Occhi turchini: Songs from Calabria Pino de Vittorio, Laboratorio '600 & Franco Pavan

• 1Occhi turchini02:41
• 2La scillitana02:02
• 3Frasca03:46
• 4La fija du marinaru02:23
• 5Tarantella 'nfuocata03:14
• 6Si partì la Madonna08:42
• 7A spuntunera05:55
• 8Xaccara calabrese, spagnuola01:52
• 9Arietta grica03:11
• 10Matajola06:38
• 11Te Deum de' calabresi03:54
• 12Canzona a morto03:18
• 13Sonata dopo la canzone01:38
• 14Amicu, hai vintu09:14
• 15La calabrisella02:20
• 16Capiddi di sita04:41
• 17Veni sonne di la muntagnella03:18
• 18Romaica calabreisa03:43
• 19Kopile moj kopile04:01
• Total Runtime01:16:31

Info for Occhi turchini: Songs from Calabria

With Occhi turchini that inspiring singer, instrumentalist and actor, Pino De Vittorio has returned to the recording studio, fixing his sights on the musical culture of the Italian region of Calabria. For a new recording for Glossa, Franco Pavan and his Laboratorio ’600 have been researching back over the centuries the rich musical texture of the region, known as the “toe” of the Italian “boot”.

Most recently, singer and ensemble worked together for the Siciliane recording, also for the Spanish label. This new programme embraces traditional songs, examples of the adulteration of the local language for comic effect in Baroque Neapolitan opera, and even a parody of the text for the Te Deum in the same Calabrian, but also reflections of other – Byzantine, Greek, Albanian and Arabic – cultures which have permeated the region over the centuries.

Pino De Vittorio – that versatile powerhouse of mood – is the ideal vocal interpreter for this multi- layered chequerboard of the region’s cultural history, with Pavan and his ensemble imparting colourful accompaniment for De Vittorio or spirited soloistic playing in instrumental works such as the Tarantella ’nfuocata, La calabrisella, and especially the Canzona a morto, played on the harp by Flora Papadopoulos. Pavan, as well as playing theorbo and the Calabrian chitarra batente, also acts – through his booklet essay – as guide across this rugged, isolated, but immensely rich cultural terrain.

Fabio Accurso, lute
Elisa La Marca, lute, theorbo
Flora Papadopoulos, harp
Franco Pavan, theorbo, chitarra battente & direction

Laboratorio’600
is a plucked instruments ensemble, and was born to study neglected sources of Italian early music. In our projects the archival research is a very important step, but at the same time only the first step. In fact, the respect for the sources is then mixed with the passion for music.

Laboratorio’600 is open to collaborations with artists that agree this point of view. This is the reason why we decide to begin to work with the singer Pino De Vittorio. The new Cd Siciliane, released by the label Glossa, is the first stone of our new home. We worked to this project for more than two years. For this reason, to grow up more and more, Laboratorio’600 is working on two new and very important projects, related to very particular scores of XVII- and XVIII-Century Italian music.

The attention to the sound is the other aspect of our work. This is the reason why we decided to work on this during the recordings with the exceptional skill of Rino Trasi.

Franco Pavan
is an italian lute and theorbo player. Graduated cum laude both in lute and in musicology in Milan, he has been working as a professional player with the most important Italian early music ensembles such as: Concerto Italiano, Accordone, La Cappella della Pietà dei Turchini, La Risonanza, La Venexiana and with the London based Trinity Baroque. He is working with conductors as Rinaldo Alessandrini, Fabio Bonizzoni, Antonio Florio, Enrico Gatti, Alessandro Ciccolini, Claudio Cavina. ​

He played in the most important concert halls in Europe (e.g.: Konzerthaus, Berlin; Konzerthaus, Wien; Musikverein, Wien; Cité de la Musique, Paris; Auditorio Nacional, Madrid) and in the world (Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires; Toppan Hall, Tokyo) as well as in Uruguay, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, China, Egypt, Morocco. ​

He recorded over 50 CDs (with the labels Glossa, Opus 111, Emi, Virgin, , Cyprès, Alpha, Arcana, Naïve) and he won prizes like Gramophon Award, Diapason d’Or, Premio Vivaldi della Fondazione Cini, Venezia. ​

He recorded for all the European Radio broadcasts, and for the French, Italian, German, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese TV. His solo recording “Le Mouton Fabuleux” is the winner of the “Premio del Disco Amadeus 2009”. 

In 2012 he began a new duo collaboration with the recorder player Dorothee Oberlinger and founded the Ensemble Laboratorio’600, which first Cd, Siciliane – The Songs of an Island, for the label Glossa was released in 2013. He teaches Lute at the Conservatorio “E. F. Dall’Abaco” in Verona, Italy. In April, 2014 he was granted with the title of Cultore della Materia of History of Music at the University of Padua

As a musicologist he wrote articles about the lute history and early Seventeenth-Century music, with an important paper on new documents about Claudio Monteverdi and Carlo Gesualdo. He worked for the new edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and for Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. He’s part of the Editorial Board of the Journal of the Lute Society of America.

Booklet for Occhi turchini: Songs from Calabria