The Taranta of the future was
performed on stage at Melpignano in Puglia Saturday night with
the innovative electro-pizzica of Dardust, who fired up the
public for three hours, 200,000 people according to the
organizers from the afternoon to dawn, at the 'Concertone' of
the 25th Notte della Taranta.
A "space night" as master concertist Dardust defined it, a trip
through time and space that started with the tradition of the
tamburello, the absolute protagonist, and flirted with new
worlds and the futuristic sounds of electronic music.
The international guest at this edition, Belgian rapper Stromae,
proposed a pizzicata version of his famous piece "Alors On
Danse", with inroads into popular music, on whose rhythms the
rapper essayed pizzica steps, beating his hands to the rhythm of
the tamburello and dancing with his feet like pizzicati dancers.
On the stage of the Concertone, the traditional pieces of the
Salentine popular repertoire performed by the Taranta Orchesta
were joined in turn by pop artists Marco Mengoni, whose
unmistakable voice sang the traditional song Klama in griko and
then his hit "Ma stasera"; and Elodie who sang and danced the St
Vitus pizzica and then offered a pizzicata version with the
tamburelli of her hit "Tribale".
Romagna-born singer-songwriter Samuele Bersani performed the
heart-rending love song "Lu Ruciu de lu mare" and then his own
hit "Chicco e Spillo".
And then there were the rapper Massimo Pericolo, the Tuscan
musician Kety Fusco and her electric harp, and the band Studio
Murena.
Between one song and the next, in a journey across the sounds
and rhythms of the Salentine pizzica, Dardust, himself playing
the tambourine and other instrumental pieces, inserted tributes
to the international pop-rock world, from David Bowie to the
Cure, passing through the Chemical Brothers and Goran Bregovic,
who was master concertist of the Taranta 10 years ago, opening
the event, even at that time, to the contamination of Balkan
music.
In Dardust's electronic taranta, 10 of the 30 pieces performed
were accompanied by choreography by Irma Di Paola, 10 moving
pictures, like theatrical frescoes moving to the pizzica rhythm,
in some cases pushing the innovative vocation of this edition
towards unexpected horizons, "fluid" ones as Dardust called
them.
It was such an innovative Taranta that it pushed the concept of
contamination not only to musical genres, with choreography that
included drag queens and the visual projections, sometimes
psychedelic, of Filippo Rossi, framed by the typical lamps of
traditional Salentine parties.
Without forgetting the tribute to Pier Paolo Pasolini, on the
centenary of his birth, with a previously unheard piece based on
the popular poetry taken from his "Canzoniere italiano".
The customary closure of the Concertone, with Kalinifta
performed by Madame, Elodie, Mengoni, Bersani and the voices of
the popular orchestra, again made the public explode, now in
the depth of the night, arms waving to the sky and clapping
hands to the rhythm of "Larilò larilò lallerò, larilò larilò llà
llà".
The long night of Melpignano, with Madame an exceptional
narrator, will be broadcast on Rai 1 on September 1, at 23:15.
photo: Stromae dancing the pizzica
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