Aug. 24 IN MELPIGNANO
THE 27TH EDITION OF
THE NIGHT OF THE TARANTA
THE CONCERTONE DIRECTED BY
MAESTRO SHABLO
celebrating the popular culture of Salento
ON STAGE.
ANGELINA MANGO - GEOLIER
GAIA - STE
LUCA FARAONE
and the celebrated folk voices
ANTONIO AMATO- GIANCARLO PAGLIALUNGA- SALVATORE GALEANDA
ENZA PAGLIARA - STEFANIA MORCIANO
CONSUELO ALFIERI - ALESSANDRA CAIULO
accompanied by
FOLK ORCHESTRA NOTTE DELLA TARANTA
conducted by Maestro RICCARDO ZANGIROLAMI
CONDUCTS LIVE RAI
EMA STOKHOLMA
Italy's most anticipated summer event is back: La Notte della Taranta scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 24, in Melpignano, Salento. The Concert that celebrates Salento's pizzica and popular culture will be directed by maestro SHABLO.
Theme of the 2024 edition: taranta generation, all the young people who have come to know Taranta through the collective ritual born in Salento's Grecìa region in 1998.
Big names from the Italian and international music scene will take the stage at the Notte della Taranta, interpreting songs of love, protest and work revisited in a contemporary key by Shablo's urban arrangements and performed by the Popular Orchestra directed by maestro Riccardo Zangirolami.
This is the line-up: ANGELINA MANGO, GEOLIER, GAIA, STE, LUCA FARAONE.
The Concertone will be broadcast live by RAI 3 and simulcast by RADIO 2 RAI.
EMA STOKHOLMA will conduct the event.
The Melpignano Concertone is a cultural project of the Fondazione La Notte della Taranta supported by the Puglia Region and Pugliapromozione in collaboration with Unione dei Comuni della Grecìa salentina and Istituto Diego Carpitella.
Three hours of incessant rhythm with 30 traditional songs in a real journey from the tarantella of Gargano to the pizzica of Salento. The Concertone will be opened by a powerful Pizzica from Aradeo, which in its verses contains the journey of the tambourine: “lu tamburrieddhu miu vinne de Roma me l'ha cattatu na napulitana me dice cu lu cantu e cu lu sonu ca quando vene iddra lu pagamu” (my tambourine comes from Rome, a Neapolitan woman brought it, she tells me to sing and play that when he comes we will pay for it). The audience's favorite hits are inevitable: Acqua de la funtana, Pizzicarella, Lu rusciu de lu mare, Aria caddhipulina. Great space was given to minority languages, Grico with the lyrics Klama, Pizzica di Cosimino and Calinitta and in arbëreshë Ec Ec, Lule Lule and for the first time performed on the Taranta stage Manushaqe. A path of research that began with listening to field recordings by Alan Lomax, Ernesto De Martino and Diego Carpitella and continued in five rehearsal sessions where maestro Shablo chose which songs to present in the 2024 edition. Among the choices is the song Malachianta, which Shablo mixed with Argentine tango sounds in homage to the land that welcomed his family of Italian emigrants. 12 choreographies built by Laccio with “the contamination of languages between contemporary and pizzica that in some of these performances will be pure and traditional. We tried to create different and original energies, and on Malachianta the contamination is exciting.”
