Traditional music and dance
How can you think of southern Italy without dreaming of its tarantellas? Born in the region around the 18th century, this large family of dances originally had a therapeutic function as it was used as an antidote to the bite of the tarantula (hence its name). Very popular in Puglia, Calabria and Naples, its form varies according to the region. For example, in Puglia, and particularly in the Salento peninsula, we find the very famous pizzica. Stemming from the tarantella family, this frantic dance is performed in duets, sometimes mixed, the steps obeying the drums. Violins, accordions or zampogna (bagpipes) can also accompany the dance. One of the most important voices in pizzica is Enza Pagliara, an artist from Salento who is an excellent gateway to the sounds of the region. In Calabria, tarantella is quite similar to pizzica and is also performed in pairs but in a moving, dancing round called a rota (wheel), with a "dance master" designating the dancers within the rota
.Traditional Calabrian music is particularly centred around the various forms of zampogna
, the bagpipes of southern Italy. Like all the music and dance of the region, Calabrian aesthetics have undergone an undeniable revival in recent years, driven by a hyper dynamic scene. Its most interesting members are undoubtedly the group Re Niliu, which mixes Calabrian traditions and instruments with world music, as well as the group TaranProject with a very similar approach, while the group Kalamu combines gypsy music, ska, folk and tarantella. In Basilicate, it is interesting to note that many musicians from the region became itinerant at the end of the 19th century and settled in the United States. Carlo Curti (1859-1926), a musician from Gallicchio, popularised the mandolin in American music, even starting a national craze for the instrument. One of the most striking testimonies of the revival of the musical traditions of southern Italy is the success of the Notte della Taranta. Since 1998, Melpignano, a small village in the Salento countryside, has hosted this night of taranta every summer, a great moment of traditional Apulian music, with its share of pizzica. Otherwise, celebrations such as the Festa d'Autunno, in November in the charming village of San Donato di Ninea, or the Festa di San Giuseppe, in March in Ferrandina, are excellent opportunities to hear the traditional music of the south and to attend, of course, the dances.Classical music
For a long time, the aura of neighbouring Naples seemed to attract and concentrate all the musical energy of southern Italy without really spilling over to its neighbours Apulia, Calabria and Basilicata. In the 16th century, Naples was even, along with Paris, one of the world's music capitals. It was at this time that figures such as the composer from Venosa (Basilicata) Don Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1613), a lute player and author of beautiful madrigals (polyphonic vocal pieces on a secular text), appeared. After him, a few names sprang up here and there, such as Egidio Duni (1709-1775), a sort of precursor of comic opera, and more recently the great flutist Leonardo De Lorenzo (1875-1962), who officiated in the New York Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Gustav Mahler, or the mezzo-soprano Anna Bonitatibus.
In Puglia, Giovanni Paisiello (1740-1816) was one of the most popular Italian composers of his time, but the region's greatest name is obviously Umberto Giordano (1867-1948). This native of Foggia managed to install himself in the pantheon of great Italian composers thanks to his famous 1894 opera: Andrea Chénier. Inspired by the life of the poet André Chénier, guillotined during the French Revolution, this work brought him international recognition. In addition to being a figure of the verismo movement - the operatic equivalent of literary naturalism - this opera was the starting point for many tenors' careers in the title role. And speaking of tenors, Puglia is the birthplace of one of the country's greatest: Tito Schipa (1888-1965). A native of Lecce, "the prince of tenors" is among the opera singers who marked the XXᵉ century with their voices. In Calabria, apart from the composer Nicola Antonio Manfroce (1791-1813), whose name comes up from time to time, the local boy is definitely Francesco Cilea. Also close to verism, Cilea wrote L'Arlesiana, an opera in three acts based on L'Arlésienne
by Alphonse Daudet. He is a distinguished artist whose name was naturally given to the Reggio Calabria Opera. Other notable venues in the region include the Teatro Politeama in Catanzaro, dedicated entirely to opera, and the Teatro Rendano in Cosenza, renowned for its excellent acoustics and operatic programming. In Basilicata, Matera has the Teatro Egidio Romualdo Duni, where the provincial orchestra of Matera regularly gives concerts. In Potenza, there is the Teatro Francesco Stabile, the region's main opera house and a smaller replica of the San Carlo Opera House in Naples. In Puglia, finally, we find in Bari the Teatro Petruzzelli, an opera house built in 1903. The fourth largest opera house in Italy, it has seen some of the greatest names in opera, from Herbert von Karajan to Rudolf Nureyev and Riccardo Muti. The Teatro Petruzzelli is the centre of musical life in the city and province of Bari and is also home to the Bari Symphony Orchestra, one of the most important ensembles in the southern half of the country. And, of course, as all music lovers know, Puglia is also the home of the Festival della Valle d'Itria. A festival that has been discovering new talent since 1975, this internationally renowned event delights all lovers of classical music, opera and lyricism, every year in July and August. It is one of the most important cultural events in southern Italy.Popular music
Like Naples, southern Italy is a region of song, and therefore of singers, and there are some names from the region that have left their mark on the country. Starting with Otello Profazio, a great voice of Calabria who has interpreted the popular songs of the region and dips his texts and melodies in the myths and colors of the region. Still active, he is one of the most beloved singers of the south of the country and one of the most Calabrian singers. In Calabria, Mino Reitano, Mia Martini and her sister Loredana Bertè, all three very popular in the 1970s, Rino Gaetano, a singer known for his voice and lyrics, Sergio Cammariere, more jazz, or Brunori Sas, more pop-rock.
Puglia has also been a particularly fertile ground for song. Among the most famous artists are Matteo Salvatore, whose lyrics Italo Calvino praised, Al Bano, whose duet with his wife and muse, Romina Power, is best remembered, Domenico Modugno, whose hit Nel blu dipinto di blu is still eternal (it's the famous Volare), and Checco Zalone, a parody singer whose redneck persona had Italians howling with laughter.
