Tarantism was a nervous condition attributed to the bite of a tarantula. But today we know that this is not the case. “The alleged tarantula bite was cured with a spectacular traffic, dancing with musicians who played for hours without stopping so that those women would get well, so that they would actually come out of depression”. This is Raül Refree’s explanation of the origin of this tradition from the south of Italy, which now takes shape in a three-way show.
He puts the music on it; the singer Maria Mazzotta, from Pulla, lends her voice; and Jordi Oriol is in charge of the dramaturgy. The result is Evoé!, which will be presented on July 19 in the Paral·lel 62 room, inside the Grec, with the Pleiade Choir, made up of 13 singers “who give a lot of fun”, assures Oriol.
In La Pulla, hundreds of people gather every August to musically celebrate this ancient exorcism. The two traditional dances are the pizzica and the taranta, but Jordi Oriol has taken a step forward, or backward depending on how you look at it, and has linked this phenomenon of women’s empowerment and liberation with The Bacchantes, the work of Euripides, written in 406 BC, which “tells the story of some cloistered women, who go from the city, to the mountains, and pay homage to Dionysus, and the king is against it because the women transgress the order of the city – refers to the playwright -. The Pleiade Choir will represent these bacchanals in a symbolic way”.
In December, at the Classics Festival, Refree and Mazzotta made a first proposal of this choreomania ritual where collective catharsis takes place, and now the dramaturgy of Oriol is added. Refree remarks: “Just because there’s music doesn’t mean it’s a concert.”
Paral·lel 62 has already seen Jaleo is a crime, by Los Voluble, and on July 20 Luísa Sobral will arrive, who suspended last year’s concert and who will perform with Lucia Fumero and Rita Payés. The two of them could already be heard in Mercè.
Under the patronage of the Grec, the Desvarío flamenco festival is also celebrated in Nou Barris. Its artistic director, Pedro Barragán, declares: “As a festival, it has only been around for three years, but the anchor dates back to the year 2000 with Flamenco in Nou Barris. It is a sample of today’s flamenco, because as an art it moves, it evolves”. From July 17 to 22, Desvarío hosts activities and culminates with three days of concerts, with renowned figures such as Rosario la Tremendita, Rafael Riqueni, Anna Colom and Ana Morales, among others.
