Theme: women in popular music

Festival on the theme of identity inspired by Italo Calvino

Popular Orchestra Notte Taranta conducted by FIORELLA MANNOIA

Guests: ARISA - BRUNORI SAS - TANANAI

Choreography: FRANCESCA DIMAIO

Arrangements: Carlo Di Francesco - Popular Orchestra - Clemente Ferrari

Taranta is woman in 2023 and celebrates identity as a social value. Appointment Saturday, Aug. 26, in Melpignano (LE), 10:30 p.m., with the Concertone directed by maestro FIORELLA MANNOIA that will host ARISA, TANANAI and BRUNORI SAS in Europe's biggest dancing ritual.
The Notte della Taranta returns to restore contemporaneity to the classics of Salento folk music and chooses a long-sighted innovation in which widespread participation is declined in artistic expressions.
Starting at 8:00 a.m. on August 26, everyone will be able to admire the flow of the audience arriving on the former Augustinian square by connecting live with the event's official website: www.lanottedellataranta.it. An electronic eye that will return the spell of Taranta to every part of the world.
The Concertone will open with Fiorella Mannoia's tribute to the festival's artistic director Gigi Chiriatti who passed away recently. The maestro concertante will perform "Un giorno di venerdì," which anticipates the explosive start of the long sound journey curated by Carlo Di Francesco and conductor Clemente Ferrari with the Notte della Taranta Popular Orchestra.

The choice of songs is once again the result of extensive research into the beauty of dialect and minority languages. Not surprisingly, Brunori Sas will interpret Lule Lule in Arbereshe and Aremu in Grico while Tananai will sing Ri lo la la in Grico and Pizzica di Aradeo in Salento dialect.
Arisa is assigned Ferma Zitella and Lu Ruciu de lu mare, two iconic songs from the Popular Orchestra's repertoire.
The women's manifesto is contained in Fimmene Fimmene, the song from the tradition that in 2023 is rewritten to highlight current emergencies "for those who have no freedom of speech and hopes no more, and for every woman respect and freedom everywhere. Women we are and like trees we sing, strong branches and roots we have." A new element on the Concertone stage, with set design by Massimo Calzavara, is the impressive video narration entrusted to Carolina Stamerra Grassi, who, starting from the meaning of the text, conceived the visual path that unites past and future through the beauty of Puglia. The magical atmosphere rediscovering rituals and symbolism originally linked to the ritual of tarantism will welcome the Taranta audience in the square of Melpignano. The liquid highway that crosses Apulia, water, will be the scene of collective immersion. A project in collaboration with the Acquedotto Pugliese to emphasize the preciousness of the public water resource.
The press conference for the presentation of the Concertone opened with the gift to the artists of handicrafts made by the ceramists of Cutrofiano, who together with the municipalities of San Pietro in Lama, Laterza, Grottaglie, Rutigliano. Terlizzi have formed the "spider's web" of ceramics. The memory of Gigi Chiriatti could not be missed with the applause of the press room.
Imposing the security apparatus put in place to welcome the public already from this evening during the general rehearsal and then tomorrow for the final Concertone. The Public Order and Safety Committee estimates a larger influx than last year.

Fiorella Mannoia concertmaster : "I came once as a guest of Carmen Consoli, but going in and out is a matter of fun, because you listen more superficially to the songs, when you go deep, a world opens up. Listening to these songs is dragging, they are rhythms that make you dance, if you get into the folds like Stop spinster, they all have the inner theme of work, labor exploitation, forced marriages, abused women. Inside there is always a kind of melancholy, and that happens a little bit in all popular music. There is this desperate cheerfulness, you have to have the opportunity to get into it."

Arisa: "I am proudly from the South, from a small town in the province of Potenza. When we have a family party we dance the tarantella, our culture is very close to that of Salento, your stories are also ours. It was easy to enter your sound world, less easy to enter your dialect, but I was helped by professionals and local people. And I am sure I will feel at home."

Brunori Sas: "It is important to bring forward identity, but also hybridization, because only then can we achieve something more beautiful. If we can mix, understand each other's reasons, it is better for everyone. Identity is enriching if it is seen as the sum of many identities."

