Taranta Power Band plays on Italy's Nat'l Day

Italy’s 150th National Day to be celebrated at Ayala Museum on June 2, will be followed by a unique concert of the Eugenio Bennato Band called “Taranta Power” at the Fashion Walk, Greenbelt 3, Makati. Italian Ambassador Luca Fornari keenly wishes to convey a new and vital image of Italian culture that is able to unite a diverse audience of Filipinos, allowing them to know Italy and its ancient culture through Taranta Power.

This is a cultural and musical movement created by the Italian singer-song writer Eugenio Bennato who aims to promote the form as a means of communication, a typical Italian artistic way that represents its origins and culture. Considered as the modern father of Tarantella, he dedicates his movement to the revival of the Tarantella, the thousand year-old ritual from Southern Italy. Using Italian ethnic music, the Tarantella is a visual synthesis of a universe of rhythm, myth and history whose roots hark back to ancient culture of the peninsula spread out to the Mediterranean. Nowadays, the dance, originally meant as a therapy to sweat off the poison of the poisonous spider, the tarantula, is undergoing an increasing revival.

Bennato stresses that in view of the renewed interest in ethnic culture, he now uses the Tarantella to counter the monotone culture of disco dance.

Taranta Power is underscoring a creative urge vibrantly taking place in the year: before and after 2000. The Taranta legend liberates energy, and spurs new generations to dance. The Tarantella steps lead musicians, artisans, painters and sculptors to paths never before trodden, where the faces and traces of a thousand-year history are found, as well as the vibrations of a present that involves mutual recognition and contact between peoples.

The Taranta Power project is propagating a new and vital image of Italian musical culture, and in Italy, it is a reality that draws the public and fans together in concerts, workshops, schools and festivals, on a scale which, until a short time ago was the preserve only of rock and popular music. This course has developed spontaneously because of a real need to reclaim a musical standard which recognizes a nation’s roots.

With Eugenio Bennato as conductor, Taranta Power consists of vocals, a classical and flying guitar, a percussionist, a bass and electric guitar, and a female dancer.

Bennato’s international tour began in the autumn of 1999, and continued with concerts in prestigious theaters in Eastern Europe, Morocco, Tunisia, Australia, Canada, the USA, Argentina, Spain, France, Alegria and Turkey. In 2008, Taranta Power performed at the 58th Sanremo Festival, the most popular music festival on Italian television.

Jean-Claude Elias of the Jordan Times wrote: “The bite of the tarantula spider that gives the name to the Tarantella dance and culture on which the music of Eugenio Bennato is based, may not be infectious, but his music certainly is. He proved it beyond any doubt with a unique, breathtaking performance.

“The celebrated musician and his band gave a most inspiring and entertaining concert, bringing the spirit, the liveliness and the emotional content of the music from Southern Italy to Jordan. The event was titled “Let It Be Mediterranean”.

“Bennato introduced the audience to the Tarantella tradition explaining that according to popular belief, women who were bitten by the tarantula had to dance continuously for long hours until the effect of the bite was gone. Hence, the frenetic, hypnotic character of the dance, and of the music as well. The concert that followed the explanation was a more-than-convincing demonstration.

“There was not a single ‘down’ moment during the entire show that lasted more than two hours. The fast-paced lyrics were a match for the dynamically charged music. Moreover, the seasoned musicians gradually built a smart momentum, climaxing in astonishing music, dancing and singing, ending the concert on a high note — literally.”

At yesterday noon’s press conference at the Shang Palace of Shangri-la Hotel, the salt-and-pepper-haired Bennato, who spoke in halting English, was helped by Cultural Attaché Emanuela Adesini and Maria Cristina Marioca of the Phil-Italian Association. The latter said that at Bennato’s concerts, the audience sits quietly for the first hour, then frenziedly dances for the rest of the time. Let’s see that happen here!