Ambassador Fornari dances to music of Taranta Power

From Italy’s National Day celebration hosted by Ambassador and Mrs. Luca Fornari at Ayala Museum, guests proceeded to Greenbelt 5’s Fashion Walk to listen to Eugenio Bennato’s world-famed Taranta Power band. This consisted of guitarists, a percussionist, two vocalists, one female dancer-singer, with Bennato singing and accompanying himself on a guitar or mandolin.

Here are comments from around the world.

A fantastic concert; the musicians and the audience seemed to be in complete symbiosis — Nobody’s Land, Turin

With Taranta Power, Eugenio Bennato is challenging the multinational record labels, in his conviction of this explosive mix of a music which is by now an urban phenomenon. — Il Mattino

Irresistible rhythm and rediscovered energy. — Musica

The same rapture as a rave . . . a concert that unites the white-haired musicians of 80 and 90 years with the youthful blast of the 15-year old musicians . . . a redeeming trance. — La Republica

The cadence of delirious music. — Liberation

Women cast modesty to the winds in a dance which is ancient and modern at the same time. — Il Mattino

Wild and wonderful Tarantella . . . the same audience as you would find at a rock concert. — Sunday Herald Sun, Australia

The ancient power of the Taranta explodes: sounds that are so ancient and yet so fantastically modern return to light with an explosive violence. An ultra-modern phenomenon . . . something to really discover. — Il Roma

The Italian cinema discovers ‘Taranta Power’ . . . and for young people, it is a way of regaining their balance, it is an escape valve, a cry of anguish, but also of joy, as a way of hitting back against unemployment, drugs, corruption, the loss o values and identity, of being marginalized. — Il Mattino

Eugenio draws together all his resources of inspiration into a concert which brims over and explodes into a festival vibe reminiscent of Woodstock but with a pagan atmosphere, reaching directly back to antiquity.

It began more than a thousand years ago. It was an unrestrained, cathartic, liberating dance. It became in turn song and folk tradition. Then the moment arrived for the rediscovery of its power . . . it is our flamenco, and nobody realizes it. — Il Messaggero

A live and totally new music that has unleashed among the young an irresistible desire to move and dance with spontaneity, enthusiasm and wonder. — Il Messaggero

From the Tarantella to World Music. The ancient and contemporary sounds of the Tarantella are reborn together in an explosion of energy, adopted by the young. An extraordinary vitality that already makes you think of the Tarantella as the great Mediterranean dance of the future. — Panorama

Eugenio Bennato and Taranta Power, the original formation of the new folk phenomenon which attempts to gather together the heritage of New Music, bringing it up to date with multiethnic sauce from the eternal appeal that does not hide its sexual allusions, to a flesh and blood one of a voice and a drum used with instinctual sensuality, to rap, to popular songs.

I agree with Bennato for his unqualified praise of Percussionist Valter Viaverelli who was nothing short of extraordinary, generating amazing rhythms with not only the tambourine but also with the bass drum while standing all the while; Guitarist Ezio Lambiase demonstrated a rare flair for folk music and for the pieces tinted with accents of blues, jazz and classical music. He was equally brilliant at the acoustic and the electric guitars.

Stefano Simonetta provided the indispensable solid bass. Sonia Totaro delighted not only with her authentic, dynamic, captivating dancing but also with her vocals. Moroccan Mohammed El Alaoui added a spicy touch with his Arabic singing.

For more of my own impressions, the music was ethnic with a modern touch; it was tonal and singable. But it was the frenetic, electrifying rhythms that particularly characterized the performance: infectious, invigorating, energizing. Their vitality, vibrance, spirit and fire called to mind those of the Spanish flamenco and the Russian cossack.

Soon, Italian Ambassador Luca Fornari, his wife Silvana and sizeable crowd of varying ages were dancing in front of the stage; also Silvana Diaz, vet doctor and music aficionado Ed Unson, Evelyn R. Garcia, two tiny ballerinas — and a nun! The “pandemonium” could have lasted all night but I had to leave for a speaking engagement at the necrological services next morning in honor of Anding Roces.