You do not talk about the Club of the 27. Member's names are subjugated by one of Verdi's 27 operas. These are the rigorous Verdi super-fans who eat Scala's loggionisti for breakfast, with a side of spallacotta.
The Parma-based group, that counts modern-day Verdi protagonists such as Leo Nucci and Carlo Bergonzi as idols, meets every October 10th at the foot of Parma's Verdi Monument at Palazzo della Pilotta to sing 'Va Pensiero' with a small orchestra in homage to the Busseto Swan's birthday.
The work (with its lion-lashed chariot and Verdi flanked by mythological graces) is the largest remaining piece of a sprawling marble monument built in 1920 in homage to Giuseppe Verdi that stood at the Parma train station on Via Verdi (photo here). Damaged in WWII, it was razed, scattered and partially destroyed post-1945. While intact, its triumphal arches were adorned with 28 statues dedicated to each of Verdi's 27 operas, plus the Requiem Mass. Only nine statues remain, housed at the Arena del Sole in Roccabianca, although the National Gallery of Parma has architectural sketches of all twenty-eight.
(OC's photos of the monument from a recent Parma trip)