In the countrysides of Southern Italy, the Tarantella is much more than a purification dance – it is part of an entire medical and spiritual philosophy known as Tarantism. The musicians become healers charged with the task of finding just the right rhythm that will make the tarantata (bite victim) get up and dance away the venom in her veins. In this performance, the Vesuvius Ensemble will show the incredible amount of variety and passion which infused this dance over the centuries.
Heliconian Hall – 35 Hazelton Ave, Toronto
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The Vesuvius Ensemble’s mission is to contribute to the preservation and transmission of the enormous cultural legacy made up by the popular cultural traditions in the zone around Naples and southern Italy. This legacy includes the cultural and musical traditions of countryside peasants, whose rituals and songs been passed on orally and in writing over centuries and finally recorded and researched in the twentieth century by important scholars such as Roberto De Simone, Diego Carpitella, and Alan Lomax. The area’s cultural heritage also includes published material from professional Renaissance & Baroque composers working in urban settings who published in forms which imitated popular music or used texts in regional dialect (Falconieri, Kapsberger, Kirscher, Vinci, Provenzale, Leo, etc.).
Vesuvius Ensemble’s performances attempt to paint a portrait of Naples and its surrounding countryside in the Renaissance & Baroque periods, giving colourful details of Neapolitan life (the Moorish and Spanish influence on the city’s cultural production, the city’s special religious and secular festivities, unique musical institutions like the conservatorii, also hardships such as the plagues and the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1631).
The rustic instruments used (the tammorra, chitarra battente, ciaramella, colascione, etc.) combine with Baroque continuo instruments (chitarrone, Baroque & Renaissance guitars, lutes) to create a unique accompanimental soundscape.