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The actor SERGIO RUBINI will be the narrator of the Notte della Taranta broadcast on RAI 2 on 28 August at 10:50 pm.

Rubini will lead RAI 2 viewers to discover the beauty of the pizzica that meets the musical themes proposed by the concertmaster Paolo Buonvino for the twenty-third edition of the most anticipated and loved event of the Italian summer.

The Apulian actor, director, screenwriter who in 1987 was chosen by Federico Fellini in Interview (in the role of his alter ego as a young man), the winner with his first work "La Stazione" of the David di Donatello, will be on the set of Melpignano to tell the meeting of the music and dance of Salento with the sounds of the world.

A 90-minute journey into the memory of the event that in 23 years has managed to ferry the ancestral rhythm into the pinch in the modern form of collective sharing. The people of the Night no longer believe in the legendary bite of the tarantula but the spider has become a symbol that creates a new and contemporary ritual around the zoomorphic divinity: the Taranta. “No exorcism, explains the artistic director of the Daniele Durante Foundation, if anything, an adoration rite around the God who dances. Those who arrive in Melpignano or dance at home no longer need to be attacked by an external element to share the ritual. There is no tarantism device in our time but La Notte Della Taranta was the trigger for a new way of conceiving the music and dance of Salento and the Concertone is the lighting of the votive fire of this modern gathering that ends every year at the crack of dawn. In the year in which we are forced to give up the energy of the public, we aim for a program that contemplates the mediation of a narrator ".

A story signed by Massimo Martelli (his last three successful editions of the Sanremo and Sanremo Giovani Festival), author of "Che tempo che fa" and winner of the FIPA at the Cannes Film Festival with the medium-length massacre of Bologna.

All on stage even if strictly without an audience, the guests of 2020: Gianna Nannini, Mahmood, and Diodato. Maestro Paolo Buonvino, author of famous soundtracks, will conduct the Popular Orchestra of the Taranta and the Roma Sinfonietta Orchestra.

The direction of the 2020 edition of the Concertone is entrusted to the Genoese Cristiano D’Alisera, fresh from the success of the show "Danza con me" conducted by the dancer Roberto Bolle.

On the natural scene of the former Augustinian Convent of Melpignano, there will be the Salento lights by Mariano Light that have characterized the Concertone since 2012. A network of artistic lights that intertwine with the visual project of the director of photography Marco Lucarelli.

The scenography curated by Giancarlo Sforza is minimalist, designed to bring out and highlight the founding values ​​of the taranta. The circular platform recalls the tambourine, recalls the ancestral rhythm of this land, where the wooden installation lies in front of the suggestive scenery of the former Augustinian Convent. In this particular edition, therefore, unlike the pop stage there will be a more lyrical, theatrical stage, explains Sforza, in which, through the play of different woods, one more precious and one simpler, the materials are embraced, as if to seal that one. 'meeting between two orchestras, the Popular Orchestra of La Notte della Taranta and the Roma Sinfonietta Orchestra.

The music of Paolo Buonvino will transcend the symbolic place of the event to reach, through the extraordinary images of the Pisano brothers shot among the wonders of Puglia Montesantangelo (FG), Trani, Bari, and Gallipoli, the places of the soul of thousands of tourists who are waiting to live the most beautiful night of summer 2020.

The executive coordinator of the program is Massimo Bonelli, artistic director of the May Day Concert for several years. The Media partner of the event is RAI.

It will be an emotional journey the one designed by Paolo Buonvino, maestro concertatore of the 2020’s edition of Notte della Taranta, that holds together notes and voices from the popular tradition of Salento : painful, joyful and rich in life histories.

Maestro Buonvino’s work aims to touch the sensibility of the audience that will follow “La Notte della taranta” on TV (the event will be broadcast on 28^th August on Rai 2 and will take place on 22^nd August in Melpignano) and be moved while narrating the roots of the territory. These have always been important elements for him, from the moment he started to approach the notes of the tradition to compose the music of this event edition in Melpignano. “ I have come closer to the popular music of Salento very humbly, but with a lot of passion too, of course. I have caught every shade even from the smallest things, figuring out lives and experiences and I have tried to put in it a little part of me and my life experience as well”.