Massimo Manera president of La Notte della Taranta Foundation: "We imagine that La Notte della Taranta has inverted the process of the identity path: before, we only looked backwards, to the past, but today it is a path that is well rooted in the past but that looks forward, broadens the horizon. And then there is an inescapable aspect, the economic return: a micro-economy that stands around this event and that over the years has been documented by universities and research organizations, including prestigious universities that translates into an economic return for the whole territory."

Senator Roberto Marti, president Senate Culture Commission: "It is a work of building culture, landscape, and enhancement that has now become fundamental for our territory. The region alone cannot maintain such a structure, it needs the support of the state to create an international place of culture, it needs the support of everyone to travel the world, to bring this place, this tradition and this culture that evolves and it is right that it should be so by keeping these traditions alive."

Alessandro Delli Noci Assessore regione Puglia: "This project represents the whole Apulian identity, we represent an Apulia capable of enhancing identity, at a time when identity is being lost. This is thanks to research work by the La Notte della Taranta Foundation and Grecìa Salentina. I am also very happy with this networking as already happened with the Taranta also for the Apulian craftsmanship the system making will lead to great results for the craft productions of excellence.

Hon. Claudio Stefanazzi: "This is a very long process that has lasted many years, which began with the will of a handful of women and men who invented 'identity as a cultural and economic asset and from that process we have arrived at this marvel. I believe that this path should be supported and relaunched because in this historical moment in which we live a general uncertainty it is important to recover the spirit of identity, to give those who visit Puglia a clear idea of what we are."

Valentina Vantaggiato Mayor of Melpignano: "Our security plan is now well established, this year we have added a change to improve even more the accessibility of the Concertone for over 150 thousand people. I hope that the event dedicated to women can be a flywheel and a voice to send a message against all violence."

POPULAR ORCHESTRA

The Popular Orchestra La Notte della Taranta is entrusted with the Artistic Direction of Concertone 2023. The Orchestra is composed of singers and tambourine players Consuelo Alfieri (also accordion) Alessandra Caiulo, Stefania Morciano, Enza Pagliara, Antonio Amato, Salvatore Cavallo Galeanda Giancarlo Paglialunga, and musicians Gianluca Longo (mandola), Peppo Grassi (mandolin), Attilio Turrisi (chitarra battente), Giuseppe Astore (violin) Roberto Chiga, Alessandro Chiga, Carlo Canaglia De Pascali (tambourine from Salento), Roberto Gemma (bellows), Nico Berardi (woodwinds), Leonardo Cordella (accordion), Alessandro Monteduro (percussion), Antonio Marra (drums), Mario Esposito (bass), and Gioele Nuzzo (tambourine and didgeridoo). For the August 26 Concertone, the Popular Orchestra staff will be joined by Apulian musicians with a wind section composed of Alessandro Dell'Anna, Giovanni Chirico, Gaetano Cristian Carrozzo, Giorgio Distante, and a string section composed of Domenico Zezza, Sabrina Pacucci, Pier Paolo Del Prete, Roberta Mazzotta, Luca Gorgoni (violin 1), Zita Mucsi, Alessio Chirizzi, Valentina Marra, Sofia Marra De Franco (violin2), Nicola Ciricugno, Armando Ciardo, Claudia Russo (viola), Mauro Fagiani, Elisa Pennica (cello).

BALLET COMPANY

The Corps de Ballet has been spreading the "pizzica" for years on the stages of national and international tours with engaging choreography on the songs performed by the Popular Orchestra. It consists of Mihaela Coluccia, Cristina Frassanito, Serena Pellegrino, Lucia Scarabino, Giorgia Carbone, Stefano Campagna, Andrea Caracuta, Fabrizio Nigro and Mattia Politi. Four professional dancers will join the corps de ballet on the concert stage: Veronika Maritati, Alessia Losavio, Maria Pia Taggio, and Filippo Grande. Choreography is entrusted to Francesca Romana Di Maio. Assistant choreographer Alessandra Cito from Salento.

STAGE SET DESIGN AND VISUALS

The structure is a first, as it is one of the most capable support structures in the world: 33 meters wide by 18 meters deep with a 24x20 roof capable of supporting 40 tons of weight. Same type of structure, again made of aluminum, was adopted as the solution for the repeater towers compared to the traditional multidirectional ferrous steel systems.

