to the terrible damage caused by the flood of November 1966. Each year, the Superintendents for the Artistic and Historic Heritage of Venice and for the Architectural Heritage of Venice, along with church leaders, museum curators, interested citizens, and friends of Save Venice suggest works of art and buildings in need of restoration. The board of Save Venice then chooses which projects to sponsor according to artistic merit and urgency of need.

The Boston Chapter has been actively involved in preserving works of art and architecture. Recent projects include the Diziani ceiling canvases in the Scuola del Vin, tombstones in the New Jewish Cemetery on the Lido, and Tintoretto’s Birth of Saint John the Baptist in the Church of San Zaccaria,Triumph of Mordechai on the ceiling of San Sebastiano, and the Pilastri Acritani in Piazza San Marco. Projects within the Gallerie dell’Accademia includeGiorgio Vasari’s Allegory of Charity, the Saint Helen Polyptych by Michele di Matteo, Tintoretto’s Deposition of Christ, and Titian’s Pietà.

For more information visit www.savevenice.org or e-mail saveveniceboston@gmail.com

Contact:
JP Faiella
Image Unlimited Communications, Ltd.
P. 781.721.4624
C. 617.504.7585
E. jfaiella@imageunlimited-boston.com
T. @imageunlimited

28 Church St Winchester, MA 01890