La Notte della Taranta/Taranta Night (2020 Concert Highlights)

Notte della Taranta ("Taranta Night" in English) is a popular music festival in Salento, Puglia (Apulia), Italy, that aims to enhance traditional Salento music through its revival and contamination with other musical languages. The Notte della Taranta is focused on pizzica, a popular folk genre in Salento, and takes place in various municipalities in the province of Lecce and the Grecìa Salentina, especially in Melpignano. It gives great importance to the folk music tradition of taranta and pizzica.

The festival tours around Salento, normally culminating in a grand finale concert in August, in front of the Augustinian Convent of Melpignano, which lasts until late night. Each year a new musical director is chosen, who has the task of arranging the traditional music of Salento, fusing its rhythms with those of other musical traditions. The festival started in 1998 by an initiative of several municipalities of the Salento, which sponsored the event. In August 2008 the "La Notte della Taranta" foundation was born with the aim of defining strategic and management directions and choices, promoting autonomous initiatives and coordinating the members' action for the valorisation and protection of the Salento area. In particular, it supports the study of the ethnographic heritage by promoting cultural, musical, social and communication events, and projects to support and develop research on the phenomenon of tarantism, Grike and Salento traditions, with specific reference to popular music. The most important book about pizzica and tarantism is "The Land of Remorse", written by the Italian philosopher, anthropologist and historian of religions Ernesto de Martino.

The attendance of the final concert alone, which has taken place on the large lawn in front of the Augustinian Convent of Melpignano since 1999, went from 5,000 in 1998 to 200,000 in 2022. The 2020 edition took place without live spectators due to Covid restrictions.

Cast & Crew:
The Popular Orchestra of La Notte della Taranta and the Roma Sinfonietta Orchestra
Concertmaster: Paolo Buonvino

La Notte della Taranta Corps de Ballet
Choreography: Sharon Eyal

Tracklist:
1. QUANNU TE LLAI LA FACCIA LA MATINA
2. TARANTA DI LIZZANO
3. TAMBURIEDDHU MIU
4. BEDDHA CI DORMI (Sand by DIODATO)
5. KALINITTA (canto in grico)*
6. FERMA ZITELLA
7. SECUTA SECUTA
8. CENT’ANNI SALE
9. PIZZICA
10. ELA, ELA MU CONDÀ (canto in grico)*
11. FIMMENE FIMMENE (Sang by GIANNA NANNINI)
12. LU RUCIU DE LU MARE
13. CARPE NOCTEM (Composed by PAOLO BUONVINO)
15. AGAPI

* These songs are sang in Griko, sometimes spelled Grico, a dialect of Italiot Greek spoken by Griko people in Salento (province of Lecce), and also called Grecanico, in Calabria. It features elements of Ancient Greek, Byzantine Greek and Italian. It is spoken in the Grecìa Salentina (Griko for "Salentine Greece"), in the province of Lecce.