LINE UP
Opening the Concertone will be a chorale on Pizzica di Aradeo and for the first time performed on the Melpignano stage the traditional Tarantella di Sannicandro with Giancarlo Paglialunga. Space is given to an unprecedented Manushaqe in arbëreshë performed by Salvatore Galeanda. This is followed by an overwhelming Pizzica di Copertino entrusted to the female voices of the Popular Orchestra All Women. On Pizzica di San Marzano di San Giuseppe interpreted by Enza Pagliara, conductor Riccardo Zangirolami explained that he discovered with enormous amazement that Sergei Vasil'evic Rachmaninov's Suite No. 2 was inspired by the very popular piece. The first guest on the lineup on the Melpignano (LE) stage will be Angelina Mango, who will perform Su Picculina in perfect Salento dialect and give the audience an all-new version of the famous song La Noia signed by two former concertmasters Dardust and Madame.An overwhelming Pizzica di San Vito performed by all the voices of the Taranta opens the sequence of hits in the history of the Concertone: Lu Ruciu de lu mare with Antonio Amato, Pizzica di Villa Castelli with Alessandra Caiulo, Pizzica degli Ucci with the three male voices of the Galeanda Orchestra, Amato and Paglialunga, the very danceable Pizzicarella with Stefania Morciano, Acqua de la Funtana with Consuelo Alfieri. The second guest to embrace the Melpignano audience will be Geolier with the pizzicato version of I pì me, tu p' te and a medley with Shablo by Grazia/M Manc. It continues with Klama singing in Grico sung by Alessandra Caiulo. Journeying between Argentine tango, Shablo's homage to his homeland, and Salento is Malachianta. It will be the powerful Pizzica of Taranto interpreted by Salvatore Galeanda to open the third part of the Concertone that will host Gaia engaged in a ballad performance on Mena Mena Mò followed by her hit Chega in Portuguese. Antonio Amato returns to set the square on fire with the highly anticipated Aria Caddhipulina welcoming the fourth guest of the evening STE: with his powerful voice he will intone Tammurriata Nera to introduce the new track released today Lose Control. The second song in arbereshe is Lule Lule performed by Enza Pagliara who will then pay tribute to Giovanna Marini.
It continues toward the finale with Mamma la rondinella sung by Cosuelo Alfieri, Pizzica di Cosimino with Giancarlo Pagliualunga, Ec third song in arbereshe with Stefania Morciano. Precious gems those that guitarist and author Luca Faraone will give the songs Taranta di Lizzano and Fuecu.It will close as per tradition the Melpignano Concertone, the audience-participated farewell hymn Calinitta-Buona Notte.
Opening the press conference presenting the 2024 Concertone was La Notte della Taranta Foundation President Massimo Bray: “This event is a cultural asset, and when I speak of cultural asset, I refer to Article 9 of the Constitution, which tells us how we must deal with cultural assets: by protecting them, enhancing them and exalting their enormous identity value.This is the sense of belonging.Culture has a value that reaches everywhere, and we would like a year-round workshop to protect this tradition and give it a future perspective.”A Concertone that promises maestro concertmaster Shablo will be formidable: “I can't wait to let you hear what we've done, it will be essential to have fun in that square.There will be a lot of me in this Taranta No. 27, from my Latin American origins to the musical experiences I have gained throughout my professional life.
There will be a mixing of cultures. Culture is not something intangible, something courtly, culture acquires a lot from everyday life, from people's experiences.
And art is the ultimate expression of culture. A three-hour concert as it happens here in Salento is an extraordinarily unprecedented experience, it happens at most only in opera, not in a pop concert.It is a collective ritual.”The scenography of the Concertone will be enriched by the works of Emilio Isgrò, who in connection from Sicily said, “Juxtaposing an experience such as mine with such a well-connected event could have been a risk.Because the word popular should be used with great caution.And culture must make a spectacle of itself, reversing the concept a bit.To erase, therefore in this case means to continually test ourselves.
As the Notte della Taranta is doing.” The future of the Notte della Taranta will be training and research. This was reiterated by Sandro Cappelletto artistic consultant of the La Notte della Taranta Foundation “in 2025 we will celebrate the 60th anniversary of Ernesto De Martino's death. La Notte della Taranta returns live on Rai but changes network. In 2019 on Rai 2 in 2024 on Rai 3 and simulcast on Radio 2 Rai.”
“This is an operation of extraordinary power, not a static stage, but a bridge that unites cultures, cancels distances. It is a great fusion work that we will bring live on Rai3,” stressed Giovanni Anversa deputy entertainment director Prime Time. An operation made possible thanks to the collaboration between Rai Com and Pugliapromozione: “A great job has been done and is being done in Salento. About 20 years ago, when we came from Bari and Lecce and went to Europe, we had to tell about our region, to make people understand where it was located.
Taranta managed before others to place the map of our region,” pointed out Luca Scandale Director of the regional tourism agency Pugliapromozione.
12 choreographies will give vibrant narrative pictures with the coordination of choreographer Laccio: “Folk and professional dancers.It was not easy to start, it took time to amalgamate.And this is necessary, the meeting takes time, because this is the only way to really contaminate.I demanded that there be an ensemble work.And on stage we will see a collective of 14 dancers.”
Excited and very interested in the theme of Generazione Taranta, the young singer-songwriter Gaia allowed herself to be embraced by the Melpignano audience. “It is not taken for granted to be on such a special stage,” she said. I immediately felt at home, but I also feel a strong sense of responsibility toward a tradition that has been handed down to this day. We are charged and fortunate.”
