Gilberto Bosco, musician and friend

His death, which came so suddenly, shocked me. He seemed to have overcome his recent health problems, but instead, this terrible news came to Rosy like an electric shock.
Behind the polite manners of a true gentleman of old, Gilberto concealed an indomitable nature, a prickly character that sometimes made relationships with his circle of friends and acquaintances difficult. I myself, on key issues of community life, had in the past found myself in sharp disagreement with him, not only because of our differing views, but also because it was not easy to reach mediation or compromise with him. The real meaning of his lack of malleability was the civic passion with which he defended the ideas he deemed right and central; in short, an inner nobility hidden within a hard exterior, itself enclosed in a refined demeanor.
On Shabbat, at the Boscos’ table, where we were often generously invited recently, it was customary and important for us to engage in profound discussions with Gilberto and Rosy about Jews and Judaism, and about the troubling situation of our time. I was, and am, pleased that our positions gradually grew closer, until we agreed on almost everything, from Turin’s community life to the growing concern over the grip of anti-Semitism that is once again closing in on us.
Gilberto Bosco was, first and foremost, an artist, a composer of exceptional importance in the Italian musical landscape of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. This is not the place for critical profiles of his work, which others more versed than I will outline elsewhere. I only recall that years ago, when I was still teaching history and philosophy at the Liceo Classico e Musicale Cavour, a fellow musician who had taught him Composition at the Conservatory spoke with extraordinary admiration and gratitude of “his” Maestro Bosco. Many of us enjoyed “Il gioco delle sorti” at the Piccolo Regio some time ago, a fascinating opera with a text by Sandra Reberschak dedicated to the feast of Purim. His passing represents a grave loss for the Turin musical world and for culture in general.
A grave loss, above all, for the Jewish community of Turin, which must feel honored to have had him among its members.
May his memory be blessed.

David Sorani