The shakey hand-held camera, the amateur nature of the document, almost doesn’t diminish this – Allen’s beautiful (haunting) presentation of “The Rune”, from “Contest of Bards”, (accompanied by guitar, no, mandolin – and a Celtic harp, no less! – that’s Vincenzo Zitello, incidentally, on the harp). The occasion, Conegliano, in 1995, the Teatro Accademia – “America America” – an evening in hommage to the great Italian translator (and Beat scholar), Fernanda Pivano. Others on the bill that night were Francesco Guccini, Claudio Lolli, the late great Fabrizio De Andre, Andrea Zanzotto (who passed away just last month), and, from America, Allen, and the American novelist, Jay McInerney (his brief note on the event filed for The New Yorker can be read here – a more detailed note on ‘Nanda by Blossom Kirschenbaum may be read here ). We’ve already featured the Zanzotto footage, but there’s more from that evening, for those interested, (including more footage of Allen) on “niclicciaful” (Nicola Licciardello)’s You Tube channel here.