For almost two hours Tuesday, lawmakers and colleagues of Sen. Tony Guglielmo, R-Stafford, heaped praise on the man they called a class act, a dignified statesman, and a reserved but effective fighter for northeastern Connecticut. Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman, Senate Democratic President Pro Tem Martin Looney of New Haven, Senate Republican President Pr...

Judge Arthur L. Spada, 85, died on April 26, 2018. He was born on September 22, 1932, the third child of recently arrived immigrant parents from Italy, Frank and Mary (Curcio) Spada. He was the beloved husband of Nancy (Saunders) Spada, a marriage that prospered for 62 years and produced three children and five grandchildren. The Judge and his wife...

One summer afternoon when she was young, Anna Capuano strolled along the Seaside Park boardwalk in Bridgeport with two friends. One friend had a pack of cigarettes, so the two others lit up and puffed away. They invited Capuano to do the same, but she refused. “All I had to do was smell that smoke, and I said, No thanks,” said Capuano. A lifelong d...

The Rizzis wouldn't trade their trade for anything. They are just as true to the place they learned it — J.M. Wright Technical High School, where Anthony Rizzi graduated as a barber in 1960. Rizzi said he doesn't know what attracted him to barbering when he was a teenager at Wright Tech, where he sang with the school doo-wop group, "The Starlights....

A brother and sister who say they have strong and fond childhood food memories tied to West Haven are trying to recreate part of that with the opening of their new Italian-American restaurant and bar. Their chef and his recipes are from their old favorite restaurant — the former Lucibello’s Restaurant & Catering. Even their mom, a longtime waitress...

Opera Theater of Connecticut presents two performances of the powerful opera “I Pagliacci” by Ruggero Leoncavallo. Performances will be held April 20-21 at Andrews Memorial Town Hall in Clinton. A mainstay of the dynamic “verismo” repertoire, this commanding work contains pieces such as the memorable Bell Chorus, the melodic Intermezzo, and, of cou...

The Leitz family from rural Milford — Rhonda and Charles — are hosting a foreign exchange student this school semester. Lorenzo Argentero is 17 and from Sardinia, Italy, and had never seen snow before, and it’s his first time out of Europe. He arrived in a snowstorm Dec. 29, 2017, after his flight from Chicago to Indianapolis had been delayed sever...

The 13th annual Yale Festival of New Italian Cinema runs April 19 to 22 at Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall St. in New Haven, showing a slate of five films. The festival is presented by the Italian Language and Literature Department, but all screenings are free and open to the public. The series opens April 19 at 7:30 p.m. with “Love and Bullets,...

Opera in Clinton always catches our eye somehow. It’s not New York, it’s not some metropolitan center and yet here it is, at Opera Theater of Connecticut’s MainStage at the Andrews Memorial Theater in the town hall complex. Friday, April 20 and Saturday, April 21 will bring a famous clown to town hall in the opera “I Pagliacci” by Ruggero Leoncaval...

It’s not yet July but Paul Giansanti is ready to go to work. “"I'd like to start coming in on Saturdays and opening up the school for meetings with the community," Giansanti said. “I’d like to come in and be a shadow at least one day.” On Wednesday night Giansanti, a 34-year-old Oxford resident, who taught high school history in Bridgeport and Norw...