“I found out that in this tradition” tells Buonvino “there are intense and meaningful aspects. The authentic richness, being a music that comes from the people, are exactly their lives, their pains and struggles they tell through the music. Of course, due to the fact that it is a popular music it is expression of people and not of professional musicians. Simplicity and spontaneity are the key words to understand it completely, and it is incredible the fact that essential and simple gestures like the beating of a tambourine, arouses emotions beyond words.”

Maestro Buonvino has tried to represent the great pathos of a tambourine being played, in an event that will be of great effect. A sort of journey towards the essence, the origin of music that is able to heal, and the liberating ballet that becomes a cure for discomfort. It is a music able to tear down walls and this is the right strength of the popular tradition in Salento : eliminates the superfluous elements, softens the rigidities, breaks the separating barriers. In front of the music the only thing people can do is following the real and ancestral rhythm and enjoy moments of interaction, when the exchange becomes the treble clef of an emotional staff.

In this edition lead by Buonvino, composer of extraordinary soundtracks for cinema movies, it would have been impossible to miss a fusion between two different music expressions : the Orchestra Popolare de La Notte della Taranta and the Orchestra Roma Sinfonietta. Two different Orchestras working together to give life to a special event, almost magic. The scenic design as well will contribute to this emotional homage : a very short wood stage and almost cinematographic supports and projections.  On the background, the façade of the ex Convento degli Agostiniani, seat of Notte della Taranta foundation, is the evidence of the unique and unmissable path, the audience will be invited to travel together for just one night.

It is exactly on the notes of a pizzica danced by Taranta dancers that this morning Accademia delle Belle Arti and La Notte della Taranta Foundation have signed a Memorandum of Understanding. In the hall of the Accademia headquarter, dancers have played a choreography among Ezechiele Leandro and Pintoretto’s artworks, and the choreography has reached the students’ lab too.

A path following dancing steps to underline the connection between music, ballet and Arts. La Notte della Taranta Doundation and Accademia di Belle Arti will work together for the whole year in order to realise an artistic project  that will be presented during the Concertone 2020.

The Memorandum of Understanding establishes what follows : a direct or indirect collaboration with regards to the participation in the field of international and European projects about issues of common interest; the promotion of stage, the realisation of scientific conferences, conventions and editorial activities; the activation of scholarships and the reciprocal participation to activities of research and workshops, always on the basis of shared projects; the study and realisation of events and exhibitions that start from the scientific research and simplify their results, even promoting relations with other entities at a local, national and international level, that can be addressed both to Accademia di Belle Arti and to La Notte della Taranta Foundation.

“ It is undoubtedly source of pride for La Notte della Taranta Foundation to be an active part of a collaboration I consider strategic to add value to music through Arts and promote the cultural offer of our territory” highlights the president Massimo Manera. “We have worked during the lockdown period to this memorandum that strengthens the already existing relations with the other local entities and open to new and ambitious horizons, thanks to the presence of a prestigious institutions like Accademia di Belle Arti.”

 “The memorandum of Understanding will be one of the strong points of the cultural scheduling of our Accademia” explains Luigi Puzzovio “and will allow researches and knowledge exchanges, in addition to a very important promotion for our entire region. I thank the president Massimo Manera for this important outcome and because even though unity was strength before the pandemic too, it exactly nowadays that moving together seems more powerful.”

After dancing among sphinxes at Museo Egizio di Torino, Mahmood gets to the boundless temple of Taranta : the Concertone in Melpignano.

The unstoppable musical journey of the winner of Festival di Sanremo 2019, keeps on through the numerous scenes that have always characterised him.

On August 22^nd we will see him on the stage of the greatest festival in Italy and one of the most significant events about the popular culture in Europe, Notte della Taranta. Homage to the musical tradition in Salento and to the various histories that have been creating it, the Concertone of Notte della Taranta 2020 will be broadcast by RAI 2, on the 28^th of August at 22:50.

Mahmood’s performance will be directed by Maestro Concertatore of Notte della Taranta 2020: Paolo Buonvino. Composer of unforgettable soundtracks for cinema movies, the Sicilian composer will direct the Orchestra Popolare della Taranta and Orchestra Roma Sinfonietta on 22^nd August in the natural background of the ex Convento degli Agostiniani in Melpignano (LE).

The extraordinary music journey of Mahmood proceeds in this way – from the double victory at Sanremo Giovani and Sanremo in 2019, the second place at  Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv, the success of his first European tour and the victory as  Best Italian Act at Mtv EMA last autumn- in a few months he has been able to reserve a unique music path made of original texts and a new urban sound, the result of experimentations and contaminations determining his own style.