A black a cappella tammurriata will open the performance of revelation artist Ste: “I will not sing in Salento, but I am honored to be part of this event of Apulian and Italian culture.
It's a crazy orchestra, and they are crazy dancers. “He adds, ”One word that struck me is fore de capu.” And he promises to want to learn a lot more.
An authentic dialogue between the Orchestra and guest artists: “A concert that comes after a month of workshops, of exchanges between artists. It is a continuous exchange between guest artists and us in the Orchestra. It's a give and take that enriches everyone,” explained Enza Pagliara representing the Foundation's Artistic Corps along with musician Gianluca Longo.
A Melpignano village that is preparing to welcome the thousands of Taranta spectators:
“Like every year, our community is preparing to welcome with great respect the final event of the Notte della Taranta. An initiative that represents collective heritage.
Our thanks go to my and my that I am a citizen, but it also goes to those who have done a great job of researching the ethnomusical heritage of the Salento,” such as Gigi Chiriatti, reminded mayor Valentina Avantaggiato.”
POPULAR ORCHESTRA
The orchestra consists of 21 elements. Vocals: Consuelo Alfieri, Alessandra Caiulo, Stefania Morciano, Enza Pagliara, Antonio Amato, Salvatore Cavallo Galeanda, Giancarlo Paglialunga, and by 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 (wind instruments) Leonardo Cordella (accordion) Alessandro Monteduro (percussion) Antonio Marra (drums) Mario Esposito (bass) Gioele Nuzzo (tambourine and didgeridoo).
For the August 24 Concertone, the People's Orchestra ensemble is joined by a string section composed of Sara Francesca Molinari (viola) Luisa Gaia Dal Molin (cello) Lucia Allegro and Valeria Di Crosta (violin).
DANCE BODY.
The Taranta Dance troupe is composed of Mihaela Coluccia, Cristina Frassanito, Serena Pellegrino, Lucia Scarabino, Stefano Campagna, Marco Martano, Fabrizio Nigro, and Mattia Politi. For the Aug. 24 edition, six professional dancers will be joined by Simone Rossari and Michele Serra (assistant choreographers) Fabio Stroscio, Camilla Gesualdi, Federica Di Marzo, and Federica Rogoli.
On stage the sets will be a contemporary art narrative.
For the 27th edition of La Notte della Taranta, Emilio Isgrò has created special erasures that will serve as the scenography for the festival's concluding Concertone.
La Notte della Taranta is one of the most effective and powerful signs of the rebirth of Southern Italy. Hosted in Salento, it is the largest festival in Italy and one of the most significant events on popular culture in Europe. A collaboration born of the bond between Maestro Isgrò and the President of the La Notte della Taranta Foundation, Massimo Bray, as well as the desire to enhance the high cultural value of the Salento festival, which has been promoting a popular and substantial symbol of our South for almost 30 years.
“The Notte della Taranta immediately appeared to me,” highlights artist Emilio Isgrò, ”from the very beginning, as one of the most effective and powerful signs of the rebirth of a South that wants to produce culture while protecting traditions, which is far from impossible according to the most well-founded predictions, if it is true that the Italian South is the best equipped to meet the hopes of sustainable growth. So, when my friend Massimo Bray asked me to give my testimony in this what is undoubtedly an act of refounding the festival, I told him a convinced and total Yes. I don't like Southernist rhetoric; on the contrary, I love our country in its integrity, the South as well as the North. However, I know that we cannot remain decently in Europe (and really count) if all available forces in Italy do not come into play. As a Sicilian, moreover, I am emotionally united with Apulia, in a loving embrace, by the common heritage of Frederick of Swabia, who in the midst of the Middle Ages foreshadowed the expectations and needs of the world in which we live. Perhaps Frederick's name is only a symbol, but today even symbols have weight if they do not linger us in nostalgia and regret.”
Isgrò's covers open the visual sequence created by GALACTIC. An exploration of visual languages and paths that unravel from folk traditions to find new paths in space and time. In a syncretic and parallel path to the musical one, videoscenography aims first of all to search for the archetypes of the Salento folk tradition in different cultures, near and far, and to stage them by juxtaposing their different interpretations. The same gesture, the same intention, thus becomes an Ariadne's thread to investigate different cultures starting from rituals of celebration, life, and death that tell the very essence of the human story. At the same time, the research work does not stop at reproducing images, but goes to remedy and reinterpret them through digital manipulation. Thus, it is not only a journey through space but also a journey through time, using the tools of the contemporary to give new life to ancient symbols, making them dialogue with the present, and even more, bringing the spirits of distant places closer together.
