SAN PAOLO DI GALATINA

Description

During a trip to Puglia in April 2022, Raül Refree and Maria Mazzotta had the opportunity to meet and play together. During this encounter, Maria taught him many pieces from the traditional repertoire of Southern Italy. She told him the story of the Pizzica Taranta and its importance in Southern Italian society at the beginning of the 20th century: women suffering from depression were told they had been bitten by a tarantula, and the only cure for their sorrow was to enter a trance to the rhythm of the Pizzica, dancing, singing, and screaming – a practice forbidden by society. When the Barcelona Clàssics Festival commissioned Raül to create a work on metamorphosis, he immediately thought of revisiting and reinterpreting the repertoire Maria had taught him in Puglia. It was about explaining how music can be an antidote and a remedy for sorrow, transforming us into other people, into stars floating in space, making us forget our physical bodies. Raül's idea was to explain the necessity of entering a trance by musically painting a picture that perfectly depicted the society of the time: lullabies, funeral chants, religious melodies... right up to the pizzica and its pagan and wild message.