Mahmood has just released his new single Dorado with two exceptional travel companions : Sfera Ebbasta, one of the most important exponent of the Italian trap music, and Feid, the latin artist rising in the international ranks with the hit PORFA, of which he has just released a remix in collaboration with J Balvin, Maluma, Nicky Jam, Justin Quiles e Sech. Among the special guest of Dorado also Bugs Bunny, the most famous animated rabbit in the world celebrating its 80 years exactly this year intensely demanded by Mahmood in its video and in the single artwork. The single is produced by DRD, the pseudonym od Durdust that has produced the most iconic songs of Mahmood.

Dorado gets in the chart after Eternantena and Moonlight Popolare, the latter in collaboration with the most important representative of the Italian rap panorama : Massimo Pericolo. These rythms have re-designed the pop scene : the one of the urban music, an explosive genre, fluid and kaleidoscopic gathering different elements.

Notte della Taranta is a cultural project supported by Regione Puglia, Unione dei Comuni della Grecìa salentina, Diego Carpitella research institute in collaboration with Apulia Film Commission..

The rock singer Gianna Nannini comes back to Notte della Taranta after 16 years! The singer-songwriter will be part of the artistic cast of the final Concertone in Melpignano, that will be broadcast by Rai 2, on August 28th at 10.50pm.

In 2004, she exhibited on the stage of Concertone giving her audience an unforgettable and meaningful performance. She will bring her strength at Notte della Taranta this year too, for a magic night. Melodic kindness and enthralling energy, deep and scratchy voice, Gianna Nannini will give the audience a new explosive emotion! The artist has accepted maestro Paolo Buonvino’s invitation and will be on the stage, rigorously without any spectators, in Melpignano : a unique precious gift for the audience that will follow the concert just on Rai 2 on August 28^th, because her live concerts have been postponed to 2021 both in Italy and abroad.

Below the full cast of Concertone 2020: Nannini, Mahmood e Diodato accompanied by Orchestra Popolare Notte della Taranta and Orchestra Roma Sinfonietta both directed by the master and composer of famous soundtracks Paolo Buonvino. Notte della Taranta is a cultural project supported by Regione Puglia, Unione dei Comuni della Grecìa salentina, Diego Carpitella research institute in collaboration with Apulia Film Commission.

The winner of Festival di Sanremo 2020 will be the first guest at Concertone of Notte della Taranta in Melpignano. After a year of success, Diodato is intended to reinterpret the repertory of the tradition of Salento during the final Concertone that will we broadcast on 28^th August on Rai 2. Diodato’s performance will be directed by the Maestro Concertatore of Notte della Taranta 2020: Paolo Buonvino. Composer of unforgettable soundtracks, the Sicilian composer will lead the Orchestra Popolare della Taranta and the Orchestra Roma Sinfonietta on 22^nd August in the natural background of the ex Convento degli Agostiniani in Melpignano (LE).

Diodato has been chosen also thanks to the shared path between “La Notte della Taranta” foundation and the city of Taranto to support the candidacy of the Ionic city as Capitale della Cultura 2021.

This has been a golden year for the Apulian singer-songwriter. He is the unique Italian artist that has won different prizes during the same edition of Festiva di Sanremo : he won the Festival di Sanremo 2020 with his song “Fai Rumore”, the Premio della critica Mia Martini Sanremo 2020, Premio Sala Stampa Radio Tv e Web Sanremo 2020 and Premio Lunezia, the DAVID DI DONATELLO 2020 “Best original song” and the NASTRI D’ARGENTO 2020 “Best original song” both with “Che vita Meravigliosa”, written by Diodato himself for the movie “La Dea Fortuna” a Ferzan Ozpetek’s production, included with “Fai Rumore” in the record “CHE VITA MERAVIGLIOSA “.

On 16^th May Diodato has represented Italy in the show Europe Shine A Light, performing at Arena di Verona with his “Fai Rumore” in an unreleased version arranged just for the occasion and, during that particularly difficult moment, he has been able to raise great emotional feelings. On 22^nd May he has published the new single “Un’altra estate” (Carosello Records). The unpublished work, written during the lockdown, talks about a new suspended normality and a changed everyday life, with the gaze of those who look out onto the world from their home windows, looking at what is happening outside from a new point of view, the one of those who are looking outside from the inside. 