Essential scenography, with a design by Marco Calzavara, with 240sqm of video walls on which the graphic design of the visuals that will tell in images sounds and rhythms of the most awaited night of the Apulian summer will come to life.

The Notte della Taranta Foundation entrusted the task to internationally established Salento excellence: the Milan-based production company MaTi srl led by Angelo and Carolina Stamerra Grassi both from Salento who design shows and concerts all over the world. A team of graphic designers created the digital sets for the concert. Art direction Claudia Andreoli, artistic coordination: Carolina Stamerra Grassi. A narrative that follows the lyrics of the songs by seeking their identity in an interpretation of poetic images that recall the Apulian landscape, dreams, women, love, water and humanity.

SALENTINE COMPANIES FOR THE LOOK

The Salento tailoring art of Danamò will dress the female voices of the Popular Orchestra La Notte della Taranta. Daniela Amoruso, a well-established seamstress from Lecce, has been setting up a craft workshop for a few years now, but needle and thread is a family art that has been handed down and sews wefts of Salento history between past and present. Especially that linked to the world of art, dance and theater. Daniela Amoruso, who since she was a girl grew up in the family workshop where stage dresses were made, a historic reference for dance in the city of Lecce, has embarked on this adventure, this sartorial journey that will take her with her dresses to the stage of the Notte della Taranta. At the Melpignano Concertone on August 26, the voices of the Orchestra: Consuelo Alfieri, Alessandra Caiulo, Stefania Morciano, Enza Pagliara, will interpret songs from the traditions of Salento dressed in clothes that represent them but also the land they will sing, stresses Daniela Amoruso, who together with Anna Sabina Pastore is proceeding with the making of the clothes.

Wide skirts that evoke the gracefulness of pizzica skirts, the dresses will be all black and there will be no shortage of lace inserts. Because lace is a return to the past, a reworking of the precious lace that decorated occasion dresses in ancient times with a contemporary twist. Being in the contemporary by enhancing and remembering those details of timeless elegance. Each dress will be personalized because it is essential that they reflect the personality of the artists who will be on stage.

Fashion creator Daniela Amoruso and her Danamò tailoring workshop will also take care of all the stage costumes for the Taranta Ballet Corps.

And again craftsmanship of excellence, the art to embellish the look bears the signature of Gioielli futuroRemoto for the voices of the Orchestra of the 26th edition of La Notte della Taranta. The futuroRemoto Jewels, which Gianni De Benedittis designed are pieces in silver bathed in gold, sometimes finished with enamels of various colors, handmade with the embossing technique and the use of semiprecious stones and small branches of coral. Accessories designed to go along with the lightness of bodies dancing to the rhythm of music, employing original kinetic elements meant to express the dynamism of modern life and the spirited style of renewed freedom. As well as the bewitching hand-kisses, with bracelet and ring joined by a chain, inspired by the taste of the Orient; captivating colorful necklaces, often embellished with original pendants, consisting of real micro-sculptures and finally intriguing earrings with defined geometric lines. Dresses, jewelry and of course final touch for the artists to complete the look on stage: make up and hairstyles. For the fourth year in a row, well-established team Officina Paar ,consisting of 15 professionals: 7 make-up artists and 8 hair artists will take care of the look of the artists who will be on stage.

This is the team of professionals:For hairstyles Carla Marti, Nico Anglani, Angela lo Parco, Sabrina Giussani, Roberta Apos, Pasquale Santantonio, Stefano Spinetta, Claudia Di Canosa. For Makeup: Valentina Pagano, Chiara Longo, Noemi Vetrugno, Eleonora Cucurachi, Elena Giannuzzi, Francesca Canana', Deborah Andretta. The team, working for a long time in research to draw from the trends of the moment and propose them on the Concertone stage, will be inspired by a very natural hairlook, but at the same time bold and alternative. The hairstyles will therefore be essential, with almost tribal weaves, expertly shaped to bring a unique and original look to the stage. On the makeup front, warm earthy colors will be used, with a glossy and editorial effect, dark red for the mouth and then many surprises to enhance the beauty and characteristics of each artist and to create an effective look even on TV.

 LA NOTTE DELLA TARANTA is a cultural project supported by the Puglia Region and Puglia Promozione with Unione dei Comuni della Grecìa salentina and Istituto Diego Carpitella.

#taranta26  #weareinpuglia