Clara D'Ianni

Grande, Grande, Grande An Evening with the Canzone Italiana By : - Sona Berhane Last month, on the 16th, a stellar Italian trio offered music lovers in Asmara an engaging survey of more than half a century of Italian popular music, presenting a carefully curated program tracing the evolution of the country’s musical traditions from the post-war years to the modern day. Featuring singer Velia Ricciardi, trumpeter Luigi Paese, and guitarist Massimo Garritano, the concert brought some of the best-known works of music generally known as canzoni italiane. The trio of accomplished musicians preserved the songs’ nostalgic appeal by balancing respect for the originals with fresh, intimate interpretations. Readers may remember Velia Ricciardi from last year’s Aperitivo Italiano concert, in which she performed as part of a quartet. Velia is the only one from that ensemble to return for another concert, this time in the company of two new collaborators. A professional singer who frequently participates in cultural diplomacy events, Velia has built a reputation for interpreting Italian popular music through a vocal style shaped by jazz influences. Throughout the evening, her precise enunciation, measured delivery, and easy rapport with the audience and fellow musicians added a note of joviality to the performance. Italian music has long occupied a unique place in world culture. Opera gave Italy its earliest international musical identity. Still, the twentieth century witnessed the development of another equally rich tradition: the canzoni italiana, a style of music that combines poetry, Mediterranean touches, jazz, blues, and folk tradition. Rather than relying on elaborate orchestration, the trio allowed this longstanding tradition to remain at the center of the evening. Supported only by voice, trumpet and guitar, each arrangement focused on the essentials and preserved the melodic strength that has made these works beloved classics. The evening opened with Lucio Dalla’s Caruso, one of the most celebrated songs in modern Italian music. Written in 1986 after Dalla stayed in the hotel where the legendary tenor Enrico Caruso spent his final days, the piece draws from both operatic and Neapolitan traditions to explore love, memory, and mortality. When the performance began at 7:00, audiences were greeted not by the entire ensemble but by a two-minute trumpet solo from Luigi Paese, whose instrument carried the lyrical notes through the hall before Velia and Massimo joined him. Positioned at the back of the audience, Luigi made his way down the aisle and onto the stage while continuing his performance. As an opening selection and delivery choice, it set the tone for an expressive and interactive evening of storytelling. Luigi is an accomplished jazz trumpeter active in chamber jazz and crossover ensembles in Italy. During the concert, he moved effortlessly between lyrical solos, accompaniment, and occasional backing vocals. From there, the concert moved through successive generations of Italian music. Mina’s Mi sei scoppiato dentro al cuore (“You burst into my heart”) is an icon of Italian popular music that captures the overwhelming force of unexpected love. Later in the program, her internationally celebrated Grande, Grande, Grande offered a different perspective on love by combining tenderness with strength, demonstrating why the song has been translated and performed around the world. Velia approached both works with restraint, allowing their emotional intensity to come through naturally rather than forcing dramatic effects. Then, she took on Ornella Vanoni’s La voglie, la pazzia (“Desire, Madness”), a composition shaped by Vanoni’s collaboration with Brazilian musicians and deeply influenced by bossa nova. It introduced new harmonic colors into the evening. For me, this was one of the strengths of the program: its tribute to the contributions of talented women who have defined Italian popular songs over the decades. The concert moved comfortably between different eras and musical styles as Luigi and Massimo alternated smoothly between accompaniment and improvisation. Pino Daniele featured prominently in the evening, reflecting his special place in Italian music as an artist who successfully fused blues, jazz, and traditional Neapolitan song. Alleria conveyed the reflective, optimistic tone of southern Italy, Quando brought Daniele’s lyrical and understated simplicity, and the energetic Je so’pazzo, which feels a lot like a rock anthem, provided some of the concert’s liveliest moments. These pieces also allowed Massimo’s skill to shine fully. Massimo is a guitarist, composer, improviser, and university educator who currently teaches jazz guitar at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan. Unlike many jazz guitarists, his work emphasizes texture and atmosphere as much as melody. Throughout the evening, he almost turned the guitar itself into an orchestra, using unconventional techniques and layered harmonic effects that were breathtaking and enriched the trio’s minimalist format without overwhelming it. Later on, Fred Buscaglione’s Guarda che luna (“Look at the moon”) brought to mind the influence of American swing and jazz on post-war Italian music, its hazy atmosphere lending itself naturally to Luigi’s trumpet and Massimo’s guitar. The era was also explored from another perspective in Renato Carosone’s instantly recognizable classic Tu vuo fa’ l’americano (“You want to be an American”). Written in the years following the Second World War, the song humorously satirizes Italians eager to imitate American fashions and lifestyles. Although it is rooted in a specific historical moment, its wit and infectiously springy rhythm resonated with the audiences, many of whom joined Velia in singing the refrain. Roma non fa’ la stupida stasera (“Rome, don’t be foolish tonight”), from the celebrated musical Rugantino by Pietro Garinei and Sandro Giovannini, paid affectionate tribute to the Eternal City and its distinct cultural character. During her performance, Velia replaced Rome with Asmara and roused the audience to serenade their own city. If only for 90 minutes, this spirited medley of 20th-century canzone italiana took everyone into the halls of Cinema Roma on a wonderful musical journey through different periods of Italian cultural history. The evening concluded with Domenico Modugno’s immortal Nel blu, dipinto di blu, universally known simply as Volare. Since winning the Sanremo Music Festival in 1958, the song has become one of the most recognizable pieces of Italian music ever written – if not the most recognizable. Its opening words, “Nel blu, dipinto di blu” (“In the blue, painted blue”), evoke a lofty, dreamlike sense of limitless possibility, and its famous refrain, “Volare” (“To fly”), gives a fitting conclusion to a program that celebrated the magical power of music to bridge cultures across borders and generations. And Volare is, once again, the song that drew an encore from the audience, as was also the case last year when Velia beckoned the audience to join in. I’m a fan of concerts of this kind where cultural diplomacy events place art at their center and create brief but meaningful encounters between different societies. This latest event was organized through a collaboration between the Embassy of the Republic of Italy in Eritrea and the Commission of Culture and Sports. When I spoke with the musicians backstage after the performance, they said they had enjoyed their stay in Asmara and hoped to return in the future. One can only hope that the audiences in Asmara will see them at another marvelous concert next year.

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