Diodato is among the artists who are having a tour in summertime, like some of his colleagues he has decided to restart his live concerts despite the limitations, the tour of Un’altra Estate has started in Valle d’Aosta, will pass through Rome, Tindari and Taormina, Taranto and on 7^th and 8^th September he will perform at Castello Sforzesco di Milano.

The Sicilian composer will lead the Orchestra Popolare on 22^nd August in the big square of the ex Convento degli Agostiniani in Melpignano (LE).

Author of unforgettable soundtracks for the cinema movies, Buonvino  today is in Salento for the first meeting with the musicians.

This is a new challenge for the Foundation that aims to the mixture between popular and well-read language, the same that has brought Buonvino to compose successful hit like the recent Renaissance for Skin, soundtrack for the TV series “I Medici” and in the past “Eppure Sentire” sang by Elisa, “Baciami Ancora” for Jovanotti, “Tutto può succedere” with Giuliano Sangiorgi. 

Buonvino, rewarded at David di Donatello with the “Best musician in 2008” prize, for the movie “Caos Calmo”, will turn the square of Taranta into the biggest cinema where stories narrated through the traditional texts, will intertwine with the audience’s emotions in a feature film of exceptional scenes fostered by the energy of pizzica, soundtrack of the Apulia rebirth. 

 “I am very glad to start today this journey with La Notte della Taranta” has told Buonvino when meeting the Orchestra. “I have wanted this adventure to start very soon because the meeting with musicians, studious and professionals, could be as furthered and intense as possible. Symbol of union and healing, pizzica offers the starting point to elaborate a synthesis of values deeply belonging to me. Apulia, so as my Sicily, is an amazing and unique territory rich in history; I am very proud for being called to bring my musical imagery inside your meaningful traditions. The energies and the interior motivations are the profound incentive bringing me here, I hope we will give on the 22^nd August the best synthesis of everything we will get to create connecting our stories and our sensibilities. We will give the music the authentic and fundamental role of making us feeling connected together”.

The maestro concertatore, during his week in Salento will visit the cities throughout Grecìa salentina.

 “We asked Buonvino to celebrate our age projecting it in the future, mixing ancient sounds with rhythms and arrangements expressing the passion of Notte della Taranta and its protagonists” explains the president of the Massimo Manera Foundation highlighting how the multi-year scheduling allows the maestro to work on Concertone for nine months. “De facto, the choice of a composer is determined by the willing to give the audience the result of a musical research on the field”.

At the end of the first reharse section with Orchestra Popolare, Friday 13^th December at 12:00 in the Foundation headquarter in Melpignano (Le), maestro Paolo Buonvino will participate at the press conference  with the president of Regione Puglia Michele Emiliano and the regional assessor for the touristic and cultural business Loredana Capone, to announce the theme of the 2020’s edition.

Fiorella Mannoia, Buika, Lisa Fischer, Nada and Tosca at the Notte della Taranta on the 27th of august with Carmen Consoli at the final concert of La Notte della Taranta festival.

Fiorella Mannoia, Afro-Spanish singer Buika, the ex-vocalist of The Rolling Stones Lisa Fischer from the USA and the voices of Nada and Tosca, these are the 5 women chosen for the final concert of La Notte della Taranta festival on the 27 th of August in Melpignano, Salento. The 5 artists, under the guide of the music director Carmen Consoli, will be reinterpreting together the pizzica repertoire, in front of over 200 thousand people. It will be a unique show, awesome and inspiring.

Buika, born and raised  in Palma de Mallorca, Spain from Equatorial  Guinea origin, is a singer, songwriter poet and composer with over a musical career spanning 15 years. Her music talent ranges with remarkable ease from jazz to flamenco  pop  to pop and soul. She has won 2 latin grammy's, one for the album " El Ultimo Trago" and the other in 2013 with the album " La Noche Mas Larga." She has also received many other nominations and recompenses. Her recent album, “Vivir sin Miedo” is a masterpiece!

Lisa Fischer is an American vocalist and song writer. She has won two grammy awards including one for her single 'How can I ease the pain. Lisa toured with the Rolling Stones for 26 years and her duets with Mick Jagger on numbers such as Gimme Shelter have become legendary. She is now pursuing a very successful second solo career with her band, Grand Baton.