It is therefore the very chaos that is generated by drawing on the diversity of origins and instrument that celebrates the universal collective rite and cathartic movement, that stages this metamorphosis of man, sign, nature, and the real, in which the tangible world recognizes itself, remixes with the intangible, and redeems itself in the graphic sign of a new language. Galactic uses images of archaeological finds from the Museums of Bari, Lecce and Taranto and the Rutigliano Whistle Museum in his narrative.
But also coming to the stage will be Officina Chiodo Fisso's sculptures using papier-mâché from Putignano. Already famous for Europe's oldest Carnival, papier-mâché thus acquires a new dimension, proving itself versatile and capable of adapting to different contexts. This collaboration not only highlights local craftsmanship, but also strengthens cultural ties between the different realities of Puglia. “Our sculptures are a tribute to the Taranta, a way to make papier-mâché vibrate to the rhythm of tambourines,” say Alessio Verdolino and Emanuele Ricchi of Officina Chiodo Fisso, ”We wanted to create contemporary illuminations that would dialogue with the music and the audience, inviting everyone to immerse themselves in a magical atmosphere.”
The choice of the materiality of papier-mâché in its mutuality is meant to be associated with the transparency of the skins of the drums that during the night play until dawn. The three sculptural elements will represent tarantulas and will be true contemporary illuminations that will serve as a backdrop for the two stations of the international artistic director and producer SHABLO joined by maestro and very young pianist Riccardo Zangirolami.
RAI DIRECT.
The Concertone will be broadcast by RAI 3 in prime time at 9:20 p.m. and simulcast by RADIO 2 RAI. The program will be hosted by Ema Stokholma. Directed by Stefano Mignucci. Director of photography Marco Lucarelli. Writers: Annalisa Ansaldo and Matteo Catalano. An annual summer event, La Notte della Taranta draws thousands of people from all over the world to Melpignano, a small town in Salento's Grecìa region. It is a true ritual where the ancestral power of the tambourine transforms the night of music into a great dancing and free community. The pizzica is a dance belonging to the tarantella family used in the past as a cure for the “tarantate,” disadvantaged women who, according to popular belief, were pinched by the poisonous spider.
A small orchestra and pizzica dancing with the intercession of St. Paul and other saints, again according to popular belief, led to healing. The socio-anthropological phenomenon of tarantismo is well described by Ernesto De martino in his “the land of remorse.” Today the Taranta people no longer believe in the legendary bite of the tarantula but the spider has become the symbol that creates a new and contemporary ritual around the zoomorphic deity: the Taranta. There is no longer exorcism but worship around the dancing god. Those who come to Melpignano or dance the pizzica in every corner of the world no longer need to be attacked by an external element to share the ritual. There is no tarantismo device in our time, but La Notte della Taranta has been the trigger for a new way of conceiving dance and music in Salento, and the Concertone is the lighting of the votive fire of this modern gathering that ends every year at the crack of dawn.
SALENTO COMPANIES FOR THE LOOK
Sustainable clothes by Salento-based Arianna Muci Couture dress the orchestra's singers and musicians. The Porto Cesareo-based designer's start-up has revalued Italian artisanal labor by using high-quality, eco-responsible materials with an approach to fashion that promotes environmental awareness. Arianna Muci's creations give the Concertone scene a harmonious picture. “When I created my brand I wanted to strongly convey the concept of responsibility and the value of traditions, says Arianna Muci. Receiving the invitation from the La Notte della Taranta Foundation and being the official designer of the 2024 edition is an immense honor for me. Being part of such an important event that manages to unite and transmit the values of our territory and traditions to the new generations makes me really proud. This year, the Taranta theme particularly resonates with my brand's mission, which aims to unite eco-responsible fashion and respect for our traditions, an invaluable heritage of craftsmanship and culture.” Arianna Muci donated the official Concertone 2024 T-shirt, printing the claime “generazione Taranta,” which will be worn by the artists during their rehearsal days on stage.
