Procida 2022, applause for the San Carlo Choir among the architecture of Corricella

The choir members arranged among the unique architecture of the village of Marina Corricella, the audience in Piazzetta Massimo Troisi and, all around, on the boats of the small port.

With the bay transformed into an opera house for the second appointment of “Opera(a)mare”, a project born in collaboration with the Fondazione Teatro di San Carlo to enhance the relationship between singers and the audience, also bringing closer an audience not accustomed to the language of opera.

The concert, one of the flagship events of the program of Procida Italian Capital of Culture 2022, took place on Saturday evening, proposing - with the expressive power of opera - famous stories and lesser-known events linked to the red thread of the sea.

Directed by José Luis Basso, with Vincenzo Caruso on the piano, the Choir of the Teatro di San Carlo proposed a journey through the roots of Neapolitan music, passing through Italy and Europe between the 1809th and XNUMXth centuries, among the notes that frame the words of poets such as Bovio, Di Giacomo and D'Annunzio and the traditional songs of the Neapolitan and Procida people, such as “La Procidana”, a “drama per musica” performed for the first time in XNUMX, which features an island woman destined to marry a ship's pilot and interpreter of several languages, who is fatally unsuited to both professions.

As in the previous performance, there was no shortage of homage to contemporary pop culture with a lyrical version of “Povero Gabbiano”, the song by Gianni Celeste that has gone viral in recent months.

"It can be said to have been fully successful. – explains the director of Procida 2022, Agostino Riitano – the challenge of bringing opera, among the cultural heritages that make our country great, among the people, in the spaces of ordinary life, thus encouraging the involvement of a new audience and making it dialogue with the enchantment of the most beautiful bays of Procida".

"Marina Corricella is the symbolic opening of the island to the Mediterranean, an embrace to all peoples since the dawn of time and we are proud to show it to the world in this evocative and unpublished version”, said the mayor of Procida, Dino Ambrosino.

The concert was also attended by a delegation from the Culture Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, on an official visit to Procida these days.

"The design idea behind Procida 2022 – commented Vittoria Casa, president of the Culture Commission at the Chamber, on the island together with Paola Frassinetti, Angela Colmellere and Alessandra Carbonaro – it's a winning idea, starting from the governance, which starts from a widespread territorial network to create culture.

The slogan, culture does not isolate, is a very current invitation to build bridges. Procida is giving a lot to the country and its model could be an example for future Italian Capitals of Culture. The visit to Procida is an opportunity to understand the potential of a different cultural model, which does not stop at the big cities of art and places already known. This is also why we are working hard to enhance the small villages, widespread heritage of our country, for the benefit of which with the Pnrr we plan investments of over 1 billion euros".