The final concert in Melpignano completes the 19th edition of the Notte della Taranta festival, one of the most important folk and popular music festivals in Europe. It will be broadcast live and exclusively on RAI 5. On stage there will be 18 dancers directed by the choreographer, Fabrizio Mainini.

Together with Ligabue at the final mega concert “La Notte della Taranta” on August 22nd.  In Melpignano, in the Salento,  together with the maestro concertatore Phil Manzanera, historical guitarist of Roxy Music and co-producer of Pink Floyd, there will be also Paul Simonon, bassist of  The Clash, a famous punk-rock music,Tony Allen, a drummer from Nigeria among the Afrobeat music founders, Andrea Echeverri, guitarrist and leader of the colombian Group Los Aterciopelados,  Anna Phoebe, a violinist from London belonging to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Raoul Rodriguez.

“We are very proud  – said Massimo Manera, La Notte della Taranta Foundation President - to announce together with the maestro Phil Manzanera, the following music performers who will lead pizzica music in a virtual journey through Nigeria, Colombia, North Europe and Spain, giving unique and exclusive emotions to the audience”.
An extraordinary international parterre which will bring in Italy even artists belonging to the legend such as Paul Simonon, a musician very well-known all over the world, founder of The Clash. Among his recent projects, the following ones: The Good, The Bad & The Queen with Damon Albarn and the album of the Gorillaz, Plastic Beach. There will be also Tony Allen, drummer, songs author and compser, defined by Brian Eno as "the best drummer ever existed", to grapple with pizzica. Tony Allen was a member of Fela Kuti Group, Africa ’70, from 1968 to 1979, and he can be absolutely considered one of the pioneers of Afrobeat music”. Among his several projects, he cooperated with Paul Simonon in The Good, The Bad & The Queen.
The Whole picture is completed by two women artists: Andrea Echeverri, a famous guitarist and singer, well-known either for her solo artist career or as a member of the famous Aterciopelados Group and Anna Phoebe, a violinist from London well appreciated because her versatility allows her to master the most different music genres. From 2004 to 2009 the artist played with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. In 2010 she met Manzanera, who will bring the English musician to perform on the stage in Melpignano. Together with the violinist Phoebe, also Raul Rodriguez, a flamenco guitarist who has worked with Kiko Veneno, Martirio, Cara Oscura and who has been able to take the Tres Flamenco, a variation of the Tres Cubano, into the world of flamenco. 

“I am very happy – said Phil Manzanera - that  La Notte della Taranta has attracted such prestigious artists, ready to take part to this fantastic concert with great enthusiasm, giving a tribute to the Amazing salentina land and to its local artists. I hope this year our presence can represent a further opportunity to spread all over the world your fantastic collective and inestimable Heritage that is your culture which deserves an international audience”.

The Concertone on the 22nd of August in Melpignano, able to attract every year more than 150 thousand people dancing in the square until the sunrise, is the final part of the "La Notte della Taranta" Itinerant Festival which will start on the 3rd August in Corigliano d’Otranto and it will last 17 nights all over the Salento, during which more than 60 music groups will perform.

Notte della Taranta 2015, anche Luciano Ligabue sul palco di Melpignano
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Ligabue will perform as guest at “La Notte della Taranta” concertone. He has accepted the invitation of the Maestro Concertatore Phil Manzanera and he will be on the stage in Melpignano, in Salento, on the 22nd of August to celebrate the 18-year-old popular music festival, the greatest festival in Europe.

In front of an audience of over 150 thousand people coming from all over the world, Ligabue will interpret some songs from the salentine popular tradition chosen by Manzanera among 100 songs and recordings of the fieldwork research by Alan Lomax. 

Massimo Manera (President of La Notte della Taranta Foundation) “we are very proud to host Ligabue on the stage in Melpignano during his 25-year-old career. I am sure that our marvellous audience will feel unique emotions. It will be, as usual, a collective party on the tambourine rhythm. ".

Phil Manzanera (Maestro Concertatore La Notte della Taranta 2015) "I am very happy that Ligabue has accepted my invitation to La Notte della Taranta festival. I am his fan and I am looking forward to playing with him on the 22nd of August ".

Manzanera, committed during these days in his London studio to choose love and work songs that he will play with the popular Orchestra during the Concertone, assures to project pizzica into a rock context.

NOTTE TARANTA 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Epz0aJfjdsc