Embellishing the outfits will be the original Futuro Remoto creations conceived by Gianni De Benedittis. Eccentric and classy solutions for the singers of the Popular Orchestra Consuelo Alfieri, Alessandra Caiulo, Stefania Morciano and Enza Pagliara, with jewelry with a strong figurative sensibility: moon and heart directly from the Taranta brand, set in lines of light and cuts of color to depict a rainbow of emotions. “The Notte della Taranta represents a perfect spider web for creativity made in Salento,” explains De Benedittis. It puts together craft and excellence contributing to the synergic development of the territory. In this edition dedicated to young people, I will bring all the colors of our land between a golden moon and a heart as transparent as the sea, and inspiring myself for some of the creations from the graffiti found in the prison of the Palazzo Marchesale of Melpignano.”
All stage costumes for the Taranta Ballet Corps are curated by Daniela Amoruso and her sartorial workshop Danamò, a historic reference in the city of Lecce for the world of dance and theater. Following the themes chosen by choreographer Laccio, the fashion designer has created clothes that enhance lightness and plasticity of movements.
Daniela Amoruso with needle and thread highlights the attention to detail in rereading tradition in a story of liberation of movement that passes through the emancipation of the body.
Officina Paar is make-up partner of the Notte della Taranta 2024. The artists' original outfits are joined by Roberta Apos' beauty looks that combine style and glamour for universal and eye-catching make-up. Freshness and originality and graphic glitter lines are protagonists in creating magnetic and irresistible looks. Beauty magic with vibrant colors.
SAFETY
The direction of the security device is entrusted to a control room equipped with a sophisticated video surveillance system that monitors the entire event area, but also the inflow and outflow routes. The control room operates in synergy with the Municipal Operations Center, another surveillance and coordination body overseen by the City of Melpignano, and which makes use of an additional video surveillance system and radio links.
The outer ring belting device encloses within it the event area (guarded by stewards) with 6 posts (gates) manned by Police Forces and reinforced by the presence of new-jerseys. This device is supplemented by other posts (prevarches) manned exclusively by Local Police personnel, 50 units, and Civil Defense volunteer personnel, 300 units.
400 units are deployed for security between police, civil defense, firefighters and Fifa Security personnel.
In terms of health security, a “Health Camp” is set up where more than 200 volunteers from the Italian Red Cross and 118 medical and nursing staff, coordinated by Dr. Nicola D'Angelo, will operate to deal with emergency emergencies. The camp area will have 25 inpatient beds and 10 other care stations for a total of 35 beds. There will be 9 Italian Red Cross ambulances and 6 traveling teams in the area.
A fixed fire brigade garrison supported by mobile elements is present.
PRECONCERTONE
A unique show of music and dance will open the evening of Aug. 24 starting at 7 p.m., taking spectators on a journey into the sound and poetry of the Arbëreshë language, from Molise to Puglia.
On stage at the preconcert of the Notte della Taranta will be the boys and girls involved in the Matria project. The Languages of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, a regional program for the enhancement of Apulian linguistic minorities launched by the Regional Education Department and in collaboration with the Apulia Regional School Office, Apulia Film Commission, Teatro Pubblico Pugliese and La Notte della Taranta Foundation.
The State Comprehensive Institute “Casalini” of San Marzano di San Giuseppe (TA) will bring to the stage “Tarantun” a song that takes the notes of the local pizzica and inserts new sounds and words composed by the 28 students involved. From the “Mandes” middle school in Casalvecchio (FG) will come the folk songs “Na na na” and “Teresina” performed by 16 pupils. The Liceo musicale “Archita” of Taranto with its 33-piece orchestra will perform “Ec Ec Ec” and “Lule Lule,” while from San Martino in Pensilis in Molise, the Istituto comprensivo statale “John Dewey” with its 27 participants will give the Melpignano audience the song “Manushaqe.” Also on stage with the young protagonists of the project are musicians Nico Berardi, Alessandro Chiga and Salvatore Galeanda, who took care of the musical part, Serena Pellegrino and Mattia Politi, who guided the students in the dance path.
Also on stage was the orchestra of the Leonardo da Vinci High School in Maglie.
For Taranta solidale, the show will continue with the dance intervention of the iSemprevivi association, which deals with psychiatric rehabilitation, acts following a guideline that has as its main objective the inclusion in civil society of its young people. The “Put me to the test” project aims to activate work placements for inclusion in the social cooperative.
Presenting the preconcert will be writer and TV author Chicco Sfondrini.
