P R E S S R E L E A S E
Event: ESSENTIAL SALENTO: Festival of Salentine Culture
Date: October 18 – 23, 1998
Location: ISTITUTO ITALIANO DI CULTURA
UCLA/ARMAND HAMMER MUSEUM
Contacts: Alberto Pranzo, Producer (310) 443-3250, Ext. 102
Luisa Del Giudice, Curator (310) 474-1408
Festival of Salentine Culture:
Tarantulism, Music, and More come to Los Angeles this October
The Salento, one of the “last frontiers” on the far southeastern tip of the
Italian heel, represents a Mediterranean landscape of haunting beauty and a
traditional culture still largely unknown. Essential Salento, a festival of
Salentine culture, brings select “essences” of the region in images,
flavors, and especially sounds, to Los Angeles this October.
The program features the US premiere of Aramirè, an ensemble of traditional
Salentine music, in the concert “Spider’s Bite” (Hammer Museum, 10899
Wilshire Blvd., Westwood, Sunday, October 18, 2:00 p.m.), focussing on the
pizzica tarantata, the ritual music of centuries-old Tarantismo (the cure
for the tarantula’s bite). Also featured will be the award-winning film by
Edoardo Winspeare, “Pizzicata,” a story of a young peasant girl “bitten” as
a response to the tragic climax of a love conflict, when she must choose
between an Italian American WWII pilot shot down over the Salento, and the
fiancé to whom she has been betrothed. (Italian Cultural Institute, 1023
Hilgard Ave., Westwood, October 18, 5:30 p.m.; Oct. 19, 21, 7:00 p.m.).
Another program highlight includes the photographic exhibit by Fernando
Bevilacqua, "the deep murmur" (opens IIC, Oct. 18, 4:00), which captures the
ancient stones, the sea, and twisted olive trees, as well as the human
landscape, of the Salento.
Tarantismo was a form of music-therapy practiced especially by young
peasant women in southern Apulia who had been “bitten” by a venomous spider
(the “tarantola”), presumably while working in the fields. To cure one
afflicted by the spider’s mythic bite required the music of tambourine,
harmonica, and fiddle, in the accelerating rhythms of the pizzica tarantata.
After several days, the suffering tarantata was “cured”--or at least
relieved of the need to dance--until “rebitten,” usually at one-year
intervals. In the chapel near the Baroque church of Galatina, dedicated to
St. Paul, patron saint of tarantulism, the tarantate assembled each year to
dance, pay homage, and be released from the spider’s web and the saint’s
curse. Such healing rituals, once found throughout the South, and perhaps a
distant legacy of ancient Greek orgiastic cults, seemed to have lasted
longest in southern Apulia…and may yet be alive. The pizzica is currently
undergoing a vast revival throughout the Salento, southern Italy, and is
capturing the attention of international audiences. This irresistible “new
sound” (for Los Angeles audiences, at least) is sure to capture the
attention of World Music aficionados.
Essential Salento, produced by Alberto Pranzo and curated by UCLA professor
of folklore, Luisa Del Giudice, is co-sponsored by the Istituto Italiano di
Cultura, the Province of Lecce, the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs
Department, and UCLA /Armand Hammer Museum. This program will inaugurate a
three-year collaboration between the Province of Lecce and the city of Los
Angeles, culminating in an international and interdisciplinary conference:
Performing Ecstasies: Music, Dance, and Ritual in the Mediterranean, at
UCLA in the year 2000.
-------------------
Sunday, October 18
2:00 p.m., UCLA /Armand Hammer Museum
“Spider’s Bite”: US premier of Aramirè in concert: traditional music of
the Salento
4:00 p.m., Istituto Italiano di Cultura
Wine and Cheese reception
Opening of photographic exhibit of Fernando Bevilacqua on the Salento
5:30 p.m., Istituto Italiano di Cultura
Luisa Del Giudice, “Tarantismo, Neo-Tarantismo and Folk Revival in the Salento”
Screening of film: Pizzicata (with English subtitles)
Question and Answer with director, Edoardo Winspeare
Monday, October 19
7:00 p.m., Istituto Italiano di Cultura
Screening of Pizzicata
Wednesday, October 20
7:00 p.m., Istituto Italiano di Cultura
Screening of film: Pizzicata by Edoardo Winspeare
Presentation of book, Morso d’amore: viaggio nel tarantismo salentino,
by Luigi Chiriatti
Friday, October 23
7:30 p.m., Italian American Club, San Pedro
Aramirè in concert
------------------------
Aramirè, led by Luigi Chiriatti, is an ensemble which not only performs the
oral and musical traditions of the Salento, but is committed to field
research and cultural ecology. It makes full use of Chiriatti’s private
archive of field recordings which span 20 years of collecting, and therefore
uses the voices of the tradition itself, as its guide in reviving Salentine
oral culture. The ensemble performs songs of the Griko-speaking minority
(the last Greek linguistic “island” of the Salento), the music of
tarantismo--the pizzica tarantata so currently in demand—but also love
songs, nursery rhymes, narrative, and religious, and worksongs. Aramirè’s
concerts in Los Angeles represent a US premier.
-----------------------
Call the Italian Cultural Institute at: 443-3250, Ext. 102 (film viewing
requires reservation), or visit the Istituto Italiano di Cultura’s website
at: www.iicusa.org
--PLEASE COME--
--ENCOURAGE FRIENDS AND STUDENTS TO DO THE SAME--
Luisa Del Giudice
Italian Oral History Project
Department of Italian
212 Royce Hall, UCLA
Los Angeles, CA 90095
tel: (310) 474-1408
fax: (310) 474-3188
email: [log in to unmask]
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|
