Sacro Sud, the festival directed by Avitabile opens with Branduardi

-The appointment is renewed with Sacred Souththe review conceived and directed by Enzo Avitabile scheduled in Naples from 19 December 2022 to 6 January 2023. A festival of dialogues inspired by the traditions and popular, sacred and devotional music of the Mediterranean, which will be staged during the Christmas period in three churches of the Neapolitan city: the Basilica of San Domenico Maggiore, the Church of Santa Maria Donnaregina Vecchia and the Church of Saints Alfonso M. de’ Liguori and Gerardo.

Promoted and financed by the Municipality of Naples as part of the Naples City of Music project and organized by Black Tarantella, the third edition of “Sacro Sud” presents five free concerts with great Italian and international artists.

Among the guests expected at the festival this year, in addition to Enzo Avitabile himself protagonist of two different musical projects, there will be Angelo Branduardi, Peppe Servillo, the Spanish pianist Dorantes, the French double bass player Renaud Garcia-Fons, the Mongolian singer Urna Chahar Tugchi, the musician and director Luigi Cinque and the multi-instrumentalist Stefano Saletti.

Also scheduled is the traveling exhibition of Assunta Saulle, “Metropolitan diaries” curated by Luca Palermo, set up in the Naples subway stations until 31 December 2022, as well as in the places where the shows will be held.

«The rich pre-Christian heritage of the popular cultures of the “mare nostrum” is almost a prehistory of our relationship between the finite and the infinite, possible and impossible» declares Enzo Avitabile. «In today’s urban tumult, this festival of popular and devotional music, of lay prayers and stray songs, wants to be a spontaneous gathering dedicated to the love of differences. A dialogue of peace and tolerance lived and felt through music and art».

Angelo Branduardi will inaugurate the third edition of “Sacro Sud”, Monday 19 December at 20.30 in the Basilica of San Domenico Maggiore. The singer-songwriter, violinist and composer presents “Walking Walking in two” with Fabio Valdemarin, classically trained pianist and multi-instrumentalist with a tendency towards pop and jazz digressions. Together they will offer an acoustic concert with a lineup of famous and lesser-known pieces by Branduardi, as well as compositions taken from “Ancient future”, a work that investigates medieval music in both the sacred and the profane fields.

The second appointment of the festival, Wednesday 21 December at 20.30, will bring together the French double bass player Renaud Garcia-Fons and the Andalusian pianist of Roma origin David Peña Dorantes. Both virtuoso and original musicians present the project “Paseo a dos”, a musical dialogue that unites different styles and cultures. Garcia-Fons is a unique artist who moves effortlessly between classical, jazz and world music. Dorantes is acclaimed worldwide as one of the most innovative and exciting flamenco pianists and composers of our time.

Also in the Church of Santa Maria Donnaregina Vecchia, “Perse/phone” will be staged on Tuesday 27 December at 20.30. A sacred and enthralling concert of great relevance with the sounds, voices and instruments of Luigi Cinque and Stefano Saletti and the vocal commentary of one of the most extraordinary and recognized artists of world music, Urna Chahar-Tugchi. The singer originally from Mongolia is considered, with her four octaves of extension, a real phenomenon of the international singing / world.

Enzo Avitabile will close this edition of “Sacro Sud” with two different shows. The Neapolitan singer-songwriter and composer will perform on Saturday 3 January together with Peppe Servillo at 8.30 pm in the Basilica of San Domenico Maggiore. With the project “Duet”, Avitabile and Servillo will retrace their most iconic songs in an acoustic key and those of other authors to whom they are related. They sing the soul of the south, the sufferings and hopes of the least, in a continuous cross-reference between the past and the present.

On Friday 6 January, however, at 20.30 in the Church of Saints Alfonso M. de’ Liguori and Gerardo, in Miano, Enzo Avitabile will perform with Gianluigi Di Fenza (classical guitar), Emidio Ausiello (percussions) and Marco Pescosolido (cello) in “Sacred South”. The concert that gives the title to the review is an inner journey in search of the roots of spirituality. A work that comes from the periphery and ideally reaches the peripheries of the world. All scheduled concerts are ad thefree entry.

Press release